The premiere of the House of Gucci, a Ridley Scott film is announced for November. A story of luxury, betrayal and murder in the Fashion Quadrilateral.

Maurizio Gucci was a methodical man. At 8:30 a.m. on March 27, 1995, he walked the 140 meters that separated his residence from the Via Palestro office, a few meters from the Milan Fashion Quadrangle, where some of the most luxurious stores in the world are concentrated. He had barely passed through the entrance when he was shot four times in the back. Despite the fact that there were two eyewitnesses, the killer fled and the police could not find his lead for two years.

It was considered that it was a reckoning of the mafia (what else, if not, in Italy?). The financial movements of the victim, who barely 18 months earlier had been forced to sell Gucci to Investcorp, an investment fund based in Bahrain, were thoroughly investigated. It was the end of an unfortunate management and of the family&#39;s relationship with the brand that bears his surname. But the hit man had not been hired by an &acute;Ndrangheta boss or by an obscure Arab financier, but by a well-known socialite from Milan: Patrizia Reggiani, his ex-wife, the mother of his two daughters, Lady Gucci.

The character deserved dozens of news reports, a Discovery + documentary and a book, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamor and Greed, by Sara Gay Forden. The script for the film that Ridley Scott began filming in March with a notable cast is based on the latter: Lady Gaga as Patrizia, Adam Driver as Maurizio Gucci, plus Jeremy Irons, Jared Leto, Al Pacino and Salma Hayek. The world premiere is announced for November 26.

Patrizia Reggiani has already revealed that she is &quot;upset&quot; with Gaga because she did not go to meet her. Ultimately, it was she - the spoiled daughter of a waitress and a man who had made a fortune with trucks but lacked lineage - who managed to make Maurizio fall in love in 1972. Rodolfo Gucci staunchly opposed his only son marrying her, because he did not consider her equal to his family. But he had to retract: during the following decade, the couple became an emblem of the Italian gentry launched to conquer the world. The bling bling of jewels and fur anticipated the arrival of Patrizia and Maurizio, who alternated with the best of the jet set. They had a flat in the Olympic Tower in New York, chalets to go skiing in Saint Moritz, a farm in Connecticut, a beach house in Acapulco and a 64-meter yacht, the Creole, among other properties.

They were the perfect image for the international expansion stage of the brand. Founded in 1921 by Guccio, Maurizio&#39;s grandfather, House of Gucci had started as a fine leather goods store, which first expanded to Milan and, after World War II, made the leap to New York. It was a boom ; in the late 50s, exquisite moccasins and bags made in Italy were the must Have stars like Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly. When Guccio died, his sons took over the business and the classic tensions of family businesses began.

When Rodolfo passed away in 1983, Maurizio inherited more than $ 200 million and half of the company. For the next several years he fought fiercely with his uncle and his cousins, owners of the other half, for total control. Business was going downhill: like so many European luxury labels in the global era, the multiplication of licenses and copies devalued the glamorous double G logo. The heir&#39;s master plan was to refocus on high-end products. He was not on the wrong track: his death coincided with the entry of the extremely talented designer Tom Ford, who restored his prestige and profits.

Maurizio never saw him. While he was in charge of Gucci, the more than twenty lawsuits with his relatives, from whom he bought their shares with the help of Investcorp, bled the company and his personal fortune. Simultaneously, their marriage also collapsed. One weekend in 1985, he announced that he was going on a business trip to Florence, left with a suitcase ... and never returned. Soon after, it was learned that he had moved in with another woman, the designer Paola Franchi and her son Charly. Patrizia spoke pests of the husband to anyone who wanted to listen to her. &ldquo;Maurizio didn&#39;t even want to see his family. We had four houses in Saint Moritz and I didn&#39;t want to give one to my daughters, &rdquo;he explained in the documentary Lady Gucci: The Story of Patrizia Reggiani.

In 92, the man got a divorce and announced that he would marry Paola. It was the end: Patrizia was not willing to give up the surname that, after twelve years of marriage and a whole social life built around it, was part of her identity. She was &quot;the most Gucci of all&quot;, as she knew how to say. To add insult to injury, a year later, he ditched the company for $ 150 million. &quot;At that time I was angry with Maurizio for many, many things,&quot; he declared in The Guardian -. But, above all, this one. Losing the family business was stupid. &quot;

In her fury she asked everyone, including the butcher, who could kill her ex-husband. Until someone accepted: her friend Giuseppina &ldquo;Pina&rdquo; Auriemma, the witch who read the letters to her, charged $ 300,000 for organizing the crime. Through the doorman of a hotel, Ivano Savioni, he hired the driver Orazio Cicala, who in turn brought the mechanic Benedetto Ceraulo, a killer on occasion. They went unpunished until the goalkeeper bragged about his &quot;feat&quot; and an informant passed the tip. They all fell.

When the police went to arrest Patrizia at the apartment she shared with her teenage daughters, she asked to take her furs and jewelry to jail. It did not succeed. The Italian press feasted on all gender stereotypes: gold diggers disputing the rich heir, the spiteful wife, the murder of passion ... Nothing was said about the role of the man who left his wife without explanations, he humiliated her, he cut off contact with his daughters and squandered the family patrimony.

Reggiani was sentenced to 29 years in prison as the mastermind of the crime. At 16, they offered him parole but he refused because he had to get a job: &quot;I never worked in my life and I have no intention of starting now,&quot; he alleged. However, two years later he accepted the option. They took her as a &quot;style consultant&quot; in a jewelry store that wanted to take advantage of the publicity of her case. Just released, Patrizia went shopping on the Via Montenapoleone with a parrot on her shoulder: the bird was a central motif of the collection of accessories that she had helped to design. When journalists asked him sarcastically why he had not killed his ex-husband with his bare hands, he replied: &ldquo;My eyesight is not so good. I didn&#39;t want to fail &rdquo;.

The reality is much richer than fiction. In 2017, unexpectedly, a judge ruled in favor of Reggiani, granting him the extraordinary life pension he had agreed to after his divorce: one million euros per year, plus 26 million in retroactive payment. Allegra and Alessandra, heirs to the paternal fortune, appealed the sentence. When, in addition, her own mother - with whom she lives - tried to legally disqualify her from disposing of her assets, Patrizia raised a white flag: she offered to renounce part of the inheritance in exchange for seeing her grandchildren and spending some time at Saint&#39;s chalet. Moritz and the Creole yacht. The appeals are still in process.

This year Gucci celebrates its centenary under the baton of designer Alessandro Michele, who bet on gender fluid and sustainability to modernize the brand&#39;s rich heritage; a model opposed to that of the maximalist ostentation that Patrizia embodied. Gaga&#39;s film will provide, at the same time, a considerable publicity campaign. Officially, the company never agreed to comment on the case, but they say that on the day Patrizia Reggiani was sentenced, Gucci&#39;s windows showed elegant silver handcuffs.

Lady gucci

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