Kingdom of Dreams (2022): Season 1, Episode 2 - Chapter 2 - full transcript

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(dramatic music)

- Each year there's a big fundraiser

for the Costume Institute

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,

and this fundraiser is
called the Met Ball.

- [Reporter] It's the
most glamorous soiree

in New York's social calendar.

- I must have gone to
20 Met Balls in my life.

It brought the luxury of
fashion to the masses.

The Met Ball had been in
existence for a while,

but Anna brought a modernity to it



and a presentation that went
beyond the core audience.

- [Dana] In December 1996,

the Met Ball was dedicated to Dior

for the 50th anniversary of the house.

- [Reporter] So what brings
you out this beautiful evening?

- This dress.

- And the honoured guest
would be Princess Diana.

(ethereal music)

As his very first Dior
creation at his new job,

John Galliano was tasked by Arnault

with designing a gown for Diana to wear.

- It's because she likes Galliano.

Galliano is also British.

She loves him, that's all.



(audience cheering)

- So she rolled out of her limousine

in this midnight blue
satin and lace sheath,

but it was not as
successful as one had hoped.

The fashion press just tore it to bits.

English papers said Diana went
to the Met in her nightie.

(somber music)

But there was a very strange
phenomenon afterwards.

Diana was photographed carrying
this lovely little handbag

that had a caning imprint on it.

That picture went viral and
she was such a style leader.

Boom, sales of that bag
went through the roof,

and that bag quickly was
redubbed the Lady Di bag.

From that moment on,

Arnault saw the potential of
handbags and of accessories.

If you get them on the right celebrities,

they will sell like gangbusters

and make you so much money.

(ethereal music)

(ethereal music continues)

(ethereal music continues)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

(ethereal music)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

- [Bernard Arnault] When you dream,

you can do things that are impossible.

(dramatic music continues)

- [Galliano] If you believe in something,

you have to do it to the end.

- [Alexander McQueen] You
have to go to the extreme

to cancel down to the norm,

and I am the extreme.

- [Aldo Gucci] Money is a terrible drug.

(person speaking Italian)

- I was in Milan, I was
getting ready to go to work,

and I got a phone call from
one of my reporters who said,

"Sara, have you heard the news?"

"No. What happened?"

"Maurizio Gucci's been shot."

"Oh my God."

(siren blaring)

Our office was right around
the corner from Via Palestro,

from the doorway where he was
going to work that morning.

I ran down and already
there was a huge crowd

of photographers and reporters.

And the police had already gotten there

and it was cordoned off,

and they were about to carry
his body out on the stretcher.

- [Reporter] Maurizio Gucci,

heir to the Gucci fashion empire,

was gunned down as he walked
into his office building

in central Milan.

- [Reporter] Witnesses say
the well-dressed gunman

was then driven off by an accomplice.

Police would say nothing about
a motive for the killing.

- There was the question of
was this some sort of twisted,

you know, financial settling of bets.

And it was a mystery.

- [Reporter] Maurizio Gucci
lived his life in the spotlight,

often embroiled in family feuding

over control of the multimillion
dollar fashion empire.

- Gucci was really a family-owned company

that was rife with dysfunction

and sort of interpersonal battles.

- Did you say, "If
they're going to kill me,

I shall kill them?"

- Yes, I say from the
beginning. Yes, absolutely.

- They have always been fighting.

- And you're saying
that's the Italian way.

- This is the Italian way,
in particular in this family.

- Who was it who hit you in the head?

- It was my father.

I had this thing around my neck, this arm,

and there were blood
coming from down my face.

- [Interviewer] He
thinks that you hit him.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

- The company was a major name,

but it had fallen upon very hard times,

and if I may, was going
to hell in a handbag.

- They were not paying suppliers.

There were strikes in the stores.

It was really bad. Very, very bad.

Most of our work at that time

was to send out samples to magazines

so that they were getting photographed.

And I didn't have any samples to send out

because there was no
budget to buy samples,

so we were all paralysed.

- There was an effort to sell it.

And they put it on the
market, not overtly,

but were asking around if
there was any interest.

(calming piano music)

- Bernard Arnault was really a visionary.

He was building a luxury goods empire

because he saw that
all these French brands

could be powerhouse players
in a global marketplace.

(calming piano music)

- Voila.

- He had moved in on countless companies.

You know, it was Vuitton,
it was Dior, it was many,

and that's how he built
up his stable of brands.

The track record of Arnault

was that when he set
his sights on a company,

he moved in and he took no prisoners.

You know, he was seen as a shark.

So Arnault actually took a look at Gucci,

but he rejected it

because he didn't think it
was gonna be worth his while.

The view at that time

was that it was never
gonna make any money.

- The Gucci family was desperate
to keep the company going.

And they didn't really
know a lot about business,

so they were running the
company into the ground.

But one of the wisest things they did

was hire Domenico de Sole,

this Harvard-educated Italian lawyer.

(somber music)

- When I arrived there, Gucci
was really a broken company.

You know, the company was bleeding,

it was losing a lot of money.

It was almost bankrupt.

It was viewed by the fashion universe

as being a brand in decline.

- He had big ambitions and a
big vision from the very start.

There was talk about, you know,

bringing in a big name designer,

and they realised they didn't
have the money to do that.

And so they decided to look
inside and there was Tom Ford.

Tom was the knitwear designer at Gucci,

so he was working on
the women's collection

and he was designing knitwear.

- You have to be ready for those moments,

those lucky moments to cross your path.

And you have to know,
you have to seize them.

- In life, being lucky is
much better than being smart

because I, as much as I
thought that Tom was terrific,

you know, I never imagined

that he'd turn out to be a genius.

- You know, Tom is from Texas.

He grew up in a middle class Texas family.

And he, you know, would talk
about how it was tough for him

because he was not like the guy

who wanted to be on the football team.

He was in love with fashion,
and his mother and his aunt,

you know, we're beautiful dressers.

And so he was very inspired

by fashionable women from the start.

- I didn't have any fashion
experience. I drew a portfolio.

Things I thought were the right things,

targeted people I wanted to work for.

And I just called and called

and called and called and called.

I didn't think it would be any harder

to make it as a fashion designer in Europe

than it would be in America.

And if you made it in Europe,

you were instantly globally marketable.

And that attracted me,

and so I moved to Italy and
started working at Gucci.

- I remember I drove up
to Milan to tell him that,

"Tom, I would like you to
be the creative director."

Tom was somewhat concerned
and I said to him,

"Either we can turn the
company around and succeed

or the company will be sold."

I said, "Look, you
design, I run the company.

It will be okay or at
least we give it a try."

- The company was in
such bad financial shape

that they weren't even looking at me.

They didn't care what I designed.

You know, whatever, fine, great.

So I had this moment to
basically do whatever I wanted

and do what I thought
was right, and I took it.

- I knew that we are running out of time.

I really felt it was very, very important

to have a successful show.

- When we were preparing for the show,

we had a sense and a feeling
that things were changing.

We saw that it was completely different

from everything that was
done at Gucci before.

- [Tom Ford] The right
thing at the right time

is the right thing.

The right thing at the wrong
time is the wrong thing.

So you know, it's gotta be
the thing that people want

before they know they want it.

- The name of Tom Ford

was already circulating
among the fashion insiders,

and there was a lot of expectation there.

That's one of the mystery of fashion.

The buzz grows and you
exactly don't know why.

And that's exactly what
happened before that show.

- It was really the future
of Gucci that was at stake

and if they didn't make it work, you know,

it was either gonna be sold
or it was gonna be unwound.

And so they had to make it work.

(dramatic music)

(brooding music)

(brooding music continues)

- He brought sex,

like just unadulterated
sex back into fashion.

- That was like sharp, super sexy.

I mean, you could smell, you know,

that there was that kind
of sexy, and so modern.

- It was that gorgeous Hollywood louche,

you know, velvet hipster jeans
and satin blouses unbuttoned.

The most incredibly coherent

and seductive revamping of Gucci.

(brooding music continues)

- [Tom Ford] It was actually
in my contract at the time

that I was not to appear on the
runway or talk to the press.

So I took a risk.

I thought, "This collection
I feel very strongly about.

I'm stepping onto that runway."

And I did.

- Until I really saw the end,

the people were just freaking out,

it was a huge applause and
people were jumping up and down,

you know, I was always,

I'm a kind of calm person
and I try to see the results.

You know, this was my life in a way.

- And suddenly everybody wanted to be part

of the Gucci tribe 'cause
it was just so hot.

And Tom was so hot, the look was so hot.

- Madonna fell in love
with the collection.

And then, you know, a
couple of weeks later

she is at the MTV Awards
wearing Gucci head to toe.

We could have never
thought at Gucci before Tom

that somebody like Madonna
would choose to wear Gucci.

- And it's funny because the clothes

give them a reason to
have the fashion show,

but in the end, every model had
a new Gucci bag in her hand,

and that's where they were making money.

- Even when we work on the first show,

we'd always not add bags,
create bags to go with the look.

The bag was as important
as the coat or the shoes.

So the bag was created
to match the clothes,

to match the shirt.

It was really a part of the silhouette.

- In the end, it's all about handbags.

The beauty of handbags is
that the markup is enormous.

The average handbag was
marked up 25 to 30 times.

If it cost $100 to make,

they're gonna sell it to you for $2,500.

And nobody understood that
formula better than Tom Ford.

(pensive music)

Louis Vuitton

was Bernard Arnault's
luxury leather goods house.

For 120 years,

Vuitton had produced
more or less one design.

And that was that canvas
with the LVs on it,

the brown canvas.

They were old, they were
musty, they were boring.

Of course, Bernard Arnault

saw what Tom Ford was doing at Gucci

and he said, "Let's do a
Gucci at Louis Vuitton."

- Louis Vuitton was already
a billion dollar brand

at this time,

but it only made luggage
and small leather goods.

And Mr. Arnault's vision for Louis Vuitton

was to be a big
ready-to-wear global brand.

- This is what we're gonna do.

We're gonna do like Gucci did.

We're gonna introduce ready-to-wear

and then we're gonna dress
the models down the runway

in this ready-to-wear.

But then they're gonna
all carry these bags,

and we're gonna sell all the bags.

The clothes are the
backdrop to the handbags.

- It was a brand-building exercise.

If Gucci had their hot American designer,

then an American designer at Vuitton

would've made a lot of sense.

There's a sort of counterpoint.

(tense music)

(tense music continues)

- Parsons was the best school
in fashion design in the US.

When I was there, nobody knew
about Tom Ford at that time.

There was another brilliant designer there

called Marc Jacobs.

It was all about Marc Jacobs.
He was the star, et cetera.

All the students were looking up to him,

very much like a so-called young hippie.

- America is really where
it's happening right now.

I think the Americans

have been doing what they've
been doing for a long time,

but time has changed and the
time is really right for it.

Somehow, a lot of the European designers,

it all looks very staid, very stagnant.

And two. The sleeve's a
little bit too short too.

- One day my friend
phoned me up and she said,

"There's this really
cool kid out of New York

that I really think you should meet.

His name's Marc Jacobs.

You've just gotta meet
this kid. He's fabulous."

I'm like, "Okay, fine, I will."

You know, this is a young
Jewish guy from New York,

you know, sounded hip.

It's also sexy, but it's really-

- [Marc Jacobs] Well, it's like-

- [Jeanne Beker] Like
it's not overstated sexy.

It's just like funky, like,

you're not trying too hard.
- Funny sexy.

- I met him and was like, "What a cutie."

You know, he had hair down to
his elbows, he was very sweet.

And he had such a fresh attitude.

And it really felt for me

that maybe we had all been taking fashion

a little too seriously.

So here was Marc to,
you know, shake it up.

- For me, fashion is a
form of entertainment.

It is not a necessity.

We all need to wear clothes,

but we don't need to
wear designer clothes.

So the idea of sitting down and think,

"What does my customer need,"

is like not the business I chose to be in.

Do you know what I mean?

If I were really doing that,

I would wanna be a designer for the GAP.

That's real life.

That is not stuff that
fantasies are made out of.

- When most of us pick up
on the Marc Jacobs story,

he has landed a really
plum job at Perry Ellis

where he's the design director.

- Perry Ellis, you know, was very classic,

very preppy, very well respected,

but very conservative.

So to bring someone like
Marc on board, you know,

you knew, okay, something's gotta change.

And Marc wasn't gonna do like,

you know, button down shirts and blazers.

I mean, Marc was gonna do, who
knows what he was gonna do.

- Marc Jacobs startled
the New York fashion scene

when he introduced a
most unusual collection

for the House of Perry Ellis.

It became known as the Grunge Collection.

(brooding music)

- [Marc Jacobs] Music and street culture

has always been a very, very
big influence on what I do.

So I wanted to create a collection

that basically was visual noise.

We clashed patterns
and stripes and colors,

and we layered it.

I mean, girls were wearing
10 layers of clothes.

I mean, of course they were all very fine.

So it was a very deluxe version
of this grunge attitude.

- I was actually at that show.

We were all scratching our
heads, like, "Is this fashion?"

These are clothes that you
could buy at the Salvation Army

for a dollar or 25 cents,
and suddenly, you know,

Marc is putting a $300 price
tag on it for Perry Ellis.

Well, that was pretty preposterous.

- What the heck is going on here?

They say beauty is in
the eye of the beholder,

but wait till you behold
what some top designers

are showing as high
fashion for the spring.

Where did this stuff come from,

and do they really expect
people to dress in this stuff?

- Well it's the outflowing
of a mass nervous breakdown

on the part of the fashion business.

This is lemmings going over a cliff.

- But Marc was onto something

because he was now
starting to look at fashion

in a new way that was kind of bohemian,

that had a lot of edge,

and it also was kind of a streetwear look.

- We thought that collection
was wow, it's incredible!

It just brought something new.

But obviously it was only
fashion people who understood it.

Boom, he got fired.

But that made him the star
because he was the rebel.

- If you look at what Marc
Jacobs did with Perry Ellis,

if you look at that
subversiveness and that vision,

he might have looked like
a funny little college boy,

but he obviously had things
going on in his head.

I think you do those things
to court fate, you know?

You do something that's so
provocative to court fate

and let the chips fall where they may.

- The fashion cognoscenti loved him,

Anna Wintour wore his clothes,

and he definitely had a critical mass

of cool kids who wore and dug Marc Jacobs.

- He's clearly getting
Anna's stamp of approval

as the next big thing in American fashion.

Part of her role

was putting forward
designers for certain houses.

She's a matchmaker,

and she was sort of anointing
him as the way forward.

- That was a fabulous decision

to put Marc Jacobs into Vuitton

because Vuitton had no fashion component.

Vuitton was a luggage brand.

- 9 out of 10 people I
know would say luggage.

- Right, exactly. But it is a good name.

It represents a very high-quality product.

It's a very expensive product.

It's a very prestigious product.

All the things that I like.

- So Arnault tapped Marc Jacobs

to invent a Louis Vuitton
ready-to-wear line.

- [Reporter] Marc, congratulations.

- Oh, thank you.

- This was an opportunity
to realise ambition

on a scale that had
never ever been available

to anyone before in fashion.

- [Bernard Arnault] Marc
Jacobs brings to the house

his casual US approach of fashion

and very good tastes.

- It was gonna be a huge gamble.

And Marc in particular
because he was so irreverent

and such a bad boy and
not someone who I thought

even thought about the bottom line.

- I think it's really a time

to try and maybe push
things a little bit further.

Maybe take a few chances.

You know, just give it a
try and see what happens.

- I remember very clearly
the sun streaming in.

We were all waiting.

Kind of very excited to
see what it would be.

(pensive music)

(pensive music continues)

- If you could say anything

about Marc Jacobs' debut at Louis Vuitton,

it was tentative, I guess.

There were no bags to be seen,

which was quite a bold statement to make

with an accessories brand.

- But I suppose people expected more

after the huge step of
putting an American designer

in charge of the launch
of Vuitton's clothing.

A little more maybe pizazz.

- It's a failure. It flops.

- Criticism is very difficult to take

because you worked so hard

and so many people worked so hard.

But in the end, I just have to, you know,

I just did what I thought was right.

- He was perversely good
at defying expectations.

"If you think I'm gonna do that,

I'm not going to and I'm
gonna do something else."

(pensive music)

- I imagine Marc must
have been quite insecure

at the beginning of his Vuitton tenure,

trying to please Monsieur Arnault

and have financial success
with his first collection.

It was not very successful

and he probably wasn't the
apple of Monsieur Arnault's eyes

in that moment.

We visited him a couple times in Paris.

You know, as someone
familiar with drug addiction,

I could see there were signs
that he was a little unraveled.

It must have been really,
really hard for him.

- [Reporter] Do you have any
problems, like sometimes-

- Do I have any problems? You got an hour?

- Because I lived in the
same building as Marc,

I saw him spiralling
downward very terribly.

It was upsetting to see
someone visibly cracking

under the pressure.

- [Marc Jacobs] When I pick up a drink

or when I choose to pick up a
drug, it gets out of control.

I'm not happy and full of life

when I'm holed up in a hotel room,

you know, on my third bottle of vodka

and not answering the phone

because I didn't show up for work.

- I'm certain that Anna
was very concerned.

He was her golden boy and
kind of her responsibility

'cause she had pitched
him to Louis Vuitton.

So I'm sure she took some emotional

and other efforts to control and help.

- [Dana] One day a team
of friends swooped in

and sent Marc off to rehab.

(somber music)

(somber music continues)

Bernard Arnault was extremely supportive

of his star designers,

and he really did believe in them.

But his goals and their
goals were different.

For them, money was the
byproduct of their talent

and their work and their
dedication to their passion.

With Arnault, money was the goal.

(tense music)

- [Sara] When Tom and
Domenico started out,

Gucci was on the brink of bankruptcy,

and within about three
years it's a mega brand.

- [Tom Ford] My goal

is to create something that's beautiful,

something that's so beautiful

that people can't live without it.

And when you do that, people buy it.

People buy it, it makes sales.

When you make sales, you make money.

And that's what my job is.

- Sales were really growing dramatically.

Obviously the genius that
did it was Tom, not me,

but still I was there running the company.

- We do have a very special relationship.

You know, I'm so lucky because
I don't think most designers

have that sort of business counterpart.

He completely trusts
me on the design side.

Domenico, I completely
trust on the business side.

And so in a sense we can work
independently but together,

which I think really makes
us almost twice as strong

as a lot of our competitors.

(pensive music)

(helicopter blades whirring)

- [Pilot] 446 to Buongiorno 312.

- Gucci was a pioneer in so many ways.

One of them was it was one of the first

European luxury brands to go
public on the stock market.

(bell ringing)

- [Domenico] The stock just skyrocketed.

- 85 down.

- It was a very exhilarating moment.

Tom was very excited and
very happy, obviously,

because it was a new future for us.

I thought it was fantastic.

It was a very emotional moment for me.

People, the years before,

they told me that Gucci was a joke.

Now everybody want a piece of Gucci.

- De Sole was very fond
of saying, you know,

it's like the first truly
public luxury goods company

'cause it was owned by the market,

so anybody can come in and
buy shares on the open market.

But what he realised is that he, you know,

starts to huddle with his bankers,

is that Gucci's actually
vulnerable to a takeover.

- I was traveling in
Portofino. It was a weekend.

We were actually sailing,

and I received a phone
call from a journalist

about the fact that Prada
bought shares of Gucci.

Obviously it came as a big surprise.

- Prada had built up
a 9.5% stake in Gucci,

and that raised some eyebrows,

you know, why a competitor
was buying up shares.

But that stake ultimately
was sold to Bernard Arnault.

- [Dana] Gucci stock was going up, up, up,

and he started getting
bits here and there.

- What Mr. Arnault's rationale was

is that he was buying the
shares for investment purposes,

but nobody believed that.

- Even though Arnault had passed on Gucci

a few years before,

all of a sudden it's like
the newest shiny object.

And he wants it for himself.

- Mr. Arnault wanted Tom Ford oh so badly.

He really could see that Gucci
would be the perfect addition

to the LVMH stable.

It was a red hot brand,
it was selling like crazy,

and that would be a
great feather in his cap

if he could get that brand.

- And I talked to a senior
person in the Arnault team,

and I said to this person,
"As a matter of good faith,"

I said, as we'd been very
friendly at that moment,

I said, "How many shares have you bought?"

And he said, "I don't remember."

And that started getting me suspicious.

- It was like an earthquake.

It was like all our stability

and everything was put at risk.

- [Domenico] My concern was very simple.

Arnault in the past acquired company

in a very aggressive way.

- It was a question of
being able to operate

in an autonomous fashion,
which we had been able.

You know, Domenico and I ran Gucci

as it were our own company.

And I believe that

if you're going to be
accountable for something,

you have to be able to make the decisions

that you need to make.

- [Sara] Tom and Dom are
deeply invested in Gucci,

and they are Gucci.

This was a threat for them
because there was no guarantees

that Arnault was gonna take it over

and just let them keep
running their own show.

- I think that probably Domenico felt

that in order to keep Gucci's freedom

he had to fight.

- Joining us with the first look

at the day's business
action from London now.

- We may be witnessing a creeping takeover

in the fashion business.

- [Dana] By early 1999,

he had enough Gucci stock
to launch a takeover bid.

- After buying a 34% stake in Gucci,

now the French company LVMH

wants to take a seat on Gucci's board.

- It was beyond stressful.
We were very depressed.

We didn't know what to do, basically.

But we had an ingenious idea.

First of all, we stalled Arnault.

- They issued new shares
to their employees,

and that diluted Bernard
Arnault back down to 25%.

- Every time that
Arnault purchased shares,

we will issue share to our employees.

So he was getting diluted all the time.

- It was provocative,

but they were looking at
every possible defensive step

that they could take.

- Obviously he went to court.

He was trying to get the court

to say stop these guys
from issuing shares.

- He had the stomach for this.

This was going to be a
knockdown drag out fight.

(tense music)

- [Thomas] It was like a TV series.

There were new developments every day.

- LVMH sued Gucci, Gucci sued LVMH.

- It brings a whole new meaning to suits.

They didn't just make
suits to sell in stores,

they launched a lot of lawsuits as well.

This was a very bitter battle

fought in courtrooms through newspapers,

fought in trying to influence

whoever might be able to
help each player's case.

- [Dana] He was using me and
other members of the press

as a conduit to the de Sole-Ford camp.

- He's made a phenomenal
success of the label

through both his design

and his sense of marketing and business.

And I think that's why so many
people like Monsieur Arnault

are after the house.

- At one point, during the, you know,

height of the handbag wars,

the men's show is taking place in Milan.

Tom Ford sends out the
not so veiled message

that they were fighting back.

(tense music)

Ford sends the models down the runway

with a very sort of aggressive stance

and bearing their teeth and
to the music of "Psycho."

(tense music continues)

(audience applauding)

- [Interviewer] Now obviously
the big talk in town

is the big merger and the big-

- I can't answer those. No comment.

- [Interviewer] Do you think
it'll make you stronger?

- No comment.

- No comment?
- No comment.

- Thank you very much.
- Thanks a lot.

- Tom, he was like my brother,
basically. He supported me.

He got calls from people
claiming to be friends of LVMH

that wanna talk to him.

But Tom and I stood together.

- They realised that
with Arnault's advance,

it marks the end of Gucci

being able to be an independent
publicly listed company,

and they're going to have
to find a white knight.

- [Teri] And that's takeover parlance

for someone who's coming
to rescue a company

that doesn't want to be taken over.

- [Dana] De Sole started
talking to outside investors.

None of them could quite make it work.

- I was so exhausted.

I still remember the state
of absolute exhaustion.

We were ready to leave the company.

- And just as Dom and Tom

were about to put up the white flag,

in stepped Francois Pinault.

- They really came a
little bit out of the blue.

Obviously we were thinking
about potential white knights,

but I never heard of Francois Pinault.

- Pinault and Arnault couldn't
have been more opposite.

Arnault came from a much
more elite background.

Upper tier schools, high society.

Pinault came from a
more humble background.

- He was a complete outsider.

He started in the lumber business.

You know, he went from
lumber to distribution,

from distribution to retail.

And so for him the logical next step

was from retail to luxury.

He had been looking for a long time

at internationalising his business.

When you're in the
department store business,

it's very hard to make that global.

Luxury had that potential.

- Pinault and Arnault were sort
of well aware of each other.

They knew each other,

but were really kind of at
opposite ends of the spectrum.

- I think Bernard Arnault

is someone who thinks ahead
very much and acts by stealth.

Pinault is someone who will
act very quickly on impulse.

One is a lion, the other is a snake.

- Pinault was the lion
and Arnault was the snake.

- I was approached by Francois Pinault,

and he said to me, "I
would like to talk to you."

I said, "Okay, fine."

Everything was done in absolute secrecy,

so nobody really ever suspected.

I flew to Paris, big
Mercedes picked me up,

drove me all over Paris,
stopped in a garage.

Waiting for me there was a small Peugeot.

I jumped out of the Mercedes,
got into the Peugeot,

drove around Paris and ended
up at Francois Pinault's house.

And you know, I really liked him.

I don't know, just instinctively
he's the kind of person

that you like.

We hit it off immediately.

- [Sara] Pinault was
very attractive to them

because he was not the luxury expert,

and he was upfront about that.

And one of the reasons he
was interested in Gucci

and in Tom and Domenico was
because of their know-how.

They felt that they were gonna be able

to keep their direction

under the Pinault umbrella
more so than under Arnault.

- [Thomas] Francois Pinault
had a very keen interest

in art and in artists.

And so I think the creative side of luxury

where some of the designers
can be considered artists

was something that appealed to him.

- He's the most decisive person
in the history of mankind.

He basically shook my hand,

said, "I like your story,
I'm gonna buy the company."

(dramatic music)

(tense music)

- [Dana] And then on a
Friday morning in March,

they announced a press conference

right around the corner
from LVMH headquarters.

And we all went.

It wasn't even just the fashion press,

but you had the entire French press.

The AP, you had the AFP, you had Le Monde.

We had no idea what was coming.

- One day, just boom.

We made the announcement

that Pinault had purchased 40% of Gucci.

We had a deal.

Tom and I are totally, completely,

and absolutely committed to
the success of this alliance.

- The whole affair from
first looking at it

to signing a check for nearly $3 billion

took him all of 18 days.

- We were all so proud

that it was accomplished
under incredible pressure

and in total complete secrecy.

Again, we thank our new
partner for their support.

- Then Tom Ford and Domenico de Sole

announced out of the blue,
"We are forming Gucci Group."

- I almost prepared with a formal speech,

but really we're very happy
with this partnership,

and I'm very excited by this project

to build a group of luxury brands.

- Well, you could have
picked all of our chins

up off the floor.

Another luxury group,
something to rival LVMH.

- Gucci Group also announced

that they had bought Yves Saint Laurent,

who was one of those brands
then you like look at

and say wow.

I mean, the essence of French style

was very exciting.

- This was one of those
bombshell announcements

that just rocked the fashion world.

- Francois Pinault said,

"There is room for at least another player

in this industry."

I think Bernard Arnault
didn't see it that way.

- It was a real slap in the face for him

and sort of took Arnault
completely by surprise.

- LVMH had lost for the first time.

Arnault had lost for the first time.

I went and saw him at his office in Paris

as a reporter for Newsweek Magazine.

And he's talking to me like he does,

very calmly and quietly and steadily,

and it's like it's just been
blown out of proportion.

And then he said.

- All these years we've been watching him

and writing about him at LVMH,

and I think it was the first time

he showed his hand.

He just told me how he operated.

Sacking 8,000 people

when he was the white knight
coming in and saving Boussac,

and Hubert de Givenchy,
showing him the door.

You're the white knight who turned black.

- [Reporter] Were you disappointed at all

with the Gucci thing, how that played out?

- No, no. I was not disappointed.

- [Reporter] And what are
your plans for the future?

- Oh, we have a lot of
plans, but they are secret.

(tense music)

- Well, it was game on after that.

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