Gucci Gucci Goo
Can Kering turn the failing Florentine brand back into luxury's darling?
Kering, the luxury group that owns Gucci, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, and others, announced disappointing results for 2023 this week, and the fashion chorus, who for some reason thought Gucci designer Alessandro Michele was the tops, are bemoaning his firing again.
Gucci’s success is essential to Kering’s success—it’s the group’s cash cow, like Louis Vuitton at LVMH and Cartier at Richemont. As Gucci goes, so goes Kering. Though Michele was let go more than a year ago, his designs are still in stores, and that’s what’s not selling. The numbers prove that Kering’s chairman and chief executive François-Henri Pinault was right: Michele had to go.
But that’s not the only reason Gucci, once the absolute hottest brand in fashion, is struggling. The brand is stuck in the 1990s-early 2000s “accessible luxury” business model, chasing after the middle market consumer, when the rest of the luxury pack, as I explained in last week’s Style Files, has switched its primary focus to High-Net-Worth Ind…
