Chronology
Seven decades of leather, legacy, and loss
From Guccio Gucci's first Florence workshop to Patrizia Reggiani's conviction — the dates that shaped fashion's most notorious family saga, as documented in Sara Gay Forden's book.
Foundations (1921–1953)
The dynasty began with observation and ambition — a porter who studied the luggage of hotel guests and decided to build something finer.
1921
Guccio Gucci opens his first shop on Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence. He sells leather luggage and riding gear inspired by the English aristocrats he served as a porter at the Savoy Hotel in London.
1938
Guccio opens a second shop in Rome. His sons — Aldo, Vasco, Rodolfo, and Ugo — are by now deeply involved in running the firm, each bringing different temperaments to the growing empire.
1947
The bamboo-handled bag debuts — a design born of wartime material shortages that becomes one of Gucci's most enduring icons.
1953
Guccio Gucci dies. His sons inherit a brand poised for global expansion — and for the rivalries that would eventually threaten to tear it apart.
Global ascent (1953–1983)
Boutiques opened from New York to Tokyo. The interlocking-G logo became shorthand for Italian luxury — and a magnet for counterfeiters.
1960s
Aldo Gucci drives international expansion, opening stores across the United States and Europe. Celebrities adopt Gucci loafers; Jackie Kennedy carries the bamboo bag. The name becomes synonymous with jet-set glamour.
1970
Maurizio Gucci meets Patrizia Reggiani at a party in Milan in November 1970, when both are in their early twenties. Rodolfo Gucci disapproves of the match, calling Patrizia a social climber — but the couple will marry two years later.
1972
Maurizio and Patrizia marry in Italy and move to New York. Despite his father's objections, the union produces two daughters — Alessandra (1976) and Allegra (1981) — and for a time unites the romantic and corporate strands of Maurizio's life.
1983
Rodolfo Gucci dies. Maurizio inherits his father's 50% stake in Gucci, becoming the largest individual shareholder — and the target of cousins who believe leadership should never have left their branch of the tree.
Boardroom wars (1983–1993)
Family members sued one another, forged signatures, and hired investigators. Forden devotes much of her book to this period — the slow-motion collapse of trust.
1985
Maurizio launches a bid to oust his uncle Aldo from the company. The manoeuvre triggers years of litigation and public humiliation for both sides.
1989
Investcorp, a Bahrain-based investment group, acquires a 50% stake in Gucci, forming a joint venture with Maurizio. He becomes chairman and pushes to modernise the brand — hiring outside designers and reducing family control — moves that alienate relatives who remember when the atelier answered only to bloodlines.
1990
Maurizio begins a relationship with Paola Franchi as his marriage to Patrizia breaks down. Their divorce is finalised in 1994. Financial pressures mount as Gucci struggles through a difficult retail market.
September 1993
Maurizio sells his remaining 50% stake to Investcorp, ending the Gucci family's ownership of the company for the first time since 1921. Legal battles between Maurizio and the investment group precede the sale; he leaves management but retains personal wealth.
Murder and trial (1995–1998)
The chapters readers remember longest — and the ones Ridley Scott would later dramatise on screen.
27 March 1995
Maurizio Gucci is assassinated on the steps of his office at Via Palestro 20 in Milan. A hired gunman shoots him at close range. The killing is professional, cold, and — for nearly two years — unsolved in the public eye.
January 1997
Patrizia Reggiani is arrested. Investigators trace the murder to a network of intermediaries; wiretaps and financial records implicate her in hiring the hitman who killed Maurizio.
3 November 1998
Patrizia Reggiani is convicted of arranging Maurizio's murder. The Italian press dubs her the "Black Widow." She is sentenced to twenty-nine years in prison; co-conspirators receive shorter terms, and the triggerman gets life.
"Every date on this timeline is a stitch in a tapestry that was pulled apart thread by thread — until nothing held."
Aftermath and rediscovery
2000
Sara Gay Forden's House of Gucci is published in hardcover, drawing on court transcripts and years of interviews. Later that year, an appeals court upholds Patrizia Reggiani's conviction but reduces her sentence to twenty-six years.
October 2011
Patrizia becomes eligible for day release under a work programme but refuses, telling the court: "I've never worked in my life, and I'm certainly not going to start now."
October 2016
Patrizia Reggiani is released from prison after serving eighteen years, with credit for good behaviour. She maintains that she was wrongly convicted.
2021
Ridley Scott's film adaptation premieres, introducing a new generation to the story. Lady Gaga's portrayal of Patrizia sparks renewed interest in Forden's source material.
Today
Gucci operates as a global luxury brand under corporate ownership (today part of Kering), far removed from the family table where these battles were fought. The name survives; the dynasty does not.