Gucci

Gucci is an Italian fashion and leather goods label. Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Italy in 1906. Gucci is one of the most famous and easily recognizable names in the fashion world today.

The Gucci Corp. took in over $7 billion (US) of revenue in 2006 according to BusinessWeek magazine and Gucci was ranked 46th in the magazine's annual "Top 100 Brands" chart making Gucci the biggest selling brand second only to LVMH. Gucci is the biggest selling Italian brand in the world. The ‘House of Gucci’ now belongs a French company known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, or PPR. Gucci owns 425 stores worldwide and it wholesales its line of handbags, clothing, sunglasses/eyewear, and other accessories through franchisees and high-end department stores.

Guccio Gucci was the son of an Italian merchant from the country’s northern region. He started the Gucci Company under the name of House of Gucci in Florence, Italy in 1906 as small, family-owned leather shop. Guccio had exceptional talent as a leather goods craftsman and began selling his handmade leather bags to horsemen in the 1920s. While he was a young man, Gucci quickly gained a reputation for high quality work, and started hiring the best craftsmen he could find to work in his shop. In 1938, Gucci expanded and he opened a boutique in Rome. Guccio Gucci designed many of his company's most notable products. In 1947, Gucci created the bamboo handle handbag, which is still marketed by the company today. During the 1950s, Gucci also designed his trademark striped webbing, which was inspired from the “saddle girt”, and the suede moccasin with the metal bit.

He and his wife Aida Calvelli had a large family, six children in all togrether. But it was his sons…Vasco, Aldo, Ugo, and Rodolfo who would go on to help lead the company and introduce some of the newer items into the Gucci line... one of these items of course being the now famous Gucci sunglasses. After Guccio Gucci’s death in 1953, Aldo Gucci helped to put the company to soar to international prominence by opening the company’s first boutiques in London, Paris, and New York. During this time period it was when the beautiful line of Gucci sunglasses made their debut. Today Gucci sunglasses are some of the most sought after eyewear in the world.

Even in Gucci’s beginning years, the family was well known for its fierce squabbles and fights. The disputes ranged from everything regarding inheritances, stock holdings, and everyday operations of the stores, to what would be the up coming season’s new line. These constant squabbles often divided the family and led to various business alliances.

Gucci eventually expanded overseas, and, as usual, board meetings about the company’s future often ended with tempers flaring and luggage, sunglasses, handbags, etc. being thrown with some force. Gucci also went to the Far East for further expansion of the Gucci Company in the late 1960s, and opened stores in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Korea.It was also during this time period that the company also introduced its famous GG logo, the Flora silk scarf worn by the lovely actress Grace Kelly, and the Jackie O shoulder bag, made famous by Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy, and the fashionable style of sunglasses the Jacqueline O. Kennedy wore.