A biography for Maurizio Guccihasn’t been written yet.
“Aldo was the big strength, the big power. He would always scream at us because we took a holiday and he never would. He was a tornado.”
“My father always kept me in a very different world, a very simple world.”
“From my father, I got more of the artistic, the human, the sweet part. From my uncle I really learned the business and the market. It's a good combination, no?”
“In the '80s everything was accepted and there was a kind of euphoria. The '90s will be the balance-sheet decade, and only those who give the consumer what they promise will survive.”
“Tradition and culture go together.”
“The story of Gucci is that there were too many cooks in the kitchen.”
“The ones who give quality will be successful.”
“My father was quiet and more artistic.”
“We don't want our customer to be advertising our name: we believe that the customer today is aware and wants to choose. Our signature is just a guarantee.”
“Gucci is not a fashion or a design house, it was always a trademark.”
“I would like to pass unknown in the company. I would like people to ask, 'What did Maurizio Gucci do?' And answer, 'Nothing. Gucci was always like that.'”
“I know what I'm talking about, so that when I say 'do something' I have the respect of the people doing it.”
“The number of items and stores has fallen, but Gucci has regained the up-market image that was in danger of being lost.”
“Fashion comes out of the world in which you live, your needs, hopes and fantasies.”
“I was the only one to work seven years with my uncle, who is quite a difficult guy. With him, it's not living, it's surviving. If he does 100 percent, you have to do 150 percent, to show you can do as well as he does.”
“Once upon a time the 'GG' was a status symbol. It was the reason people were buying.”
“You can re-interpret the past. Tradition can always be updated. But it is wrong to say 'throw it out.'”