The F**ked Up History Of Gucci

Gucci is one of the most popular fashion brands in the world with an estimated value of $22.6 billion, but what begins as a rags-to-riches story of a small family business turns into a dark and shocking story of betrayal, under the glamor of the fashion world, there were frequent family disputes, lawsuits and attempts at corporate takeover and even murder, so sit back, relax and get comfortable because in this video we will go on a journey through the crazy and controversial

history

of Gucci. Thanks,

gucci

o. Gucci was born and raised in Florence, Italy, and worked on his parents' farm. millinery, however, the family business went bankrupt leaving Gucci penniless, so when he was 18, Guccio moved to London to look for work and found a job at the Savoy Hotel.

Here he observed the hotel's rich and famous guests wearing leather goods and carrying around. Expensive luggage was more than just functionality; fashion was a status symbol that divided the haves from the have-nots. He then went on to work for a train company called Wagon Let's, where he spent even more time helping travelers with their luggage, noting the quality of the luxury suitcases and bags Guccio realized that if he had his own luggage store Leather that served high-end clients like these could become extremely wealthy; However, he also knew that it would take years of hard work to learn about the leather industry and save money. before he could branch out on his own, so after serving in World War I, Guccio took a job in a shop that made leather goods to gain as much experience as possible, but never lost sight of his vision.

Finally in 1921, when Guccio was 40 years old. he had saved him and had learned enough to open his own little shop in Florence. This simple store selling leather goods would be the very humble beginnings of the company we know today as Gucci. Guccio initially imported leather goods, but received more requests for handmade pieces. Bags and shoes with unique designs, he began to learn exactly the type of designs his wealthy clients wanted and, since he often couldn't find them from his suppliers, he decided to open his own workshop to create them and hired several employees to help meet the demand .

However, he quickly overlooked the expansion and accumulated many debts. There were many times when he had difficulty making ends meet and told anyone who would listen about his problems, eventually asking his son-in-law for a loan. To keep the business going as he grew, he counted on his three sons, Aldo Rodolfo and Vasco, to help him run the business and hoped that they would take over one day, but clearly at this point the Gucci business was not nothing special, in fact it was just one. small store however Guccio's Three Sons had ambitious plans to change that foreigner was happy with his leather goods business his children thought much more convinced their father to open a second store in Rome he was initially reluctant because he felt it was too much Risky but they wore it down and did a good job because this second take ended up becoming extremely popular during World War II because soldiers were looking to buy gifts for their wives and girlfriends back home in the 1950s.

Gucci made enough profits to open a third. store in Milan in 1953 Aldo Rodolfo and Vasco flew to New York City to find the location of their first store in the United States, but the pressure of all this expansion may have been too much for their father because just two weeks after opening the store in New York Gucci dropped dead of a heart attack

gucci

o left the company to his three children but kept his daughter grimalda out of his will grimalda tried to fight his brothers in court but lost the daughter was left with nothing from Gucci Fortune even though her husband A loan had kept the company afloat.

This was just the beginning of the family's legal drama. It turns out that expanding to the United States was exactly what Gucci needed as the first Italian luxury brand in New York City. The company took off in a big way becoming increasingly popular with Hollywood celebrities, this of course only created even more demand for Gucci products as people wanted to dress like their favorite movie stars and therefore, For a time the Three Brothers ran the company successfully without problems. Vasco died in 1974 and his shares were left to his wife, so Aldo and Rodolfo bought his shares, meaning that the two remaining brothers each owned 50 shares of the company.

That same year, his brothers opened the first Gucci flagship store in Hong Kong. Gucci was one of the first brands to focus on expanding. to the Asian market and made enormous profits. The two brothers continued to reinvest these profits into further growth and in 1975 they expanded into a fragrance line and continued to increase the number of products offered under the Gucci name. It had become much more than leather. luggage Gucci was now a global luxury brand selling handbags, shoes, belts, wallets and much more, but at the time Gucci was still very much a private family business and there is an old Italian saying that when it comes to business family, the first generation builds the The second expands and the third destroys.

The foreigner had three children, JoJo Roberto and Paulo, and gave each of them a small percentage of the company's shares, while Rodolfo Gucci still had the full 50% of the company, as he refused to give him shares. to his only son Maurizio life for the Gucci family was not at all peaceful the cousins ​​constantly fought over who would take control of the Gucci brand the two second generation brothers Aldo and Rodolfo had done a great job to transform the company into a great global success but they were now getting older and there was a lot of arguing about who should lead Gucci when they were both gone and then things got a lot more intense when in 1972 Mauricio married a woman called Patricia Regiani, known for being a gold digger. she once said that it is better to cry in Rolls-Royce than to be happy on a bicycle that's for sure Patrizia loved to wear the Gucci brand at parties and live as a socialite behind the scenes, she was pressuring Maurizio to one day join became the new CEO of Gucci.

She also gave herself a lot of credit for the brand's popularity, butritio was also incredibly controlling and only played the part when it came to the Gucci family drama, deliberately turning the family members against each other. Rodolfo completely disapproved of his son's marriage and called Patricia a social climber who had nothing on her mind but money, however, Maurizio had fallen in love with her and ignored his father's warnings, he and Patrizia would have two daughters together, it was It was only later that Maurizio would look back and wish he had heard of his father Mauricio's marriage to Patricia.

Against his father's wishes, he only further strained their relationship. Rodolfo refused to give his son Gucci shares while he was alive, but when he died, 50% of the company was transferred to Maurizio, since he had no spouse or other children, Maurizio had suddenly stopped not to be. from owning something from Gucci to owning 50, but that didn't mean he and his cousins ​​weren't still constantly arguing about how to run the business. This third generation had all had different plans and visions for the company, for example at this point Gucci was licensing it. his brand to department stores, which made a lot of money, but Mauricio felt that the brand was cheaper because it was no longer exclusive to the rich and famous.

To make matters worse, fake versions of Gucci Classics were sold on street corners and in cities. Around the world Mauricio wanted the brand to return to being a luxury that only the rich and famous could afford, so he withdrew the license and Gucci almost immediately lost over $100 million in revenue because of this, it clearly seemed like a Terrible idea at first, but many think this actually saved the company in the long run. Gucci was no longer accessible to everyone; it had reverted to being exclusive to the wealthy, which helped it become a legacy brand; Meanwhile, Mauricio's cousin, Paulo, felt that his father, Aldo, was mistreating him.

Because he had such a small stake in the company with very little responsibility, he wanted to be a fashion designer and felt that he should be the one to design Gucci products, however, no one in the family trusted his taste, it seemed to be the only thing at Gucci. . What the family could agree on was that Paulo's designs weren't good enough, how he was so angry about all of this that he ratted out his own 81-year-old father, Aldo, for tax evasion. Aldo was sentenced to 366 days in prison in his attempts to build a name for Paulo himself then launched his own brand Paolo Gucci, the family tried to prevent him from worrying that he would tarnish the image of the Gucci brand, but Paulo spent 8 million of dollars taking Gucci to court to have the right to use his own name in his fashion line, however his great dreams were a failure the sales could not offset the amount of debt he had according to his daughter his line was not successful because Gucci immediately bought the rights to Paolo Gucci and made his objects disappear although even his daughter admitted that the first electrically produced pieces were ugly.

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Mauricio had had enough and wanted to find investors, so he could eliminate the rest of the family and gain more control. A company called invescorb agreed to put up the money. Invest Corp had already invested in Tiffany's and helped make the jewelry company a success, but this was the first time they had dipped their toes into a luxury fashion brand. By this time, Paulo had become the black sheep of the family, owning only a 3.3 stake in Gucci. In 1988, Paulo sold his Gucci shares to invest in Co-op for 40 million dollars, however, he did not use this money wisely, squandered his profits and In 1993, Paulo declared bankruptcy with debts of more than 90 million.

Over time, Mauricio convinced the rest of the Gucci family to sell his shares to also invest in Corp and this company now owned 50 shares of the Gucci brand. They still allowed Mauricio to be the head of Although the company made all the important decisions in 1989, he hired Dawn Mello as Gucci's executive vice president and chief designer, like Maurizio, she wanted to help with the brand's exclusivity, her idea was to reduce the number of stores from one thousand to just 180 of their most profitable locations, they also reduced the number of items sold by Gucci from 22,000 to just seven thousand.

Melo also brought back some of her classic bestsellers, like her bamboo bag and Gucci loafers. Mauritius had a big vision for Gucci now that the rest of the family was out of the picture, one of the first things he did was open an extravagant new store in Milan. He also wanted all new products to replace his current inventory, which put the company greatly in debt, not just what Marici wanted. ditching Gucci's accessories line This was highly controversial because it was literally one of their most profitable sources of income. The average person may not be able to afford Gucci clothes, shoes, and handbags, but maybe they could buy a wallet, sunglasses, or belts now without accessories.

In reality, the brand was only accessible to the wealthy, which is what Mauritia wanted, but from a business perspective it seemed risky, to say the least. Mauricio also wanted to get rid of the classic GG logo, which turned out to be a big mistake. This was his iconic brand.everyone had recognized it and it represented 70 of their sales. All of Mauricio's changes to bring in a new era of Gucci meant the company began bleeding money. They were losing $30 million a year. Gucci could no longer afford to pay salaries or suppliers, the company was about to declare bankruptcy or because of the risk of this Grand Vision in Mauritius, it is understandable that Invest Corp was getting nervous because they were losing billions of dollars on their investment , so they approached Maurizio with the idea of ​​appointing a new CEO for Gucci.

This did not go well. Horatio refused to leave the position of power and pleaded with them saying that it would take at least six months for customers to get used to this new vision of the company and start buying again. However, the investor refused to back down. In 1993 they bought part 50 of the company from Mauricio for 150 million dollars. Ironically, six months later, the brand's fortunes changed just as Mauricio said it would. Japanese customers began purchasing Gucci bags and the company's profits eventually returned. Some of Mauricio's decisions had definitely been mistakes, but some of them had worked very well to help Gucci become a truly luxury brand again that could command high prices, but it was too late.

Mauricio had been bought and for the first time in

history

there was no one from Gucci. family in Gucci's house and only two years later Mauricio Gucci would be dead abroad after years of struggle Mauricio separated from his wife Patrizia and in 1994 they finalized their divorce According to her own friend, Pina Petrutia was sadder and more regretful for losing the name of Gucci than for losing her husband, however, Patricia was angry about the divorce and continued to harass Maurizio and left him threatening voicemails. He tried to move on with his new girlfriend Paola, but Patricia. He refused to let that happen, he feared that if he married Paula and started a new family, she and her daughters would lose the money that Maurizio was giving them, which was the only thing that financed his luxurious lifestyle that he so desired in In 1995, Marichi was walking to his office when a gunman appeared.

He was shot three times in the head in broad daylight. The police investigated all the possible suspects. After all, with so many families fighting, Mauricio had many enemies, but for two years the case fell apart. It cooled down and then finally the police received an anonymous tip to investigate Patrizia. It turns out that Patrizio went around town asking almost everyone he knew how she could kill her ex-husband and get away with it. He even asked his lawyer how this could be done without going to jail. Then, with the help of his friend Pina, he hired a hitman to do the job during the murder trial.

She insisted on wearing only the best Gucci suits in front of the cameras. Patrizio Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years in prison and Sicario himself received a life sentence Patricia served only 18 of those years and actually could have been released even sooner if she had simply accepted his work release program, but she refused saying that I never worked a day in my life and I have no intention of starting now. After the murder of Maurizio Gucci, the Gucci brand began a new era and found a resurgence in popularity after hiring designer Tom Ford as creative director, bringing back the classic Gucci logo and beginning to design collections that spoke to a younger generation of Tom Ford along with the CEO Dominico de Sol or a dynamic duo that would later be known as the Tomdom bomb era and that helped turn the fortunes of Gucci between 1995 and 1996, sales almost doubled from 263 million to 500 millions of dollars now that the Gucci family was no longer involved. and therefore the brand was not in a constant power struggle, things were finally looking up again.

Invest. Co-op quickly wanted to take advantage of this and so Gucci became a publicly traded company and the IPO was a great success. Invesco went on to sell its shares. that the company made a profit of two billion on its investment, but it came out at the right time, although as in 1997 there was a drop in Gucci's share price due to an economic crisis in the Japanese luxury market, this drop in the prize was enough for the fashion conglomerate. lvmh to start buying Gucci shares at a discount Bernardino was CEO of lvmh at the time and told the media that this was his attempt at a friendly takeover.

Bernard had a reputation for being the wolf in Kashmir and had been involved in the acquisition of several other big luxury fashion brands, so the Gucci CEO was worried and turned to an investor to help raise more money so Gucci could Start acquiring as many promising fashion brands as possible so that they could be true rivals to LVMH instead of being duped. Today, the Gucci group, also known as kareng, owned several well-known fashion brands, including Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen. Eventually, the iconic Tomdom Duo decided to resign from the company in 2004, as for Gucci it clearly continued to be an incredibly popular brand. brand and continues to evolve with each generation.

Gucci has around 50 million followers on Instagram and there are currently over 500 stores around the world Now that the accessories line is back, guji has hit this sweet spot where it's accessible to almost anyone and yet it's still Expensive enough to still be luxurious and exclusive. The big-budget film House of Gucci also put the brand even more in the spotlight in recent years. The Gucci family was not at all happy with the way they were portrayed in it, and to be fair, it definitely was. It's not entirely accurate, but since the Gucci family doesn't even run the business anymore, it's estimated that the movie actually increased Gucci's sales, but wait a second, remember that guy I mentioned earlier, Bernard.

I know well, there's a really fascinating guy here and his ties to history. With the story of Louis Vuitton, you see, although Bernard didn't end up owning Gucci, he did manage to take over Louis Vuitton in a controversial way, so click on the thumbnail on the screen now and we'll get into that part of the story.