Gucci

Gucci was founded in 1921 by Guccio Gucci in Florence. The shop on Via della Vigna Nuova began as a leather goods and luggage business, drawing on the founder’s years working at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he had worked as a bellboy and become enamored with the luxury suitcases carried by the city’s aristocrats.

The proposition was Florentine leatherwork aimed at a traveling upper class, with equestrian accessories following soon after. After the war, the Gucci crest, which showed a shield and armored knight surrounded by a ribbon inscribed with the family name, became synonymous with the city of Florence. Under Aldo Gucci, the company became, in the standard description, emblematic of the Italian economic miracle.

Menswear grew alongside the accessories business, then expanded sharply once Tom Ford took over design. In 1981, Gucci showed ready-to-wear for the first time at the Sala Bianca in Florence, playing heavily on the Flora print.

Ford joined in 1990 and became creative director in 1994. He redefined the house’s men’s wardrobe around velvet flares, jewel-toned silk shirts, and sharp tailoring, taking much of his hedonistic inspiration from the Halston-era world of Studio 54, putting his models in jeweled silk blouses and velvet flares.

The 1996 red velvet suit became the reference point for the era. Ford’s tenure steered fashion away from oversized Armani-style menswear and nineties grunge collections toward a glitzy, unapologetically opulent image that would define the early noughties.

Recognition came in the form of long-running CFDA honors and the loafer’s place in fashion history. The Gucci loafer with metal horsebit, created in 1953, was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1985, becoming part of the permanent collection.

Ownership changes shaped the modern company. Following family feuds during the 1980s, the Gucci family was entirely ousted from the capital of the company by 1993, and in 1999 Gucci became a subsidiary of Kering.

Creative leadership shifted from Ford to Frida Giannini, then to Alessandro Michele, whose decade-long run drew on floral suiting, pussy-bow shirts, and gender-fluid menswear that pulled in a younger client base.

Stefano Cantino has been CEO of Gucci since October 2024, and Demna creative director since March 2025. The business remains one of the largest houses in the Kering portfolio, with 529 stores, 20,032 employees, and €7.65 billion in sales in 2024.

In menswear, Gucci now dresses a mix of musicians, athletes, and film talent, sitting in the upper tier of the Italian houses alongside Prada and Bottega Veneta. Demna’s arrival signals another shift in the men’s silhouette.