We must move on, move on, move on,” were the instructions Frida Giannini gave her staff when, in 2005, the accessories designer added womenswear to her job portfolio at Gucci. A year later, Giannini assumed full creative control, bringing calm and profitability to an Italian house that had been roiled by upheaval. Giannini’s dramatic rise followed the sensational exits of, first, Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole, and then Ford’s immediate successors, Alessandra Facchinetti and John Ray.
“Creativity must create business,” said the pragmatic Giannini, whose designs soon got the cash registers ringing again—while occasionally also irking Ford-friendly critics. With her long hair and doll-like face, the young Roman designer presented a stark contrast to Ford (a handsome Texan with an artful stubble, whose hard-edged “sex sells” approach revived Gucci in the mid-1990s, making it a business-school case study). The transition from the Ford to Giannini eras was an aesthetic volte-face, as well, but most of the naysayers eventually came to see, as a headline in The Australian put it, that “inimitable does not mean irreplaceable at Gucci."
Giannini has redefined the word sexy chez Gucci, and she has mined the label’s heritage: Her first big success, the Flora accessories line, had its roots in the firm’s archive—specifically, a feminine floral pattern created for Princess Grace of Monaco decades earlier. Giannini’s Gucci is infused, she has said, with “freshness, joyfulness, and optimism.” Her holistic approach works well for a company where accessories account for the lion’s share of profits. “I can’t imagine the next fashion show without any jewelry or bags,” she said in 2005.
See the timeline of her career here.
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