The Gucci Group N.V. is an Italian clothing design house based in Amsterdam. The company was near-collapse only a few years ago, but it has been turned around by president and CEO Domenico De Sole and creative director Tom Ford.
The Gucci family had long been known as saddlemaker's to the aristocrats of Florence, Italy and developed a major fashion house so that by the 1950s, the designer was patronized by leading figures such as Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, and Queen Elizabeth. Company head Guccio died in 1953, and this sparked a major period of expansion as stores were opened in various cities, including the first American store in New York City. This success did not last, however, and problems such as family squabbles, overproduction, and the extravagant lifestyle of then-chairman Maurizio Gucci, Guccio's grandson, nearly ruined the company by the mid-1980s. In 1987, the family sold half of the company to Investcorp, an investment bank, and Maurizio followed suit in 1993. The family was then faced with the scandal of Maurizio's murder, for which his wife was charged. Investcorp named the new chairman and president and took the company public in 1995. De Sole sought to restore the company's luster and so cut production, improved quality, and refit the stores. the company has since expanded further and has improved business (Hoover's Online).
The Economist magazine offers the following history of the company as evidence of the fickle nature of the fashion business:
The company began as a Florentine shop selling leather goods in 1923. By the 1950s its expensive bags, shoes, belts, scarves, ties and watches had begun to adorn the svelte and wealthy around the world. Then it overexpanded. By 1993, when the company was taken over by Investcorp, a Bahrain based finance company, it was on the brink of liquidation, ruined by family squabbles and profligate use of its precious brand. Two years later, its best known d...