Luxury brands are the ones who create fashion statements in the world fashion industry. They are the ones who introduce some top-notch brand-new fashion ideas into the industry that are restyled by celebrities to initiate a trend. These high-end fashion brands have been ruling the fashion world for ages, creating their unique style that firmly represents their brand image and impactful identity. One such impactful, significant, and “forever on the headlines” luxury high-end fashion brand is GUCCI.
Every time people talk about luxury fashion brands, this brand is the one that comes first to their mind. With their significant statement-making designs of every style, from casual to vintage, it is the go-to brand of celebrities worldwide to flaunt their luxury fashion sense.
But every brand has a journey it had come across before it witnessed the light of fame and success, and the same goes for this brand. Hence, this article will enlighten you about the journey of Gucci from the day of inception as just another European brand to today being one of the most successful brands ever to exist, defining how luxury brands should play their game on the runway shows.
How it started – the good old days
Guccio Gucci, as you may already know who he is, belonged to a family of leather finished goods dealers in Italy, born and brought up in the ambiance of simple leather fashion.
The first ignition to this mighty luxury brand happened at the Savoy Hotel in London, where Guccio used to work back then as a porter. Well, it all started with the appreciation of glamor that was induced in him at the sight of some magnificent suitcases the high-end officials and family men carried in, reflecting their wealth from around the world.
As many would have just ended up admiring them wholeheartedly and then getting back to work, Guccio wasn’t the one to let go of this honest appreciation and ignition of ambitions into vain.
How it eventually went – the not so grand but humble inception
Not everything that will shine someday has to be inaugurated with a gala – some successes start from humble leather outlets. After that, ignition stirred Guccio’s ambitions, subsequently after paying homage to his roots, he went back to his native hometown of Florence. Back there, he used to work for a tony luggage brand called Franzi. You can call this period the time Guccio took to prepare himself for the turning point of his life, right before Gucci was established in the year 1921 as his own eponymous leather finished goods outlet in his hometown itself.
What was the line of business back then or today’s omniscient luxury house?
It started with saddles and other basic accessories that were back then used for horseback riders. The one thing that must be noted here is no matter how small Gucci was back then, Guccio never learned how to compromise, dedicated to creating and providing only what’s elite, those luxurious suitcases still flashing in front of his eyes. To meet this luxurious standard he set for himself, and his goods were always crafted beautifully only from the finest leather available back then within the boundaries of Italy.
What deserves the light receives the same – the journey to the top was kickstarted.
Guccio had this unique thing about himself that he channeled through the designs he used for the brand, which was quickly noticed by people. People tend to stand out not when they do it like the good ones, but when they do the same with the best in them in their own unique way, which was duly proved by Guccio.
His designs started to boom into popularity in no time, allowing him to expand his business even further, now finally into the line of accessories. This expansion witnessed the brand rising strictly up the graph impressing and serving the taste of even the English aristocrats, leading them to end up becoming huge enthusiasts of this rising label.
The designs he curated back then that took the noblemen by surprise stayed with the brand and are still found in bits and pieces with the brand new designs.
Time to delegate and let the throne be descended.
Finally, it was time that Guccio took some time out of his business to decide the future of his dear creation. He knew and could see his brand succeeding beyond limits, and hence, deciding the hands to perform the needful was important. In 1938, the three sons of Guccio – Aldo, Vasco, and Rodolfo were enlisted to join their father’s highly esteemed line of business.
However, Guccio was yet far from letting his sons take over the entire business and instead delegated the expansion of brand image and presence among his three sons. Guccio and under his sons, Gucci spread its wings far and wide till Rome and Milan in the subsequent years.
There was no more looking back – the luxury brand was in the making.
Indeed, Gucci never looked back even once from there. With its own unique taste in fashion expanded to almost every possible field of fashion by now, it went only uphills with its fame and acceptance among customers and impressing the high-end fashion enthusiasts and encouraging them to associate with the brand taking revenues to reach the sky. But the sky was never the limit because Gucci was yet to become the “luxury brand” whose title was pacing slowly and steadily towards this Italian fashion house, yet to arrive with that one name that is going to change the entire game – Tom Ford.
He is often referred to as the one who is responsible for what Gucci is today, every bit of which is the universal truth. Ford, taking over the responsibility of the whereabouts, performed a few of those unexpected stunts to gain a massive revenue of 10,000 billion dollars revenue, quickly enlisting itself into the books of “luxury fashion.”
Even though those sleek silhouettes, attractive stilettos, and scandalous photo shoots were nowhere near the minimalist 90s fashion, Ford again proved with Gucci after Guccio that there is no other way to the top except going out of that small box, and so they did. And with every time Gucci took over the headlines, its revenues only got higher, from high-end runway models to best-selling celebrities, everyone embracing Gucci with pride.
