House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara G. Forden

 House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara G. Forden was my 3rd of 2022 and Jan. 

On that fateful morning of March 25, in 1995 the 46-year-old former heir Maurizio Gucci was shot and killed while heading into his Milan office, a crime committed at the hand of a hitman hired by his ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani remains one of the most shocking events in Italy's history.

Truth at times is stranger and more engrossing than fiction. This story in particular, about the family business, becoming and international conglomeration, growing horizontally and vertically, over a period of time,  first from Europe to America, Asia and across, parallelly adding to the line of products from bags, shoes, watches, perfumes, accessories - you name it and they have it.  They were providing the global customers with products, services, consistency and image. Gucci was founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Florence, Tuscany. Gucci and his wife, Aida Calvelli married in 1901 and had six children, five sons and one daughter. His son Ugo Calvelli Gucci (1899–1973) was adopted, born from his mother Aida Calvelli's previous relationship. His son Enzo (1904–1913) died in childhood. His wife and  sons Vasco, Aldo, Ugo and Rodolfo Gucci held prominent roles in his company, and his daughter was not given a role.  After the war, Guccio Gucci distributed the shares of the company to his three sons (Aldo, Vasco, Rodolfo). The vision of father was carried forward by his children, and brought down by grandchildren. Father Gucci, having worked in London, with a taste of manufacturing leather bags, had his sons inducted into the business. While his elder Son Aldo was the marketing man, a developer influencing everyone, human, sensitive, creative ;  who took it across the globe, youngest son Rodolfo, got envious of his elder brother's confidence and power and wanted to be everything he was. 

Aldo said "Elegance is like manners, You can't be polite only on wednesday or Thursday. If you are elegant, you should be every day of the week. If you are not, then it's another matter."

"Turn the page, go on, don't look back. Cry if you must, but shoot!" By shoot, Aldo meant act and react, which is exactly what he did. Once he decided to do something, he would persuade everyone around to get it done. 

Sheraton wrote "Gucci's rudeness....is undoubtedly a reflection of what Dr. Gucci considers to be pride, but which the rest of the world recognizes as arrogance", Far from being offended or angry, Aldo was so thrilled with the article - he thought it was fabulous publicity - that he sent her flowers. 

Then comes the next generation.  Aldo's son Paolo was determined to bring the house of Gucci down. On the business side it was draining precious resources and energy form the company and generating negative publicity,    on the personal side it was painful to fight with own family.  Father Aldo, tried to convince son and brought him back into the board, but his suspicions remained.    Then on board where Aldo, Giorgio, Paolo, Roberto, Rodolfo, Maurizio and the other company directors.   The verbal fight, had turned grown up men, fighting like hooligans, Paolo returned home bandaged. In Gucci, all were turning out to be mad, manipulative, out of control and not very clever, thus destroying the dynasty. Unfortunately he died of Chronic hepatitis on October 1995 and Maurizio entered the family battlefield.       

When Patrizia Reggiani, an outsider from humble beginnings, marries into the Gucci family, her unbridled ambition begins to unravel the family legacy and triggers a reckless spiral of betrayal, decadence, revenge -- and ultimately murder. Maurizio Gucci hired Dawn Mello to put Gucci back on tracks. From 1991 to 1993, Gucci's finances were still in the red, Maurizio Gucci was blamed for spending extravagant amounts of money on the company's headquarters in Florence (Via delle Caldaie palazzo) and in Milan. Thanks to Kirdar, and Morgan Stanley facilitating, Investcorp bought the remaining 50% of Guccio Gucci S.p.A. from Maurizio Gucci in 1993, ending the family involvement in the group. In March 1995, Maurizio Gucci was shot dead in the lobby of Gucci's Milan office. His ex-wife Patrizia Reggiani served 16 years in jail for hiring the hitman of the murder.

"Never lose touch with the importance of the soul and one's sentiments. Life can be a vast, arid field where the seed one sows often grows away from all that is good."

"Deep relationship exists between happiness and love and life is'nt lived in decades or even seasons, but in beautiful sunny mornings, watching grow...true wisdom lies in what we can do with the real riches of this world - beyond the ones we can trade or manage - the riches of life, youth, friendship, love.   These are the riches we must treasure and shelter always."

"Every human creature, has three essential things that must always be in harmony among themselves: a heart, a brain, and a wallet. If these three elements don't work together, problems will come."

This was Rodolfo's advise to his son, on screening the films of life. 

There is a saying in Italy, "The first generation is the one that creates the idea, the second develops it, the third must face the big growth questions" With third generation, the family war and law suits, paralyzes the company, enabling many competing labels to be born and sore high. 

Maurizio was like a sun that pulled people to him like planets with the force of his personality, but if they got too close he would burn them up and throw them away," 

He tried to look for investors, but failed and then Delfo Zorzi from far east came as a Santa Clause with nick name 'Hagen'. He was in fact an Italian who fled leaving behind a past and accusations of being a dangerous neofascist. To Investcorp, he narrated a story of his father, saying him of the place where he could find the money in his dream, and how he found it there, a humorous way of his saying it was none of their business. When he thought he would lose 50% of his share, Maurizio, being a sailor said, "I'm not going to surrender this company to the Arabs. I've lost everything.....I am going to take this ship down with me." But finally he sold off all his shares on 27th Sept 1993 and Investcorp became 100% controller of Gucci. He had a tough time with his first wife Patrizia, first for divorce before it was signed, she was diagnosed with tumor and had to undergo  surgery.  She was filled with Vendetta and called Maurizio a monster. For her Gucci represented everything - money, power, identity for her and girls. They got divorced in 94, but she did not want him to marry Paola who was with him until the last day. Their relationship was emotional, with no piece of paper no agreement between them. Once the shares in Gucci was sold out, he did not have anything better to do, after a break, he thought of starting up again, with anything other than fashion. in 95, he was assassinated. Patrizia took her place in the front row of mourners, played the perfect widow, showed the door to Paola and her son, she wanted to ensure whatever was left behind would be for her daughters. 

Maurizio inherited a difficult, if not impossible, legacy. His vision of a new future for Gucci was clouded by his inability to set his plans on an even keel, to marshal his resources for the task. His relationship patter moulded by his father, failed to find steady shoulder to help him with his mission. He lacked the base, though he had tremendous charisma and charm, the ability to sweep people away with him. He was surrounded by people who were not right. 100's of Italian family firms, where then playing the game of chicken, where they were forced to play on the road to the global marketplace. They risked either being knocked off the road or overrun by giant multinationals. Given his power and position, it was not easy for him to make true friends. When he left, the workers were depressed, company was paralyzed, management was balkanized, nobody was making decisions and everybody was terrified of getting blamed. 

With the move, Domenico De Sole was the company's biggest asset, he was like a willow tree in the wind - which bends but never breaks. He was pushed, insulted and gone unrecognized, but he didn't give up or go away. He made things happen. Kirdar in the course of takeover by Investcorp had three casualties - Paul Dimitruk, Andrea Morante and Bill Flanz. When Dawn Mello resigned as Creative Director, Tom Ford recommended by her, who was the young designed that no one had heard of, took up the responsibility, who turned Gucci into a Fashion house with De Sole, with the choice being Classic Vs. Fashion. The production logjam became dramatic, demand bounced. They did not become geniuses overnight, there was lot of hardwork. Tom Ford was full of energy, and moved forward, happy with his new freedom. Both of them were Driven!

In 1994 Inverstcorp wanted to sell Gucci, and wanted no less than $500 million but the offer was for 400 to 300 million dollars as the prevailing psychology then was, 'There might be some juice left in Gucci, but how hard do you have to squeeze to get it out?" recalled Toker. They even consider asking Sutan of Brunei - if they would want to buy it lock, stock and barrel. Soon after Maurizio's murder, the company went public, wanted a CEO and so De Sole's became after lot of search internally and externally by Kirdar. When he entered into a meeting lead my Tom Ford, he asked him to leave them alone; De Sole was first furious, there were fights, but those clarified the turf and laid the foundation for an airtight, trusting relationship unprecedented in the industry between a designer and an executive who hadn't started in business together and did'nt have a previous personal relationship. There was immense trust between them, no jealousy and great obsession. (As I google about them for more info - I find that Tom Ford went on to create a famous brand himself, and De sole went to be the Chairman of that company)

"Never let even a friendly wolf into your chicken coop; sooner or later it will get hungry. " "Truth is the daughter of time."

For successful meeting three things are required courtesy, transparency and goodwill.  

Gucci's holding company Guccio Gucci S.p.A. is based in Florence, Italy, and is a subsidiary of the French luxury group Kering.      

Gucci's history is flashy as it's products.