Though some would judge a book filled with high fashion faux paus and captivating drama, as unworthy to be noted as a book of historical importance, The House of Gucci is an accounting of one of the greatest fashion houses of the 20th century. Sara Gay Forden, the author of The House of Gucci, places you on a roller coaster of highs and lows, births and deaths, divorces and marriages, and bankruptcy and capital power. She manages to integrate a respectful look at how fashion affects us in both apparent and subtle ways. This novel reveals simply that fashion is not all about logos and Dockers, but about the ugly truth behind one of fashion’s most infamous family.
Guccio Gucci was an ambitious man with a dream to create a fashion label with his own two hands, which he fulfilled in 1921 by fashioning high end leather bags. Not long after reaching the pinnacle of his success as an entrepreneur, he passed away in 1953 and willed his hard won name and reputation to his five sons. Aldo took the reins of the rising Gucci business, plowing full speed ahead. Though not as actively involved as his brothers, Rodolfo, one of Guccio’s five sons, married and had a son, Maurizio Gucci. Out of greed, Maurizio then mischievously delegated a plan to steal the Gucci business from his five cousins. With the help from a company, Investcorp, he succeeded, but in doing so he caused the business to plummet and diminish whatever stature it had attained. Maurizio nearly caused the Gucci business to go bankrupt due to his resistance to hire professional management. Fortuitously, Investcorp bought all of Gucci and placed Domencio De Sole as CEO, and Tom Ford as creative director, bringing Gucci out of its dark years and into the highlight once more. When ...
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...by locating printed and photographic material about the family business, Guccio Gucci, and Aldo Gucci. Forden had nothing but a keen interest in the Gucci dynasty, and was encouraged by her husband and editor to write this family biography.
I would highly recommend this book to a person engrossed in high fashion and drama, as I enjoyed it myself. For the most part, this book is very well written and subtly teaches a moral; however successful your business is, it will never survive without professional management and outside capital - and the personalities of the founders’ descendents can dilapidate all success with their greed and desire for power. The author portrays this moral by limning the life of Guccio Gucci’s diligent work, and years later, to have his nephew, Maurizio, take over and crush Gucci’s notoriety due to ignorance and avarice. (pgs. 6-25, 101-126)
Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to
From the conventional Victorian dresses of the 1800’s to the rock-and-roll tee shirts of the 1980’s, American culture has experienced incredibly diverse trends in clothing. This ever changing timeline of fashion provokes the question: what is the cause of such differing styles? By considering the state of society throughout the era, it can be seen that clothing directly correlates with the current way of life. Specifically, American women’s fashion of the 1920’s and 1930’s proves to not simply be a meaningless trend – but rather an accurate reflection of the specific era. As the stock market booms and society prospers, women’s fashion undergoes drastic change during the 1920’s.
Steele, V., 1997. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xqEt6Dpb4TYC&pgis=1 [Accessed April 16, 2014].
At age 25 he opened his first collection and it was a big success, inspired by his mentor Balenciaga. The collection was based on evening wear as well as economical white cotton shirts that were both inexpensive and fresh-looking. After that collection, his name was recognizable and his biggest success was the “Bettina” blouse; named after the famous Paris’ top model. This blouse was his signature piece in his cotton collection. Givenchy’s philosophy was: “Keep it simple. Eliminate everything that interferes with the line.” ...
Werle, Simone. Fashionista A Century of Style Icons. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1977. Print.
In the 19th century play, FASHION, Anna Mowatt develops the character plot as a contrast and comparison between being “natural” and “artificial in a world becoming preoccupied with fashion, and being fashionable. In the head notes, it was stated that Daniel Havens said FASHION is “the ugly image of the American Dream gone sour.” (Watt and Richardson) Fashion has a complex definition. The word ‘fashion’ can mean anything from the type of clothes you wear, how you communicate with others, the place you live, how you present yourself, or who you associate yourself with. In FASHION, Mowatt took a comical yet sober look at the definitions of “fashion,” applied it to real life in 1845, and through her characters, provides a mirror with which an audience/reader can evaluate themselves. I do not believe updating this play would be difficult because America has continued down the fast and destructive path in an effort to keep up with the “fashions” of the day.
Louis Vuitton, a French designer and entrepreneur quickly made a name for himself in the fashion industry by becoming Napoleon’s wife “personal box-maker and packer.” At the age of sixteen, Vuitton and his family started the legendary workshop by creating travel trunks and the famous unpickable locks in 1859 (Louis Vuitton, 2015). As the legendary brand continues to remarkably exceed both sales and expectations, Louis Vuitton as a brand strives for pure distinction and exclusivity.
“I know what women want. They want to be beautiful” (www.vogue.com/voguepedia/Valentino) said Valentino Garavani who was one of the most influential fashion designs of the 20th and 21st century, “Known for his classic designs, he's been dressing the world’s rich and famous for almost the last five decades. Valentino has built his once small fashion house into a fashion empire.” (www.lifeinitaly.com/fashion/valentino-garavini.asp) His career in fashion started in the fifties but his passion for it began as a young child with the approval and encouragement of his parents. Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani was born in Italy in 1932 where he lived for 17 years until he left for Paris to study fashion at the famous school of L’ecole de la Chambre Syndicate de La Couture Parisenne. Valentino’s first career within the industry was with couture atelier Jean dresses where he sketched any chance he got which showed his elaborate aesthetic. He meets extraordinary people during his time there and also designed one of his first solo creations. After five years at Jean dresses he leaves. Valentino has a brief job with friend Guy Laroche, in his small fashion house before moving back to Rome in 1959 to continue his fashion career independently with the backing of his parents. Valentino established his status amongst the elite of the Dolce Vita. In 1960 he met Giancarlo Giammetti in a coffee shop and one of the most significant partnerships in fashion was formed. Giammetti would become his partner in both business and life.
The future of women’s fashion is uncertain—in that shock value is harder to come by with each passing year. There is a concept in fashion that nothing is new, everything has been done before. This theory is coming closer to obvious reality, as fashion shows of recent years have visual throwbacks as late as the Victorian era. Although the direction is not yet decided, it is almost definite that women will use fashion as an important tool for expression and freedom in the future.
One of the most successful clothing brands in the world, Polo Ralph Lauren has built its success around more than just its line of luxurious designer clothes, but the company is one of the top marketing designers also. It was awarded “ Luxury Brand of the Year” in 2010 by the Luxury Daily. A company that was founded by a man named Ralph Lifchitz, better known as Ralph Lauren of the Bronx, New York in 1968. Since the age of 12, Lauren’s had a strong appeal and taste for looking classy. He would spend the money he earned working with his father after school, purchasing expensive suites. In his latter years, while working for a company called A. Rivetz & Co., Lauren began designing wide ties, the beginning of what latter evolved into the giant clothing empire known as Polo Ralph Lauren. The success of his designer ties caught fire quickly, retail giant Bloomingdales was the first company to endorse Ralph Lauren’s ties, but that ended quickly, when Lauren refused to narrow his ties, and stuck to his product line. Lauren’s success in the designer clothes business was unusual for someone who studied business at City College. In 1968, he founded the company Polo Fashions, a company that would later expand its market, and is among one of the top designer brands in the world today.
“Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future “(Elegance par. 1). Chanel was a woman who was always seen wearing her own unique fashion. She would never be seen wearing something society would see as something a normal woman would wear; this made her unforgettable (Charles-Roux 5-6). In the beginning, Chanel was only known for creating and designing hats, but she would soon be known for so much more (Charles-Roux 91). Because of Chanel’s new bold ideas, the women’s fashion industry has forever been changed (Charles-Roux 6).
At 35, using a combination of family money and loans, he bought Boussac, a bankrupt French textile group that had financed Christian Dior's original fashion house in 1946. Arnault stripped Boussac down to Dior and used it as a vehicle to create LVMH, which was born out of the 1987 merger between Louis Vuitton and Moet Hennessy. Once in control, Arnault fired executives of both companies, put in his own team, then spent the '90s snatching up still more luxury brands, including shirtmaker Thomas Pink, Chaumet jewelry, Fendi leather goods, the Pucci and Donna Kara...
In the early 1800s, France was the sole fashion capital of the world; everyone who was anyone looked towards Paris for inspiration (DeJean, 35). French fashion authority was not disputed until the late twentieth century when Italy emerged as a major fashion hub (DeJean, 80). During the nineteenth century, mass produced clothing was beginning to be marketed and the appearance of department stores was on the rise (Stearns, 211). High fashion looks were being adapted and sold into “midlevel stores” so that the greater public could have what was once only available to the social elite (DeJean, 38). People were obsessed with expensive fashions; wealthy parents were advised not the let their children run around in expensive clothing. People would wait for children dressed in expensive clothing to walk by and then they would kidnap them and steal their clothes to sell for money (DeJean, 39). Accessories were another obsession of France‘s fashion; they felt no outfit was complete without something like jewelry or a shrug to finish off the look and make it all around polished (DeJean, 61). As designers put lines together, marketing began to become important to fashion in the nineteenth century; fashion plates came into use as a way to show off fashion l...
Fashion has been around ever since ancient times, since the time of the Romans, it survived the world wars and is yet today a business with rapid changes. Fashion started off as an art form, a way for the riches to show their social status with unique and innovative designs that only they could afford. It was a way to separate the social classes of the society. In this paper I will include the creator of haute couture, and how the following designers developed couture, as well as having leading names in today’s ready-to-wear industry. The list is long, but I chose to focus on the three most important designers of the modern fashion industry.
Fashion takes on many different facets and concerns many subsets— a model sashaying down the runway in a gown encrusted in real gems, Lady Gaga’s infamous dress made of cuts of raw beef, a teenage girl obsessing over the season’s latest styles— it is all an expression of our minds and who we are or want to be, made tangible. It is a medium just like any other, for while artists wield brushes and paints, designers use thread and cloth to illustrate their vision. The artistry is none more so apparent than in the exclusive world of haute couture, a world of extravagance that caters to aesthetics, producing one-of-a-kind wearable masterpieces that are made to be admired rather than worn. It is without doubt, high fashion and its design is an art.