Illustration: Ana Miminoshvili for Bloomberg
Can Gucci Find Its Cool Again?
The luxury brand’s incoming CEO will have to reverse a sales slump, but Gucci’s history shows the company is no stranger to dramatic turnarounds.
(The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamor and Greed (HarperCollins) first came out in 2000 and was republished 21 years later to coincide with the eponymous Hollywood film. With new leadership coming to the company, this Next Chapter looks at what led to the original book’s publication, and what Gucci’s tumultuous history says about the brand’s staying power.)
When Stefano Cantino takes over as the new chief executive officer of Gucci this month, he’ll have his work cut out for him. Collections from creative director Sabato De Sarno, who joined from Valentino in 2023, have failed to impress the fashion world. Sales dropped 25% in the third quarter from a year earlier, and in October Gucci parent Kering SA warned that recurring annual profit could sink to the lowest level in eight years.