Gucci

Gucci, or the House of Gucci, is an Italian haute couture establishment. It was founded by Guccio Gucci (1881-1953) in Florence in 1921.

Corporate Gucci

Rodolfo?s death in 1983 caused a major shakeup in the company when he left his 50% stake in Gucci to his son, Maurizio Gucci. Maurizio allied with Aldo?s son Paolo to gain control of the Board of Directors and established the Gucci Licensing division in the Netherlands for tax purposes. (This action would later have a drastic impact on the outcome of the company?s dispute with the world?s largest luxury goods company, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.) Following the decision, the rest of the family left the company and, for the first time in years, one man was at the helm of Gucci. Maurizio sought to bury the fighting that had torn the company and his family apart and turned to talent outside of the company for Gucci?s future.

Related Topics:
1983 - Maurizio Gucci - Netherlands - LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New Management

In 1989, Maurizio managed to persuade Dawn Mello, whose revival of New York's Bergdorf Goodman in the 1970s made her a star in the retail business, to join the newly-formed Gucci Group as creative director. At the helm of Gucci America was Domenico De Sole, a former lawyer who helped oversee Maurizio?s takeover of the company and the purchase of the company?s remaining shares by Investcorp, a Bahrain-based holding company between 1987 and 1989. The last addition to the creative team, which already included designers from Geoffrey Beene and Calvin Klein, was a young designer named Tom Ford. Raised in Texas and New Mexico, he had been interested in fashion since his early teens but only decided to pursue a career as a designer after dropping out of Parsons School of Design in 1986 as an architecture major. Dawn Mello hired Ford in 1990 at the urging of his partner, writer and editor Richard Buckley.

Related Topics:
1989 - Dawn Mello - Bergdorf Goodman - 1970s - Domenico De Sole - Investcorp - Bahrain - 1987 - Geoffrey Beene - Calvin Klein - Tom Ford - Texas - New Mexico - Parsons School of Design - 1986 - 1990 - Richard Buckley

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the early 1990s, Gucci underwent what is now recognized as the poorest time in the company's history. Maurizio riled distributors, Investcorp shareholders, and executives at Gucci America by drastically reining in on the sales of the Gucci Accessories Collection, which in the United States alone generated $110 million in revenue every year. The company?s new accessories failed to pick up the slack, and for the next three years the company experienced heavy losses and teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. Maurizio was a charming man who passionately loved his family's business, but after four years most of the company's senior managers agreed that he was incapable of running the company. His management had had an adverse effect on the desirability of the brand, product quality, and distribution control. He was forced to sell his shares in the company to Investcorp in August of 1993. Dawn Mello returned to her job at Bergdorf Goodman less than a year after Maurizio?s departure, and the position of creative director went to Tom Ford, then just 32 years old. Ford had worked for years under the uninspiring direction of Maurizio and Mellow and wanted to take the company?s image in a new direction. De Sole, who had been elevated to CEO, realized that if Gucci was to become a profitable company, it would require a new image, and so he agreed to pursue Ford?s vision.

Related Topics:
1990s - 1993

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tom Ford

Ford had long been an avid follower of two of America?s top designers, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Klein, much like Ford, was a ?superstar designer,? the exemplar of his own brand: stylish, suave, and modern. His scandalous advertisements made the brand synonymous with eternal youth and the mystery of adolescent sexuality. Lauren, as Ford described, was ?the only designer to really create an entire world? you know exactly what his people look like, what their houses look like, what kind of cars the drive,? a mantra he would adopt at Gucci years later. But where Ralph Lauren embodied the WASP culture of New England, Ford created a lifestyle brand for the hedonistic, urban-dwelling fashionistas who emblemized the brand in years past.

Related Topics:
Ralph Lauren - Calvin Klein - WASP - New England

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ford's 1995 ready-to-wear line for Gucci dazzled fashion critics. The collection was reminiscent of the jet-set clientele that created a buzz around the label in the 1970s, with its unbuttoned silk shirts and tight velvet hip-huggers. "It was hot! It was sex!" Joan Kaner, fashion director for Neiman Marcus, exclaimed. "The girls looked like they had just stepped off someone?s private jet. You just knew that wearing those clothes would make you look like you were living on the edge?doing it and having it all!"

Related Topics:
1995 - 1970s - Neiman Marcus

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

While Ford?s 1995 ready-to-wear line was met with rave reviews by industry insiders, it was the celebrity following that would propel Gucci back to the top of the industry. In 1995, Madonna appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards to collect an award for ?Take A Bow? in head-to-toe Gucci. Soon thereafter, Gwenyth Paltrow graced the red carpet in the season?s signature look, a red crushed velvet tuxedo with an unbuttoned blue dress shirt, and British actress Elizabeth Hurley donned that season?s patent leather spiked boots to a movie premiere. Celebrities, fashion models, and wealthy young patrons around the world were clamoring for pieces from the new collection. In the years that would follow, nearly every major celebrity in Hollywood came to Ford for formalwear on awards night, and celebrity sightings once again became commonplace in the company?s boutiques.

Related Topics:
1995 - Madonna - MTV - Video Music Awards - Gwenyth Paltrow - Elizabeth Hurley - Hollywood

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gucci?s warm reception among the glitterati had an unintended side effect: the elevation of Tom Ford from designer to sex symbol. Practically overnight, Ford became one of the most celebrated new stars in entertainment. He graced the pages of entertainment and fashion magazines alongside advertisements that featured his company?s sexy new look. People Magazine called him one of the 50 most beautiful people of the year. The defining characteristic of Ford?s work was what came to be known as the ?Gucci sex factor.? His spring 1996 collection, which was reminiscent of the flower child fashions of the early and mid-1970s, continued Ford?s signature trend of sky-high hemlines and plunging necklines. By his third collection, it became clear that the highly suggestive advertisements and scanty clothing were not passing fads at the generations-old fashion house, but rather the attribute that would set Gucci apart from its competitors.

Related Topics:
Sex symbol - People Magazine - 1996

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gucci Group became a publicly traded company in 1995, listing on the New York and Amsterdam stock exchanges. It issued further shares in 1996.

Related Topics:
1995 - New York - Amsterdam - Stock exchange - 1996

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

LVMH Takeover Attempt

In the late 1990s, Gucci became mired in a standoff with one of fashion's biggest conglomerates, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Just before Gucci Group?s IPO in 1995, Investcorp approached LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault with a proposition to sell him the entire Gucci brand, including its lucrative watch and fragrance divisions. Arnault balked at the $500 million price tag and was unsure that Gucci could ever be revived. Four years later, he sorely regretted that decision. Prada, in an effort to replicate LVMH's success at consolidation, had purchased a sizeable stake in Gucci Group in an ill-fated attempt to take over the company. Realizing that his company didn't have the assets to execute the takeover, Prada?s Patrizio Bertelli offered to sell the shares to someone who could: Arnault. Arnault jumped at the chance. In 1999, LVMH staged an effort to acquire Gucci Group through a creeping takeover, purchasing 34.4% of the company?s stock.

Related Topics:
1990s - LVMH - 1995 - Bernard Arnault - Prada - Patrizio Bertelli - 1999

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Domenico De Sole was incensed by the news and declined Arnault?s request for a spot on the board of directors, where he would have access to Gucci?s confidential earnings reports, strategy meetings, and design concepts. De Sole reacted by issuing new shares of stock in an effort to dilute the value of Arnault?s holdings. He also approached French holding company Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR) about the possibility of forming a strategic alliance. Francois Pinault, the company?s founder, agreed to the idea and purchased 37 million shares in the company, or a 40% stake. Arnault?s share was diluted to a paltry 20%, and a legal battle ensued to challenge the legitimacy of the new Gucci-PPR partnership. Courts in the Netherlands ultimately upheld the PPR deal, as it did not violate that country's business laws. PPR now owns 68% of the group. The second largest shareholder is Crédit Lyonnais with 11%

Related Topics:
Pinault-Printemps-Redoute - Francois Pinault - Crédit Lyonnais

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After a failed attempt at contract renewal with PPR in 2003, Tom Ford and Domenico de Sole decided to take their leave from Gucci Group. Ford?s last show for Gucci returned to the roots of his first successful collection: the culture of celebrity. Print advertisements featured models in sleek, simple gowns inspired by the glamour of 1920s silent film stars. Ford priced up the ready-to-wear and used exotic fabrics like alligator and boar hide. His collection for Yves Saint Laurent followed the lead of the previous season?s Gucci women?s wear, with form fitting kimonos and Asian patterned dresses, while the menswear collection featured classic-looking tuxedos and smoking jackets. The announcement of his departure led to a complete presale of many items in New York department stores, and waitlists for his last accessories formed just days after the collection showed in Milan.

Related Topics:
2003 - 1920s - Silent film

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~