Gucci History

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The Company Description of Its Time

The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci, is an iconic Italian fashion and leather goods label, founded by Guccio Gucci (1881-1953) in Florence in 1921. The historical record calls it one of the most famous, prestigious and easily recognizable fashion brands in the world, and the biggest-selling Italian brand in the world. This page files the house at group level as well as label level: the House of Gucci is part of the Gucci Group, which belongs to the French conglomerate Pinault-Printemps-Redoute (PPR), with PPR headquarters in Paris and Gucci world offices and headquarters in Florence, Paris, London and New York.

Fame, a Near-Collapse and a Turnaround

The biography inside the filing is unusually candid for a luxury profile. Gucci remained one of the premier luxury goods establishments in the world until the late 1970s, when a series of disastrous business decisions and family quarrels brought the company to the verge of bankruptcy. A turnaround devised in the late 1980s then made Gucci one of the world's most influential fashion houses and a highly profitable business operation. That arc - founder's craft house, family crisis, professional revival - is the house's modern myth, and the directory tells it in three sentences without naming the individuals involved; this rebuild names none either, because the historical record does not.

Scale figures are dated and sourced inside the text, which is how they should be quoted. Gucci generated circa US$8.2 billion worldwide of revenue in 2008 according to BusinessWeek magazine, and climbed to 45th position in the magazine's annual Top 100 Brands chart created by Interbrand. The label operates about 425 stores worldwide and wholesales its products through franchisees and upscale department stores. The routes below include the directory's own Gucci definition page, its Gucci brand pages for women and for men, jobs at Gucci, and the handbag and designer handbag guides where this label anchors the luxury end.

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