When we think of the world of fashion, there are certain brands that always come to mind, and one of them is Gucci. Even if everyone in the world has heard the name, many people are still surprised to hear thirteen facts about Gucci that you don’t know.
1: Gucci’s first job
Guccio Gucci (Guccio Giovanbattista Giacinto Dario Maria Gucci), the founder of Gucci, was born in 1881, went to London in 1897, and first worked as an elevator operator at the Savoy Hotel in London. And the bags of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Winston Churchill inspired them to launch their own line.
2: Founding the Gucci brand
After the First World War and leaving his job at the hotel, Gucci started working for a while at the Franzi luggage factory, and then, in 1921, at the age of 40, he returned to Italy and established his own brand.
Although the first Gucci stores were opened in Italy, the style of Gucci’s work was strongly European, and he was inspired by it because of his work at the Savoy Hotel in London and his familiarity with European styles.
3: The first products of the Gucci brand
Among the first products made by Gucci were detachable leather bags for saddles. He sold them to equestrian enthusiasts in Italy.
And after that, he produced quality leather luggage. Handbags and luggage are still two of Gucci’s most popular items.
And many celebrities around the world are die-hard fans of the brand, including famous rapper 2 Chainz, who said, “When I die, bury me in a Gucci store.”
4: Gucci logo
The Gucci logo can be considered the most recognized luxury brand. Aldo Gucci, one of Gucci’s three sons, joined Gucci in 1938 and designed his father’s logo. Aldo designed the GG logo in 1960 to honor his father, Guccio Gucci.
The use of two Gs is a direct reference to Guccio Gucci’s initials, an artistic and memorable way to show the importance of the founder in a visual and timeless way.
5: Red and green lines in Gucci accessories
As I mentioned before, Gucci’s designs were very much inspired by Europe, and even the idea of this striped pattern originates from the world of English horse riding.
To hold the saddle on the horse’s back, a special belt called “Web” is used under the animal’s belly.
This British-style green and red “web” was the inspiration for Gucci’s look!
At first, Gucci used them in horse saddles, and then in his bags, jewelry, and accessories.
6: Gucci Hobo Bag fabric design
In the early 1940s, Italy was ruled by the dictator Benito Mussolini. The Fascist regime meant that leather was often very difficult to obtain, so many Gucci products were made using silk.
So Gucci began experimenting with alternative fabrics. This led to Gucci’s first signature print: small, interlocking dark brown diamonds woven into a reddish-brown hemp fabric.
7: Gucci handbags with bamboo handles
The iconic bamboo bag was produced under similar conditions in 1947. Gucci artisans were scrambling to find materials at the end of World War II and discovered that they could use Japanese bamboo to create unique bag handles.
These glossy bamboo handles were produced with a unique method and became a Gucci icon.
8: Gucci house following Gucci’s death
Guccio brought his three sons—Aldo, Vasco, and Rodolfo—into his business in 1938 and asked them to expand the brand.
He died in 1953, just 15 days after opening the first Gucci boutique in New York. The Gucci brand, which until that year was personally managed by Gucci himself, fell into the hands of his sons, who promoted the products among Hollywood celebrities and in the following years brought Gucci to Rome and finally to Milan.
9: Flora scarf
Around the 1970s, Grace Kelly went to the Gucci store to pick up a bamboo bag, and as a thank you, Rodolfo Gucci asked the Italian illustrator Vittorio Accornero to design a floral headscarf for the beloved Princess of Monaco. The resulting print on a scarf called Flora was marketed and became Gucci’s signature, consisting of 43 types of flowers, plants, and insects, depicted in a clear order in 37 colors. The interlocking double G logo was also introduced around this time, as a sweet tribute to the founder, Guccio Gucci.
10: The scandal of the Gucci family and their move toward bankruptcy
In the 70s, Gucci was making headway eastward; they opened stores in Tokyo and then in Hong Kong, but the golden age seemed to be over. The Gucci brothers were constantly at war, and during that time, Rodolfo’s son, Maurizio, kicked out his uncle Aldo, while Gucci was facing bankruptcy.
And after the death of Maurizio Gucci, things went further toward destruction.
11: The Life of Maurizio Gucci
Maurizio Gucci was the last of the Gucci family to head the brand. He was the grandson of Guccio Gucci, the main founder of the most famous fashion house in the world. He married Patrizia Reggiani in 1972. They had two daughters and lived a luxurious life. When his father (Rodolfo) died in 1983, he received his father’s 50% stake in the company.
When he took over as CEO, he fired other relatives (even his uncle) and tried to fix Gucci, but lost millions of dollars over the next few years. Gucci sold the company to Investcorp for over $100 million.
His marriage also eventually ended in separation, and he moved in with a young woman named Paula Franchi and later invested in a casino in Switzerland.
Maurizio Gucci’s death
After going to his office on March 27, 1995, Maurizio Gucci was shot three to four times in the back and once in the head by a mysterious gunman.
Giuseppe Onorato, the doorman of his building, was also shot twice, but he survived the shooting. Investigators became suspicious of a large number of his employees, including disgraced Gucci relatives and people with whom he did business at the casino. Almost two years later, Gucci’s ex-wife and four others were finally arrested in connection with his death on January 31, 1997.
About Maurizio’s killer
During the trial, the media called Reggiani (Gucci’s ex-wife) “Vedova Nera” or “Black Widow” because she was accused of orchestrating Gucci’s assassination. Evidence and revelations in court did not favor Reggiani.
Giuseppina Aurima accused Rigiani of paying money to contact the killers. Reggiani’s lawyers said that while she ostensibly wished her husband dead, she never followed through. He claimed that he paid Aurima (his former best friend) $365,000 because he was afraid they wouldn’t make him a shoe.(Interestingly, Regiani said it was worth every lira.)
Prosecutors also dug up Reggiani’s strange diary files. In one, he wrote: “There is no crime that money cannot buy.” The day her ex-husband died, she wrote one word: “paradises,” the Greek word for “paradise.”
In 1998, the hired defendant, Benedito Serralo, faced life in prison. (Ceraulo always maintained his innocence.) Auriemma went to prison for 25 years. Hotel porter Ivano Savioni, who helped Auriemma contact the killers, was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Orazio Cichala, the driver of the getaway car, was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Reggiani, who never confessed to ordering the murder, was sentenced to 29 years in prison. His sentence was finally reduced to 26 years in the appeals court. His prison time was reduced when, in 2014, he began to reduce his prison time, and 2017, he regained his status as a free citizen.
12: Tom Ford saved Gucci
In fact, Tom Ford is the savior of Gucci. In order to save this brand from bankruptcy, Tom Ford was appointed as the creative director of Gucci in 1994. Tom Ford designed sexy clothes that were not available in any other brand at the time and went against the trend. The minimalist style of the 90s was supposed to save Gucci.
Within 5 years, sales increased by 90%, and the value of the house of Gucci reached about 4 billion dollars. Ford was the company’s largest shareholder during his tenure.
Ford, along with his favorite stylist, Carine, and his favorite photographer, Mario Testino, brought a different generation of fashion with them. These three people created a revolution in fashion advertising with their controversial and nude images.
I must say that their most famous photo is an advertisement in which a male model shaves Carmen Kass’s hair in a G shape in public. (Photo)
And after that, “Genius Jeans,” which was the name of one of Gucci’s famous jeans models (photo), entered Guinness World Records as the most expensive jeans in the whole world. and its price in 1998 was 3,134 dollars.
13: Gucci after Tom Ford
Following a dispute with Pinault-Printemps Redoute (the company that bought Gucci in 2004), Ford left Gucci and created his own brand. After that, Alessandra Facchinetti came to work to take charge of the women’s collection. Before leaving Gucci in 2005, he only designed two memorable collections at Gucci.
In 2005, Gucci decided to collaborate with UNICEF. This means that a percentage of the total profit is donated to the organization and helps children in third-world countries have a better education and cleaner water.
Frida Giannini, the second prominent designer after Tom Ford in Gucci
After that, Frida Giannini became the center of attention. With Gucci since 2002, she was hired at the age of 24 to become the head of handbags, a part of Gucci that was a big earner for Gucci. He was finally promoted to the general supervisor of accessories. Giannini’s enormous success there cemented his career as the top job.
During his time at Gucci, Giannini abandoned Ford’s approach to selling for sexual attention, instead shifting his focus to other accessories. He modified the original Flora, focusing on the red and green stripe, and redesigned the bamboo bag.
In 2011, Frida revealed that she had been secretly involved in a two-year relationship with then-Gucci CEO Patrizio di Marco. She broke the news after much speculation about their rumored relationship. And in 2013, they had a daughter named Greta, and they finally got married two years later.
After that, in 2015, fashion designer Alessandro Michele took over the management of Gucci. Since then, sales have grown by 12%, and it has participated in world-class events such as Milan Fashion Week.
Many other prominent designers also worked alongside Gucci, including Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney.
14: Gucci is now available
I must add that Gucci was the first brand to hold a fashion show in Westminster Abbey, London, which was held in 2017.
Also, Gucci’s Chime for Change project is for helping and empowering young women and girls, and it has managed to finance more than 200 different projects so far.
