Gucci's founder learned luxury by carrying rich guests' bags in London
Before launching a fashion house, Guccio Gucci worked as a bellhop at the Savoy Hotel, hauling the trunks of wealthy travellers and noting what they prized. Back in Florence he opened a luggage shop in 1921. Wartime shortages then pushed the business into the bamboo handles and canvas bags that became its signatures.
Gucci left Florence for Paris and then London, arriving in 1897 to work at the Savoy, where handling luggage taught him about fabrics, quality and how the rich liked to travel. His Florence shop on Via della Vigna Nuova sold imported leather cases, and a workshop of local craftsmen soon grew to sixty artisans. His son Aldo, who joined in 1925, pushed for expansion, opening a Rome store in 1938.
Scarcity shaped the brand. When the League of Nations embargoed Italy after the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, leather ran short and other materials came in. During the Second World War bags were made of cotton canvas marked with a double-G pattern and red and green bands. In 1947 the Bamboo bag used light cane for its handle for the same reason, and the famous loafer followed in 1952, eventually entering the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1985.
Celebrity and expansion followed: a first American store on Fifth Avenue in 1953, a bag named for Jacqueline Kennedy and the Flora scarf designed for Grace Kelly in 1966. But family feuds through the 1980s and mass production of some 700,000 handbags a year cheapened the name, and by 1993 the family had lost all ownership.
The revival was deliberate. Dawn Mello, hired in 1989, cut stores from over 1,000 to 180 and the product range from 22,000 items to 7,000. She brought in Tom Ford, whose provocative 1995 collection was an instant hit. In 1999 Pinault's group, later Kering, took control after fending off LVMH.
Source: Gucci
