The History of Gucci
Gucci was founded by Guccio Gucci, the son of a craftsman, who was born in Italy in 1881. The young Gucci rebelled against joining his family’s ailing straw hat-making business and ran away to London. There he got a job as a maitre d’hotel at the opulent and upscale London hotel, the Savoy. There he looked after the wealthy guests, paying particular attention to their baggage (he was a lift attendant). It was here that he developed a taste for beauty and excellence.
Returning to Florence, he founds the House of Gucci in 1921, which included a small shop at 7 Via della Vigna Nuova selling saddlery and a workshop. The company would latter expand into exclusive leather bags and shoes which were decorated with a horse’s snaffle. These leather goods were made by skilled Florentine craftsmen. Next the shop later progressed from selling leather bags to luxury luggage as his clients graduated from equine transportation to horseless carriages.
In 1933 the house of Gucci was joined by Aldo, Guccio’s son, who desiged the iconic and now famous Gucci logo. The logo uses the interlocking Gs of his father’s initials, now an icon of luxury and fashion. Later the workshop due to expansion, was relocated to a larger space on Lungarno Guicciardini along the Arno River in 1937. In 1938 Gucci’s first retail shop was opened on the prestigious Via Condotti in Rome, following the overwhelming success of the Florentine shop which was attracting a sophisticated international clientele.
In 1947 the now famous and easily recognizable Gucci icon, the leather handbag with bamboo handle is introduced. Next during the 1950’s Guccio Gucci created many of the company’s classic trademarks. The red striped webbing is successfully introduced, taken from its original place on a saddle girth. Like the leather moccasin with metal bit (also created in the 1950’s), the red striped webbing becomes another Gucci icon.
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