House of Gucci by Sara Gay Forden

Source of book: Borrowed from the library

 

This was this month’s selection for our “Literary Lush” book club. One of the things I enjoy about this club is that I end up reading interesting books that I never would have discovered on my own. This book was one I had no idea existed, until it was nominated. In fact, fashion hasn’t ever really been on my radar. Our family was all about inexpensive and durable when I was a kid - and we even did Thrift Store Chic from time to time. Certainly actual designer goods like Gucci would never have come anywhere near our not-particularly-wealthy family. 

 

This book was somewhat interesting, though. Lots of family drama, of course, and the typical trajectory of of growth and implosion of a family business. But also, plenty of legal details, which were, honestly, the most interesting part to this lawyer. 

 

The book is written in an unsensational manner, detailing the facts and history. I think some of our club was a bit disappointed about this. My only quibble is that the book tends to follow threads rather than give a straight chronological sequence, so particularly in the middle, where multiple things are happening in Italy and the US at the same time, I had to go back and check dates to tie it all together. 

 

The story starts with Guccio Gucci, the patriarch of the business, who travels to London in the early 20th Century, sees the high end luggage the aristocracy adores, and decides to convert the family straw hat business into a leather luggage business, which catches the wave at the right time. 

 

Then, in the aftermath of World War Two, a bunch of GIs, flush with their combat pay, discovered Gucci and other Italian craftsmen, and caused a worldwide explosion in demand. 

 

The next generation, led by Aldo the businessman, and Rudolfo, the actor-turned-salesman, presided over the international growth of the company. In the 1980s and 90s, the company lost its way in some ways, and was wracked by internal family (and thus business) strife and power struggles. 

 

Eventually, Rudolfo’s son Maurizio seized control of the company, with the help of an outside investing group, nearly ran the company into the ground, and eventually lost family control and ownership altogether. 

 

And then he was brutally murdered. 

 

That’s the lurid part of the story. Although it took two years to crack the case, eventually those involved started talking. It appears that Maurizio’s ex-wife Patrizia hired the hit man (through a string of other persons involved), and her trial takes up a few of the last chapters of the book. 

 

I will confess that I got lost when it came to the parts about fashion, the industry, and the designers. I mean, when they hired Tom Ford, I finally recognized a name, and the competition with Yves Saint Laurent and Armani was at least sort of familiar. But still, a lot of this was a world I have never been part of. 

 

Now, the contrasts between the US legal system and the Italian and European systems made a lot more sense to me, and I found those parts pretty fascinating. And that is even though I do not practice mergers and acquisitions or tax law. Or, for that matter, criminal law, although I have a lot more familiarity with that because of the standard law school courses we all have to take. 

 

The family drama itself was also interesting in that it does follow a fairly typical pattern for human endeavors generally, but particularly for family dynasties. The first generation builds the initial foundation. The second generation is often visionary, and expands the company in a way that exceeds everyone’s wildest dreams. But the third generation is crippled by two problems. First, they grow up with money, which is never conducive to the kind of thrift and budgeting necessary to run a business well. Second, the prior generation tends to be controlling and dictatorial - after all, it was their vision that made the company what it is. Thus, the third generation often fritters away what the two prior generations built, and the company either collapses, or, as in this case, gets bought out by a corporate investor. 

 

The one thing not many family dramas have, though, is murder. Whatever family members think of each other, it rarely becomes literal murder. One has to wonder what Patrizia was thinking. Perhaps her claim that she was railroaded by her friend Pina Auriemma had some truth in it. (For a small grade counterpart here in my own town, see this crazy case.) But the chances that she would simply get away with it was never great - and she was a prime candidate for blackmail in any case. It was entirely predictable that she would get caught. 

 

Or, perhaps the prosecutor was correct. What rankled Patrizia about the divorce wasn’t money - she came into the marriage a wealthy woman who stood to inherit more from her family - but the loss of status. She married to give herself an internationally recognized name, and when this was taken from her when Marizio left her, she wanted revenge. 

 

Also predictable was the conviction of Aldo in the United States for tax shenanigans. As the book points out, Aldo was incredibly smart in most of his business dealings, but completely failed to understand the attitude toward taxes here in the United States. Seriously, that’s literally how we prosecuted our gangsters. We couldn’t prove anything else, but we sure as heck could nail them on the taxes. So Aldo acted as if taxes were like they were in Italy - everyone cheated, and as long as you didn’t cheat too much, the financial police (that’s a real thing in Italy!) would leave you alone. 

 

In contrast, the eventual CEO of Gucci, Dominico Del Sole, was an American attorney, and ended up pretty much bringing Gucci back from the brink on several occasions, first as counsel, then as head of the US division, and finally as CEO of the whole company. So, the lawyer wins in the end. It’s a happy ending! Or something like that. 

 

I will also confess that the general trend toward corporatization and ever-bigger concentrations of capitalistic wealth bothers me. I do not think it is healthy for society, let alone those who lose out. Back in the family days, Gucci took care of its employees like family. I strongly doubt that is still the case, 25 years after it became just another name in a corporate portfolio. 

 

This book comes in at least three editions. There is the original hardback from 2000, the paperback (with a few updates in the epilogue) from 2001 (I read this version), and a newer paperback from a few years ago when the movie based on the book came out. Some of our other members read this one, and apparently it had a really long epilogue with even more subsequent information about what happened to all the parties. (Good news: it appears that the doorman, who was injured in the shooting, was finally compensated for his injuries by Patrizia.) 

 

This is definitely not a book I would have picked on my own, but it was an interesting read.