The murder coincided with a thrilling revival of the brand’s image in the mid-1990s under new boss Domenico De Sole and edgy young designer Tom Ford. Ownership was taken over by Bahrain- based investment bank Investcorp. Maurizio, a grandson of Guccio who’d ousted his relatives from the business to become CEO in 1992, had been forced to sell his stake 18 months before he died. After decades of infighting among the heirs of the founder Guccio Gucci, the brand was no longer under family control. While the public loved it, the Gucci company was less enthralled. I met Maurizio at a party and he fell madly in love with me.
A tip-off led to her arrest in 1997, along with four others, including the hitman. But, without evidence, the crime went unsolved for nearly two years. She had openly threatened to kill Gucci after their split. Reggiani, dubbed the “Liz Taylor of luxury labels” in the 1970s and 80s, was an immediate suspect. This was elegant Milan, not mob-riddled Naples, and execution-style killings of the city’s glamorous elite were unknown. The gunning down of 46-year-old Maurizio Gucci one morning in the red-carpeted foyer of his office, and the subsequent murder trial, captivated Italy in the late 1990s.
Lady Gucci, as she used to be known, was back. The paparazzi couldn’t believe their luck. One of her first acts of freedom was to go shopping on Via Monte Napoleone – Milan’s Bond Street – decked out in gaudy jewels and movie-star sunglasses, with a large pet macaw perched on her shoulder. “Naturally, Patrizia was only joking…”Įven before the impromptu “confession”, persuading Reggiani to remain low-key was a lost cause. It was terrible,” she says, putting her head in her hands. She invites me inside, and I get the impression she really needs to talk. “Oh, mamma mia, it’s not easy,” says Brunero, a stylish 40-something. I survived all the years in captivity’: Reggiani in court in 1998. Brunero and her business-partner husband have now become Reggiani’s de facto minders, tasked with ensuring the 67-year-old sticks to her parole and quietly rebuilds her life as a regular citizen.
#Catch a lover wife full
“I’ve never worked in my life and I don’t intend to start now,” she told her lawyer.īozart, with its Renaissance-style premises full of sparkling necklaces and chandeliers, was obviously an acceptable compromise. She turned down her first offer of release in 2011, according to the Italian press, because the very idea of working horrified her. Sentenced to 26 years on appeal, Reggiani was required to find a job as a condition of her parole. She’s off work with a bad back,” says Alessandra Brunero, co-owner of Bozart, a Milanese costume jewellery firm that has employed Reggiani as a “design consultant” since April 2014. Understandably then, when I try to find her, Reggiani’s inner circle doesn’t seem keen to let her near another journalist. “My eyesight is not so good,” she lobbed back.
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