Gucci is an internationally known Italian leather goods and fashion brand. It is named for an Italian family who founded a fashion empire that sold luxury shoes, bags, clothing, and other products and accessories. Two of the most notable members of the Gucci family were Guccio and Maurizio Gucci.
Guccio Gucci
(1881-1953) founded the Gucci brand as a small family leather-ware business in Florence, Italy, in 1921. He soon earned a reputation for his fine craftsmanship in leather, which remains a distinctive symbol of the brand today. Over the years, Guccio expanded his business by adding more stores in Florence, as well as stores in Rome and Milan. He eventually brought his four sons into the company. In 1953, the Gucci company opened its first overseas store, in New York City. Guccio died about two weeks after the opening.
After Guccio’s death, his sons and their offspring ran the organization. They expanded by establishing Gucci boutiques in London and Paris, and eventually around the world. Gucci became a household name in the 1960’s as the company that sold high-end shoes, bags, and accessories to such famous people as Princess Grace of Monaco (formerly Grace Kelly, an American actress) and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the wife of United States President John F. Kennedy.
Maurizio Gucci
(1949-1995), a grandson of Guccio, was the last family member to manage the company. He began working in the family’s shop in Milan while he was still a schoolboy. He joined the firm after completing his education. Maurizio Gucci became a major shareholder in the company following the death, in 1983, of his father, Rodolfo. Maurizio owned 50 percent of the company by 1985 and became its chairman. The Gucci company remained a family-managed business until 1989. That year, a Bahrain-based investment company, Investcorp, bought the 50 percent of Gucci that Maurizio did not own and became an equal partner with him in running the organization. The company prospered until internal family disputes caused its near collapse.
During the last decade of family management, despite legal troubles, Maurizio Gucci revitalized the company. He hired retail consultant Dawn Mello. She, in turn, hired the American designer Tom Ford, who later became Gucci’s creative director. Ford is largely responsible for reestablishing the luxury brand. In 1993, Investcorp forced Maurizio out, ending the Gucci family’s involvement in the brand. Two years later, on March 27, 1995, an assassin hired by his wife shot and killed Maurizio.
Today, the Gucci brand is part of the Gucci Group, a collection of high-fashion brands that includes Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Boucheron, Sergio Rossi, Stella McCartney, and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. The Gucci Group is owned by the French holding company Kering, formerly known as PPR (Pinault Printemps Redoute). In 2011, the Gucci Museum (Gucci Museo) opened in Florence, featuring exhibits on classic clothing and handbags.
