Gucci

It’s almost impossible to believe that Gucci, one of the best known fashion brands in the world, which recently named the mononymic designer Demna as its artistic director, began as a small luggage company founded by Guccio Gucci in 1921 Florence. But so it did, and that it managed to flourish in such a way is thanks to Guccio’s son Aldo, a flamboyant businessman who transformed the business from a local leather goods store into a must-have for the European jet-set with its interlocking GG logo, bamboo handle, and striking green and red web accessories.In keeping with the father-son tradition, Aldo’s son Paolo ushered in Gucci’s next great era, in the late 1960s, with the introduction of clothing. By the early ’70s, the lean silhouettes, fur-lined coats, and shiny satin lapels we think of today as the Gucci hallmarks of today began to appear. But the popularity of the brand was both a blessing and a curse, and in the ’80s overzealous licensing and vicious infighting led to the family losing control of the company in 1993.But this wasn’t the end of Gucci; no, rather it set the stage for one of the most creative eras in fashion, when just a year later, the American designer Tom Ford was named creative director, and unleashed the legendary, oft-imitated Tom Ford look, which he described “sexy, sensual, fuck-me clothes,” born from his memories of the 1970s and his time at Studio 54. Almost overnight, Gucci had become the label everyone wanted to wear.In 2004, after the French holding company Kering took over the label, Ford announced he would not be renewing his contract, ending a wildly successful era in which he had taken Gucci from bankruptcy to a company valued at $4.3 billion. The impossible job of keeping the brand’s momentum fell to Frida Giannini, who had worked as an accessories designer for five years before she was promoted; but her more romantic-inflected rock n’ roll edge didn’t quite fan the flames as before. They say lightning never strikes twice, but it did at Gucci. In January of 2015, barely a month after it was announced that Giannini would be stepping down, her number two, Alessandro Michele was given the task of re-doing the menswear collection in a little less than a week, taking a bow with the entirety of the design team at the end of the show. The next morning, he was announced as the new creative director. Michele’s vision of the world: arty, bohemian, and not gender-specific, once again placed Gucci at the epicenter of a seismic shift in not just the fashion industry, but global style. During his tenure, Michele pursued groundbreaking collaborations with other brands—from North Face and Adidas to fellow Kering label Balenciaga—and supported up-and-coming designers around the world. “I am trying to cause a little revolution inside the company—to push another language,” Michele told Vogue a few months after he took on the job. “When I started the first collection, I was thinking not in terms of fashion but in terms of attitude, that sense of beauty which I tried to find for an old and beautiful and charming brand like Gucci.” Michele was later replaced by Sabato De Sarno, whose short-lived tenure was defined by his efforts to “reinforce the house’s fashion authority while capitalizing on its rich heritage.”