Your Gucci Handbag Tells the World You Have Good Fashion Sense

For many women, there is no question about it. Ownership of a Gucci handbag is the ultimate sign of chic. Anyone carrying a Gucci handbag is a walking billboard that screams, "I Have Good Taste!"

Gucci Handbags: Brand History

Not many know, though, that the world-renowned Gucci brand name has humble beginnings. Founded in the 1920s by Guccio Gucci, the enterprise began as a maker of horse saddles and other leather goods in Florence, Italy. Guccio, the son of a merchant from northern Italy, hired the world's finest draftsmen and earned a reputation for high quality early on.

Gucci established a shop in Rome, Italy in 1938, and, in 1947, originated the line of Gucci handbags with bamboo handles, which remains popular to this day. The concept for the trademark striped webbing used on Gucci products, which were derived from horse saddles, was developed by Guccio Gucci in the 1950s. Of Guccio Gucci’s six children, four were sons who played significant roles in the Gucci company. When Guccio Guccie died in 1953, they established boutiques in New York, London and Paris. The House of Gucci first gained prominence in the 1960s.

The Celebrity Status of Gucci Handbags

Quality products made by Gucci are, of course, not confined to Gucci handbags. The company has earned a sterling reputation for such other fine accessories as watches and perfumes. With such glamorous patrons as actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Gwyneth Paltrow, the brand name has grown its own fan base of women who see themselves as discriminating in taste. The Gucci explosion of the 60s and 70s was the height of the brand’s manufacturing expansion.

Today, more Gucci handbags are clutched by the well-heeled in the streets of urban fashion centers the world over than any other brand name of the same product category (luxury handbags). Women in Paris, Tokyo, London, New York, Athens, Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, Venice, Amsterdam, Rome, Bonn and other fashion centers in the world prefer to sport Gucci handbags. These women’s reasons for doing so are many, but not least of them is the quality and prestige associated with the Gucci name.

By Scott Nichols