 |
Gucci
Sunglasses Gucci Handbags - New Spring-Summer
2006 Collection..
Sponsored
Links for Gucci
Sunglasses
Gucci Sunglasses and eyeglass frames combine fine Italian materials
and craftsmanship to offer sleek contemporary styling. Gucci sunglasses and eyeglass
frames offer both modern and classic styles and are one of the best selling designer
brands on the market today!.
Gucci,
or the House of Gucci, is an Italian haute couture
establishment. It was founded by Guccio Gucci (1881-1953) in Florence
in 1921.
History
of the Gucci house
Gucci
remained one of the premier luxury goods establishments in the world
until the late 1970s, when a series of disastrous business decisions
and family quarrels brought the company to the verge of bankruptcy.
At the time, brothers Aldo and Rodolfo controlled equal 50% shares
of the company, though Aldo felt that his brother contributed less
to the company than he and his sons did. In 1979, Aldo developed
the Gucci Accessories Collection, or GAC, intended to bolster the
sales for the Gucci Parfums sector, which his sons controlled. GAC
consisted of small accessories, such as cosmetic bags, lighters,
and pens, which were priced at considerably lower points than the
other items in the company’s accessories catalogue. Aldo relegated
control of Parfums to his son Roberto in an effort to weaken Rodolfo’s
control of the overall operations of the company.
Though
the Gucci Accessories Collection was well received, it proved to be
the destabilizing force that brought the Gucci dynasty crashing down.
Within a few years, the Parfums division began outselling the Accessories
division. The newly-founded wholesaling business had brought the once-exclusive
brand to over a thousand stores in the United States alone with the
GAC line, deteriorating the brand’s standing with fashionable customers. "In
the 1960s and 1970s," writes Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, "Gucci
had been at the pinnacle of chic, thanks to icons such as Audrey Hepburn,
Grace Kelly, and Jacqueline Onassis. But by the 1980s, Gucci had lost
its appeal, becoming a tacky airport brand."
It
didn’t take long before counterfeiters ravaged the company’s pomp by
flooding the market with cheap knockoffs, further tarnishing the Gucci
name. Meanwhile, infighting was taking its toll on the operations of
the company back in Italy: Rodolfo and Aldo squabbled over the Parfums
division, of which Rodolfo controlled a meager 20% stake. By the mid-1980s,
when Aldo was convicted of tax evasion in the United States by the
testimony of his own son, the outrageous headlines of gossip magazines
generated as much publicity for Gucci as its designs. |