Patricia Gucci Pens Memoir, IN THE NAME OF GUCCI

In the Name of Gucci: A Memoir, by Patricia Gucci (Crown Archetype: May 10) is the first book written by a direct descendant of Guccio Gucci-Patricia's grandfather and the company's founder. It chronicles her life as the secret love child of Aldo Gucci and Bruna-the woman he fell in love with when she was just eighteen. Woven throughout the book is the relationship between Aldo and Patricia Gucci, the first woman in the family to be elected to the Gucci board of directors and his sole universal heir.

This is a daughter's bittersweet tribute to her beloved father, traces Aldo Gucci's marketing brilliance and stamina in establishing Gucci as one of the world's most iconic brands. He was the first Italian to set up a luxury goods retail operation in the US, opening on Fifth Avenue in New York, Worth Avenue in Palm Beach and Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, paving the way for the 'Made in Italy' phenomenon throughout the world for countless others to follow in his footsteps.

Patricia Gucci was born a secret: the lovechild whose birth could have spelled ruination for her father, Aldo Gucci. It was the early 1960s, the halcyon days for Gucci-the must-have brand of Hollywood and royalty-but also a time when having a child out of wedlock was illegal in Italy. Aldo couldn't afford a public scandal, nor could he resist his feelings for Patricia's mother, Bruna, the paramour he met when she worked in the first Gucci store in Rome. To avoid controversy, he sent Bruna to London after she became pregnant, and then discretely whisked her back to Rome with her newborn hidden from the Italian authorities, the media, and the Gucci family.

In the Name of Gucci charts the untold love story of Patricia's parents, relying on the author's own memories, a collection of love letters and interviews with her mother, as well as an archive of previously unseen photos. She interweaves her parents' tempestuous narrative with that of her own relationship with her father-from an isolated little girl who lived in the shadows for the best part of a decade through her rise as Gucci's spokesperson and Aldo's youngest protégé, to the moment when Aldo's three sons were shunned after betraying him in a notorious coup and Patricia-once considered a guilty secret-was made his sole universal heir. It is an epic tale of love and loss, treason and loyalty, sweeping across Italy, England and America during the most tumultuous period of Gucci's sixty years as a family business.

To post a comment, you must register and login.