Picking up where we left off, Gucci is in turmoil and the family's infighting has created serious problems for the fashion giant. In 1972, Aldo Gucci expanded the company's reputation and brand power by signing a deel with American Motors Corporation (AMC) to design a special luxury trim package for the AMC Hornet Sportabout. This, along with the Gucci Accessories Collection, opened the company to wider markets and a larger range of brand recognition.

Despite this, the Gucci dynasty came crashing down when the Perfumes division, which the Accessories division was to prop up, outsold it and thus lost the company a lot of money. This and the lower-priced items in the GAC had the result of spoiling the company's name amongst their base customers: the higher-end, luxury fashion market. It was fast becoming just another fashion brand in a sea of fashion design.

Cheap knockoffs of Gucci's products began to appear at the same time, further soiling the company's name. Then the death of Rodolfo (Aldo's chief rival) and the inheritance by his son Maurizio brought about huge changes in the company. The younger generation, lead by Maurizio, bolstered by a lawsuit with Gucci's chief rival LVMH, and the stepping or ousting of older and more contentious family members changed everything.

Looking outside of Gucci's talent pool, Maurizio began to revitalize the company's image, and in the late 1980s began to make Gucci one of the world's most influential fashion houses. For the first time in it's long company history, the company went public in 1995 and two years later, the company acquired watch licenses and began producing some of what are now the world's best-known fashion watches.

Now, Gucci has reached iconic status, with people the world over recognizing the logo, name, and fashions almost universally. Black Gucci shoes, Men's Gucci jackets and jeans, and even Gucci branded business and credit card holders have reached the status of household recognition.

Gucci is fashion and that's why people like us love it so much. It's not just a name, it's a whole history of beautiful design.

Tags: fashion, gucci, history, icon

This entry was posted in 2008 and is filed under Gucci Fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.