'GUCCI: The Making Of:' From Guccio To Frida (PHOTOS)

Gucci is a brand with a complex past, a story told in Rizzoli's new release, "The Making Of Gucci." The almost coffee table-sized book is packaged in Gucci-branded paper. The book starts at the very beginning: "In nineteenth century Florence, a young boy named Guccio Gucci spent his Saturday afternoons strolling along the via de' Tornabuoni with his mother, gazing at the window displays in all of the fine shops," and then follows the development of the brand over the past 90 years.

In addition to sifting through the fashion house's key players (Tom Ford, Frida Giannini, Francois Pinault, to name a few ), "The Making of Gucci" looks at the cultural impact of the Italian fashion house. Edited by Frida Giannini, the massive text examines her role in the new vision for the brand. Giannini says of her position, "the creative director is no longer the person who comes out on the runway at the end of the show and waits in a spotlight to hear the applause." She has taken these words to heart, functioning as a walking advertisement for the brand by appearing on the cover of i-D magazine with James Franco and hitting the red carpet in her recognizable designs. Giannini had large shoes to fill as Ford's replacement, who, as the only American designer to lead the Italian house, was as ubiquitous in the press as a supermodel - the designer most memorably posed in a suit on the cover of Vanity Fair with a nude Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley after leaving Gucci to start his own line.

In addition to photographs from the Gucci archive, vintage ads and the brand's icons, "The Making of Gucci" has contributions from taste-makers such as W Magazine's Stefano Tonchi and Love Magazine's Katie Grand. The book is currently available for $85.00 from Amazon.com. For a preview of the book, take a peek in our gallery below:

Launch Slideshow

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