Guccio Gucci (1881-1953) was the son of a Florentine craftsman
and founded the House of Gucci as a saddlery shop in 1906 in
Florence.
For unknown reasons, he moved to Paris and then London where he
worked as the Maitre d'Hotel at the Savoy. In 1920, when he was 39
years old, Guccio Gucci moved back to Italy.
With a capital of only 30,000 lira, he opened the first Gucci
Shop which would be the beginning of a big business empire. After
WWII, the firm was named Guccio Gucci srl, keeping that name until
his death in 1953. In 1982, the firm was renamed Guccio Gucci
spA.
The 1960s proved to be very kind to the House of Gucci, with the
Gucci brand considered to be one of the status symbols of the
times.