The Untold Truth Of Aldo Gucci

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Today, Gucci may be known for its status as a global luxury brand, but it was born out of the humble beginnings of a young man named Guccio Gucci, who was looking for a little adventure, but mostly a better life. At the end of the 19th century, still a teenager, Guccio left his home in Florence, Italy looking for any work he could get in England at the luxurious London Savoy Hotel. First, he was a dishwasher and then a bellboy, sometimes picking up shifts at the hotel concierge desk. He was immediately captivated by the lifestyles of the rich and famous guests of Europe's premier hotel, according to the Independent. As the luggage handler, Guccio took special note of the suitcases and travel bags of the wealthy arrivers. Luxury leather luggage produced by London's H.J. Cave & Sons were among his favorites.

Within a few years, Guccio returned home to Florence, married 24-year-old dressmaker Aida Calvelli, and took his savings from working abroad to found his saddlery company, Gucci, in 1906. But by 1921, he realized his opportunities would be greater if he began producing a broader range of artisan leather goods for wealthy clients, including luggage, wallets, and other accessories, per InStyle. That shift is what set Gucci on the course to become the brand it is today — a shift that Guccio's oldest son, Aldo, is credited with realizing through his workhorse ways, shrewd business acumen, a touch of marketing genius, and some serious drama.

When Guccio realized that Aldo had a charismatic way with his delivery customers, he moved his son to the front of the house, giving him some merchandising tasks, as well as face time with customers in the shop. That often meant Guccio had to look the other way when the tall, handsome, and blue–eyed Aldo would go overboard with his flirtations among the young female clientele as he tried to sell them on the best Gucci had to offer. However, Guccio could turn the other way no longer when, per Brides, Princess Elisabeth of Romania visited the shop one day to say that Aldo had been seeing one of her servants, Olwen Price, a dressmaker from the English countryside. She requested that Guccio intervene, or she would have to send Price home.  

Aldo told his father and Princess Elisabeth that he intended to marry Olwen, leaving out the detail that she was already pregnant. The two married at a church near Olwen's family in England on August 22, 1927. But what was once a thrilling affair soon turned into an unhappy marriage. The couple had three boys — Giorgio, Paolo, and Roberto — but Olwen retreated, while Aldo went full force into the business. "Aldo loved life, but she put a damper on anything he wanted to do," Grimalda Gucci later told Forden in "House of Gucci."

Perhaps better than anybody in the Gucci family, Aldo Gucci understood the importance of meeting exclusive clients where they were. Instead of waiting for customers to come to their shop in Florence, they would open in Rome in 1939, and then Milan a full decade later, per Vogue. Each of the expansion stores within Italy were meant as a test by Aldo to prove to a reluctant Guccio that the Gucci brand should expand beyond Italy's borders. As if Aldo needed additional proof, by the 1950s, international movie stars — including Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Sophie Loren — had begun carrying Gucci bags, per Vogue. And Princess Elizabeth (just before her coronation), Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jacqueline Bouvier (before she married John F. Kennedy) all visited the original Gucci shop in Florence.

With success in each of the Italian stores and a steady stream of American and British elites visiting their shops, Aldo once again approached his father about taking their business across the sea, specifically New York City. This time, Guccio's reply was full of his stubborn nature, but also acknowledged that Aldo was likely onto something. "Risk your neck if you must, but don't expect me to pay for it," he said, according to Sara Forden's "The House of Gucci." "You may be right. After all, I am an old man. ... I'm old fashioned enough to believe that the best vegetables come from your own garden."

Now, with Rodolfo running operations in Milan and Vasco tending to the workshop and store in Florence, Aldo fully settled into New York City life and looked for more international opportunities. Before long, Aldo opened Gucci stores in Beverly Hills, Palm Beach, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and beyond. President John F. Kennedy dubbed Aldo Gucci "the first Italian ambassador of fashion," per the Robb Report. With an expansion of stores and boutiques came the need and opportunity to extend the Gucci offerings beyond bags and accessories. In 1972, a store solely dedicated to a new line of Gucci clothing opened at 699 Fifth Avenue, while the store at 689 Fifth Avenue remained focused on luggage, bags, shoes, and accessories.

The new growth in space and products required bringing more family members into the fold, something that was a point of pride for Aldo Gucci. "The one thing you should know about Gucci is that everything is done in the family," he told The New York Times in 1970. "We're like a trattoria, where everybody in the family is in the business. One day Valentino [the Roman couturier] said to me in Rome, 'Listen, Aldo, who is your designer? You must have somebody.' I told him the story about the trattoria, and he didn't believe me." Gucci added: "We do have affectionate fights, the kind that end with a kiss."

In 1982, during a board meeting in Florence, Paolo, who still had a 3.3% stake in the company, claimed he was assaulted and left the meeting bleeding after he announced he intended to record the sessions. Just days later, Paolo filed a $13 million lawsuit in New York, asserting that he was beaten by his two brothers and cousin, Maurizio, who were instigated by his father, Aldo, according to Bustle. For his part, Aldo said [via People] that Paolo "likes to exaggerate," but did not deny that there was no violence at the board meeting. "Who is the father ... who has never given a slap to a reckless son?"

Following a few years of undermining one another, psychological warfare, and more lawsuits, Paolo sought his revenge by tipping off the IRS to the idea that his father was evading taxes, per Vulture. Millions of dollars in personal income had not been reported to the government. Aldo, who was in his 80s, ended up being sentenced to a year and a day in prison in 1986 for failing to pay $7 million in personal income tax, telling the court (via The New York Times), '"I forgive [Paolo], and I forgive anyone who wanted me to be here today."

Aldo Gucci and his wife, Olwen, were equally unhappy in their marriage. With divorce still illegal in Italy at the time, remaining together — at least formally — was the only option. But Aldo looked elsewhere for romance. Notably, that was in 1956, at work, with a 20-year-old Gucci store employee named Bruna Palombo, per the New York Post. Palombo quickly went from being in the shop to Aldo's personal assistant. He would fly Bruna to Paris for romantic weekend getaways, lavish her with jewelry and furs, and set her up with a nice home in Italy.

However, the semi-open secret love affair between Aldo and Bruna grew more intense when Bruna became pregnant. In 1963, Bruna delivered Patricia, who she was forced to keep a secret for the first year of her life, according to Harper's Bazaar. Aldo hired a nanny to take the infant on strolls so as to not draw any questions from neighbors. Before long, he based his operations out of New York, setting up an apartment for him, Bruna, and young Patricia in Manhattan. At social gatherings, Aldo began referring to her as "Mrs. Gucci." Patricia didn't even know her father had another family until she was 10 years old. "Our family was solid as a rock in my eyes," Patricia (pictured above with Aldo) told Harper's Bazaar. "[H]e was just my father. I never once questioned anything." In 1981, Aldo married Bruna in the U.S., never divorcing Olwen in Italy.

In 2021, MGM and United Artists released Ridley Scott's "House of Gucci," a dramatic Italian fashion family soap opera that focuses on the tumultuous relationship between Gucci heir Maurizio Gucci, portrayed by Adam Driver, and his wife, Patrizia Reggiani, played by Lady Gaga. Based on Sara Gay Forden's 2001 book, "The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed," Scott covers the 25 years of the couple's history together from their first meeting to Reggiani's hired assassination of Maurizio. It simultaneously portrays an extended Machiavellian family that spends decades betraying one another to only come together again, if for no other reason than personal gain.

Audiences seemed to have been more enthralled with the film than critics, per Rotten Tomatoes, but the Gucci family should not be included among them. "We are truly disappointed. I speak on behalf of the family,” Patrizia Gucci told The Associated Press. "They are stealing the identity of a family to make a profit, to increase the income of the Hollywood system. ... Our family has an identity, privacy." In particular, Patrizia took issue with the portrayal of her grandfather, Aldo, by Al Pacino. "My grandfather was a very handsome man, like all the Guccis, and very tall, blue eyes and very elegant." She drew a sharp distinction to Pacino, calling him "short, with sideburns, really ugly," adding that it was "shameful, because he doesn't resemble him at all."