The beginning of luxury goods is not always romantic.
The magnificent world that Christian Dior will be able to build with flowers in the future is inspired by the garden he grew up with, and the reality behind the beautiful story is that he was born into a fertilizer manufacturer’s home.
Before Guccio founded Gucci, he wandered through the bustling city of London after the Industrial Revolution. During his time as a bellboy at the famous The Savoy hotel, he witnessed the lifestyle of socialites. Later, he returned to Florence and founded his own handicraft workshop in 1921. The first products were suitcases and handbags.
As for luxury giants who now provide shade for luxury brands, their capital accumulation process is usually simple.
The Rupert family of South Africa, behind the Lifeng Group, started with mining, tobacco and other businesses. Prior to 2000, they also had a television business and it was not until 2008 that they separated from the tobacco business. Kaiyun Group started with its timber business and continued to focus on mass distribution business until the last century. It wasn’t until the current CEO Francois Henri Pinault took office in 2005 that it focused on luxury goods business. Bernard Arnault, who controls LVMH, started with the construction and real estate industries.
There is no intention of enchanting luxury goods, but rather that everything has an evolutionary process.
In Gucci’s century long development history, this Italian brand rarely mentions the founder’s experiences in London. The association between the brand and London seems to be limited to Gucci, who held a fashion show in London in 2016, when creative director Alessandro Michele showcased his brand’s debut Gucci 2017 Spring/Summer collection at Westminster Abbey.
On the one hand, this brand seems to have incorporated drama into its blood, experiencing turbulence in the hands of its founding family, capital, and creative director. On the other hand, since creative director Tom Ford revived Gucci in the 1990s, the brand has long focused on its fashion business and Italian heritage, while neglecting its origins in the luggage business and London.
