The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed [Hardcover]

Sara G. Forden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2000

The startling and dramatic true story behind the murder of Maurizio Gucci, and the rise, fall, and rise again of the Gucci dynasty. The House of Gucci tells a riveting story of high fashion, high finance, and heartrending personal tragedy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A world-famous luxury brand, financial skullduggery, vicious family quarrels ending in a sensational murder: the Gucci story just couldn't be juicier, and former Women's Wear Daily correspondent Sara Gay Forden does full justice to its gossipy appeal. Guccio Gucci opened his first leather-goods store in Florence in 1921, but it was his son Aldo who expanded the company overseas and made products like the Gucci loafer and the Flora scarf international symbols of status and affluence. Aldo's sons, his brother Rodolfo, and Rodolfo's son Maurizio, all of whom also worked in the family business, didn't always appreciate Aldo's imperious ways, and corporate board meetings often ended with ashtrays and Gucci handbags flying. Things got so bad in the early 1980s that Aldo's renegade son Paolo made public financial documents that very nearly sent his father to jail for tax fraud. Even more lurid was the 1995 execution-style murder of Maurizio, followed by the conviction in 1998 of his ex-wife Patrizia for ordering the hit. Meanwhile, CEO Domenico De Sole and creative director Tom Ford were transforming Gucci from a family-run company into a modern corporation once again on the cutting edge of fashion and marketing. Forden makes the business story as dramatic as the Guccis' personal squabbles (and of course the two were often interconnected) in a highly entertaining family biography that doubles as a savvy business history. --Wendy Smith

From Publishers Weekly

The brutal 1995 murder of Maurizio Gucci, the grandson of the Gucci company founder, serves as entree into the history of one of the world's most glamorous fashion houses. The author, a longtime fashion writer for Women's Wear Daily, wonderfully describes how Guccio Gucci learned, as a low-level employee at London's Savoy hotel in the 1890s, that luggage functions as a symbol of "affluence and taste," and then went on to create opulent leather goods that caught the world's eye. Forden traces how GuccioAand his descendantsAused charisma and intuition, rather than trained business acumen, to create the handbag dynasty. The "Gucci concept," a group of colors and designs largely derived from horse stables, didn't hurt either. But much of the book is devoted to the in-fighting that developed among Guccio's sons and grandsons. This in-fighting as well as the Guccis' inability to adapt to increased competition, professionalize their management and maintain the value of their brand name eventually caught up with them. In fact, Maurizio, having risen to the top of the company in the 1980s by using outside investors to depose his uncle, was eventually bought out in 1993, leaving no family members in the company's top management. (Forden does explain how the Gucci company has since made a comeback.) The book is, at times, too detailed about fashion history and techniques, and some may find the author's use of dramatic re-creations annoying. Nevertheless, he offers an intriguing view of one of the families that helped to create 20th-century style and business. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (August 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688163130
• ISBN-13: 978-0688163136
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tour de force, August 10, 2001

By 

Ping Lim (Christchurch) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed (Hardcover)

This book is surprisingly entertaining & yet informative at the same time. Here, we read about Gucci's humble beginning (against the myth of the family beginning as saddle makers), the personalities in the family (namely, Aldo & Rodolfo & subsequently, moving on to the younger generations, Maurizio, Paolo), the ongoing battles ensued among themselves for business control, the loyalty of Gucci employees, the estrangment of the employees against the new team brought in by Maurizio to turn Gucci around, the murder of Maurizio Gucci, the trial which brought his estranged wife, Patrizia Gucci & her accomplice to jail, Maurizio's vision which involved Investcorp which subsequently made Gucci into a corporate name, the significance of American outsiders such as Dawn Mello, Domenico de Sole, Tom Ford which spearheaded Gucci into a new direction altogether (from bag & leather products into ready to wear apparels) & indirectly, tranformed the fashion industry forever by inspiring other fashion houses to do the same ie. listed in the sharemarket to fend off competitors and to survive in the game & attainment of synergy thru multi brands under the same umbrella, the fighting off hostile takeover bid by LMVD led by Arnault thru marriage with Pinault. The book is written in a way that we feel as if we are in the thick of incidents. B&W pictures provided were handy. There is never a dull moment in this book. Highly recommended and great effort for the first time author.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Just a Business Book, April 7, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed (Paperback)

This book is a surprising fast paced book that reads more like an unauthorized tell all scandal book then one dealing with the business world. It is just a fun book to read. There is a good amount of history that does not take away from the story (as sometimes to much dull history can). The author got the mix right. It also gave me a lot of insight into the fashion world that I really was not looking for, but was interesting all the same. Keep in mind that part of the focus of this book is the business that has been built up; it is not just details of the family. A good effort by the author and one worth reading if you are interested in the topic.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, if not disturbing, chronicle, August 1, 2004

By 

Chris Salzer (Gainesville, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed (Paperback)

The House of Gucci asserts itself as a singular dichotomy of both highly bizarre personal tales of the self-destructive Gucci family as well as the equally strange goings-on of the business side of things as well. It reads not unlike an incredibly enthralling novel of deceit, selfishness, lust, greed, and underhanded connivances quite unlike any other.

What makes this even more compelling is the incredible fact that it really happened. It begins with a somewhat banal and inauspicious start as the author recounts the beginning of Gucci with its assiduous founder, Guccio Gucci. As the family history unfolds, however, we find ourselves grossly immersed in the almost unbelievable sordid tales of the inimitable Gucci clan going from Guccio's three sons and how the most industrious of them, Aldo, built the Gucci empire almost single-handedly from a local phenomenon selling primarily handbags and loafers to worldwide acclaim selling a veritable cornucopia of luxury merchandise. And that is, for all intents and purposes, where the meat of the infinitely bizarre story begins with the 3rd generation Gucci, Maurizio, whose cold-blooded murder is eerily recounted on the 1st page of the book.

Overall, I recommend this quasi-novel of nonfiction to anyone who enjoys a riveting yarn that reads like a murder mystery. Invariably, it also makes for a great read for anyone in management on how to run, as well as how NOT to run, a business.