A GUCCI TALE
Marco Bizzarri on breathing fresh life into a heritage giant
Since January 2015 Marco Bizzarri has acted as President and CEO of Gucci, a time during which the house’s fortunes have been transformed. Under his management, Gucci’s turnover has more than doubled. More significantly for the wider fashion world, the aesthetic and attitude emanated by Gucci via his previously-little known choice for creative director Alessandro Michele has had a huge impact. The apparently instinctive knack for creating a hitherto unthought-of harmony out of widely disparate inf luences - from high culture to low - as well as an instinct not only to reference but to generously credit those references help tilt the wider perception of what is cool to love about a l uxury brand today. Bizzarri, then, has made Gucci a happy place. Here’s how.
Cristiano Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or five times, the same number as Lionel Messi. But in his own small way (actually he stands nearly two metres tall), Marco Bizzarri, president and CEO of Gucci, has taken home three Business Leader prizes at The Fashion Awards. Presented with a chic elegance befitting the award ceremony’s venue of the Royal Albert Hall in London, his trio of prizes also came in three consecutive editions – namely 2016, 2017 and 2018 – which coincided with the impressive relaunch of Gucci. In 2015 this storied Florentine fashion house owned by French group Kering was on a downward trend with revenues below 4 billion euros. But under Bizzarri it has lived up to projections to become a company worth 8 billion euros, and with 16,000 employees (6,000 more than it had 3 years ago). The 56-year-old Bizzarri, who hails from Emilia-Romagna, is the mastermind, together with creative director Alessandro Michele, of Gucci’s celebrated, and copied, aesthetic revolution that has been widely covered by the fashion press and other media.
Bizzarri’s role is that of enabler, facilitator and manager who allows Michele to express his creativity to the max according to a strategy envisioned and shared at the start of this adventure, when Bizzarri plucked his budding champion from the ranks of Gucci. He is also a leader who has turned the company inside out while retaining managers and creatives from the previous season. It’s a masterful stroke of managerial and cultural prowess that has resulted not only in revenues and recognition, including the prize for Brand of the Year at The Fashion Awards on December 10th, but also inevitable case studies by university business schools.
And that is why, on the very same morning of The Fashion Awards before heading off to London, Bizzarri was welcomed by students of the Executive Master in Luxury Management at Bocconi as an oracle from whom one might glean the magic formula for success. Yet it is a formula, Bizzarri explained, which does not exist.
Clearly a formula, or at least a method, exists, but Bizzarri’s informal, self-deprecating approach is similar to the brand’s aesthetic. He conveys the impression of someone who likes to kid around and not take themselves too seriously, a luxury only serious people can get away with, and who feigns a naturalness for managerial processes that are, in reality, based on discipline and a steely work ethic.
In a nutshell there are no perfect remedies for every situation, says Bizzarri in response to students’ questions. “It’s often a matter of luck. Each company has a different story to tell. At Stella McCartney we were vegans; when I went to Bottega Veneta I was surrounded by exquisite animal skins and a no-logo aesthetic, the exact opposite of Gucci.”
The important thing is to have fun and work in happy surroundings, says Bizzarri, because that’s the fuel that fosters creativity and gets us into the office every day: “For example, when I began at Gucci, I saw a lot of worried faces and sensed there was a culture of fear. I had to remind everyone that we’re a fashion brand, that we aren’t here to save lives, and that no designer ever invented penicillin. What we do is different, and to do it well we need to be optimists.We need passion, enthusiasm and curiosity.These are the keys to success.This is the only way we can create beautiful things and be proud of what we do.We are involved in many projects geared towards sustainability and social responsibility not because it helps us sell more, but because we think it is the right thing to do for us. That’s because our first customers are our employees, who always ask me how long Gucci’s success will last. I answer by telling them just to enjoy the moment.”
On his trip to London, Bizzarri took time to answer these questions put to him by
LUV. Can you explain this thing about happiness? It makes for a good story but is the success of Gucci actually linked to happiness? I’m an optimist by nature. I have a sunny personality and I’m truly convinced that in a business like ours creativity should be at the centre of everything we do. As a result, the setting that surrounds this creativity must be one that is upbeat, happy, cheerful and where there is a feeling of deep respect.
Are unhappy people not creative? It’s been said that you can’t have creativity in stressful conditions. Optimism and positive thinking are traits of mine and of Alessandro Michele.They reflect my values and give me a sense of security. I would add that even if I didn’t like such things, it’s been proven that productivity increases by 20 per cent in the workplace where serenity reigns. How does one actually foster employee happiness? It’s not enough to simply send out an email telling everyone to be happy. It’s a daily task of leading by example. That’s the key point.You have to demonstrate it every day, in every meeting, at every gathering in the hallway. The hardest thing is not defining the values of a company, but following them. We also need to hire people who share these values and can even convince the most reluctant people via training and other activities, especially in the stores. When I arrived I found a sense of general sadness, certainly justified by falling revenues, but it was clear that other companies were worse off. Gucci was slowing down and losing some market share, but it was still making 3.5 billion in revenue. A detached and distant attitude doesn’t make much sense in this sector.
Today, the world needs levity and we have to transmit happiness to our customers because we aren’t selling a handbag or dress that someone really needs. Nobody needs anything; we have everything. We sell a handbag or dress because the buyer wants to live in the moment, do something on a whim and feel good. It’s not only the purchase itself that determines this; it’s also the shopping experience. Gucci is a company that has taken a stand with Equilibrium, with Chime for Change and with its stance against the spread of firearms in the United States.Why? These are our values, the values in which we recognise ourselves. We don’t aim to please everybody. In the past, fashion brands didn’t want to take a stand for fear of losing customers. Today, the world is going in the opposite direction: you must be very clear in what you declare and say. Then you have to be consistent and follow through.When we helped March for Our Lives in the United States, it was a commitment to honour the memory of two of our employees who were killed in the Orlando shooting.
Taking a stand also applies within the company. I always tell my staff to speak up because I can’t solve everything by myself. There are 16,000 of us. If there’s a problem, fix it, solve it, take care of it; I’ll give you the tools to do it.
Has the role of fashion brands changed? In the past, governments and public institutions concerned themselves with community outreach, but today they do less of
this. So now large corporations – or those who are well known like us and who have a large following – are compelled to do it regardless of the return in ter ms of sales. Is streetwear the new standard of elegance, or does it reflect the new populist era which even fashion brands have to adapt to in order to stay close to the general public? This is not the first time streetwear has been used as an example by the luxury sector to underline changes happening in society. For example, in the 1970s Saint Laurent did the same thing. Today, populist movements and younger generations, and not only these ones, tend to identify themselves with everyday items from the street. So perhaps streetwear is a temporary phenomenon, but in actual fact I think it will last for a long time . Given Gucci’s success, are you worried that this style won’t last forever? No, because it depends on how you interpret streetwear. The risk would be high if we were only a streetwear brand, but Gucci is a perfect blend of luxury and street, and the two are influencing each other. The way in which Alessandro Michele presents it is unique and distinctive. It’s ours and goes beyond any cyclical fashion trends or consumer tastes. When did you realise that in Michele you had found not only the right person but also an aesthetic that would have a universal influence? I would like to say that it was when I first saw him that I immediately understood he would be the creative director of the future, but it wasn’t. I fell in love with Alessandro because of his compassionate traits, his boundless culture and his ability to read and connect different historical moments with a very clear idea applied to the present. I loved it when I asked him to help me understand his aesthetic and he showed me the ’70s, Studio 54 and the desire to express individuality and to reject homogenisation. In that moment one sensed that there was a desire for change and that it was necessary to break away from the marketing logic where pieces were put into production that were similar to successful ones from competitors. We did the first menswear runway show and there were lots of perplexed faces. Then there was the womenswear collection that somehow helped to metabolise the first show. Yet it was in May 2015, at the Cruise collection in New York, that something clicked and I realised we had hit the mark. I would have bet everything and soon after I wrote an email to all the employees saying the right moment had finally arrived. On that feeling we began to invest like crazy, billions. It was a big risk, a sort of make or break moment. Has Gucci changed the concept of masculine elegance? Yes, radically. Alessandro was a forerunner. I remember the styling in magazines before and after Alessandro. Now you just have to look at any fashion show: this is clearly a sign of the change in elegance, but also a sign of the lack of ideas of other brands. This trend inevitably adheres to a certain aesthetic: ours. When it’s not present in the DNA of a brand, there’s the risk of not appearing authentic and it ends up strengthening our brand. When I see someone who copies the things we do, in reality I’m at ease because it means they didn’t have any original ideas. The only thing I fear is that at some point another disruptive designer like Alessandro might turn up. When you were a boy, what was your idea of masculine elegance? You should see a picture of Massimo Bottura and myself at 18.We were dressed like scarecrows. I’ve changed over time, but the reason is that being so tall as a boy I could never find things that suited me. It was irritating whereas now I can finally express myself. The formal suit has gone from being the official menswear uniform to being viewed as the way the establishment dresses. Is it in crisis? I like to dress formally, even if it is with a distinctive touch. Certainly it’s a sector that has grown less than others, even for us, but I think that sort of elegance will be maintained. There’s a very strong core but I also see a future for formalwear that evolves and allows you to express your individuality the same way one does with streetwear, where you can be yourself.
What is Gucci today? Gucci isn’t a fashion phenomenon because Alessandro Michele has introduced unique key concepts, combining historical codes and the iconic symbols of the brand with things happening in society. This is the style of a brand; its positioning, the union of the DNA and the history of the brand with the outside. The union of these two things interpreted by the creative director provides the positioning at this particular moment. Tom Ford, for example, was completely different from Alessandro, but he was very consistent with Gucci’s history. Essentially Gucci is about self-expression – we’re a brand of irreverent individuality.
The aesthetic hegemony of Gucci recounts the brand’s success, along with its influence on contemporary slang – now one says “I’m Gucci” to say “I’m good.” But then there are also the cultural initiatives, from Maurizio Cattelan’s exhibition
The Artist is Present in Shanghai to the partnership with the Met in New York in 2019, as well as the exhibition titled
Il Maschile. Mente androgina, corpo eclettico at Pitti 2019, which reveals how Gucci has interpreted and defined men’s fashion over time. Above all, however, it’s the numbers that accurately tell the story of the brand led by Bizzarri: revenues have gone from 3.9 billion euros in 2015 to 6.2 billion in 2017, a growth of 59 per cent. In the first six months of 2018, sales totalled 3.853 billion euros (up 44 per cent), reaching the same level of sales for all of 2015. In the first 9 months of 2018, sales nearly equalled all of 2017, and now the goal of 10 billion in revenues is an explicit and distinct prospect. Its strengths are leather goods (55 per cent of revenues, according to 2017 figures) and footwear (19 per cent), which is why Bizzarri has brought together product development under the same roof in Florence in the 37,000-square-metre super-modern ArtLab and the training of new designers and artisans at the École de l’Amour. Apparel, too, has recorded an impressive rise of 88 per cent between 2015 and 2017, and now makes up 13 per cent of revenues (the remainder is watches, jewellery and the still barely exploited beauty segment).
At the Royal Albert Hall gala, Bizzarri let Alessandro Michele go up on stage to collect the Brand of the Year award. But when the moment arrived for Business Leader 2018, Bizzarri wryly took the liberty to bypass the usual thank-yous and once more interpret the sarcastic side of the fashion world. “I have to admit that this year it was more difficult for me to swing the vote and convince the members of the British Fashion Council to vote for me,” he said. “But luckily I found an efficient English company that was happy to help me: Cambridge Analytica.”