AMERICAN WRITER TELLS AMAZING STORY OF HOUSE OF GUCCI
The opening day of Milan Fashion Week on September 20, 2017, was the perfect day to hear about one of the legends of Italian fashion—the House of Gucci. So at an event at Via Umbria in Georgetown, several AMHS members went to hear Sara Forden discuss the book she wrote covering the travails of one of the most storied Italian fashion houses.
The Oscar-winning director Ridley Scott has an option on the book and plans to make it into a movie, and it will no doubt be a hit. After all, the book is entitled, “House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour and Greed.” The author spoke at an event sponsored by the National Organization of Italian American Women (NOIAW).
She interviewed 100 people over a two-year period to gather information for her in-depth book. Sara lived in Milan for 22 years, and as a journalist with Dow Jones, Women’s Wear Daily and Bloomberg, she covered business and financial news. She normally covered stories like Chrysler/Fiat and Parmalat, but this being Milan, a city with some big personalities, sometimes the business and financial beats intersected with the fashion world. Sara now lives in Arlington, Va., and is a board member of the Italian Cultural Society. She told us that she is familiar with Casa Italiana since her daughter once took language classes there. Explaining some of the highlights of her book, she noted that often some of the leading fashion brands have been cheapened because too many family members who were at odds got involved, but in the case of Gucci, it was able to be brought back to the high-end fashion world envisioned by its founder, Guccio Gucci.
The saga of three generations of family members of the famous clothing and leather goods business shows that it had its up and downs, but it was fortunate to have talented designers like Tom Ford. The company is now owned by the Paris-based holding company Kering, the international luxury group which also owns Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, among others.
Not that there wasn’t a lot of drama along the way. For example, she said the founder’s grandson, Maurizio, led a life that was a cross between serious business and the National Enquirer. He was a charismatic man who saw himself as the link between the past and the future. He liked to live large, though, and his ex-wife Patrizia, the mother of his two children, evidently thought he was spending money way too fast, such as by covering the furniture with snakeskin on his big luxury yacht. The author thinks this may have led to his untimely death.
He was found shot in the head execution-style and left for dead. Two years later, his wife Patrizia was charged with conspiring to hire a hit man to kill him, and she served 12 years in prison. The trial was a showy affair, with Gucci stores displaying silver handcuffs emblazoned with the famous doube G in their store windows in Florence and Milan on the day of the verdict. Sara covered the trial in Milan and heard all the sordid details such as how Patrizia had conspired with her companion and maga (sorceress) and how Maurizio had his own “white witch” who he had hired to rid one of his mansions of his wife’s “evil spirits.” On her way to the police station, Patrizia wore her gold jewelry and a full-length mink coat.
She was famously quoted as saying, “I would rather weep in a Rolls Royce than be happy on a bicycle.” You can’t make this stuff up!! Sara explains how Gucci originally became famous for its exquisite craftsmanship as well as the latest innovations and creativity at every level, from the fabric to the model on the runway. The vivid details in her book describe the ascent, fall and eventual resurrection of the Gucci family, and it’s a book you won’t want to put down. BREAKING NEWS – we are pleased to let you know that Sara will be the guest speaker at the January 28, 2018 AMHS meeting!