Alexandra Gucci Zarini And Her AGCF Luxury Fashion Brand

Gucci stands alongside other elite names in the luxury pantheon, such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Hermès, Chanel and Cartier. However, under the ownership of luxury conglomerate Kering, the Gucci brand has taken quite a fall, unlike its luxury cohorts.

Gucci revenues dropped by nearly 30% over the past two years, from $10.9 billion (€10.5 billion) in 2022 to $7.9 billion (€7.7 billion) in 2024. Among the many reasons cited for its collapse – and they are too numerous to mention – is the brand lost touch with its heritage and legacy.

Alexandra Gucci Zarini, third-generation scion of the Gucci family, can’t do anything about the brand her great-grandfather Guccio Gucci founded and her grandfather Aldo made famous, but with fashion in her blood, the 40-year-old luxury insider is following in her progenitors’ footsteps by starting her own luxury fashion brand, called AGCF, with her husband and business partner Josef Zarini.

The name stands for:

• AG (Alexandra Gucci): A tribute to legacy, honoring a tradition of excellence while pioneering new innovations in luxury.
• CF (Creative Framework): A commitment to artistry and accountability, ensuring that every piece embodies a deeper purpose beyond aesthetics.

“AGCF is more than just a fashion house,” Alexandra shared with me. “It’s purpose-driven luxury. We are creating a creative framework to bring meaningful change and impact.”

To that end, AGCF is a Public Benefit Corporation that pledges 20% of profits to charitable initiatives supporting young women, children and environmental causes. And that’s no surprise because prior to forming her company, she founded the non-proift Alexandra Gucci Children’s Foundation.

“We’re not just building a brand. We’re building a movement towards a more responsible and ethical luxury industry,” she continued. “It’s our way of proving that business can be a force for good and that luxury can be synonymous with responsibility and ethics and that it can have a positive impact in the world, which is why we use the phrase ‘purpose-driven’ luxury.”

Change Agent

Whereas her great-grandfather and grandfather helped create the foundation for the luxury industry in the 20th century, Alexandra is envisioning a luxury business model for the 21st century, one that goes beyond creating beautiful, high-quality, expensive products available to the few for the benefit of large corporations and their shareholders to a model founded on responsible, humanistic capitalist principles.

Husband Josef Zarini, who comes from a traditional investment banking and venture capital background, is supporting Alexandra’s and AGCF’s mission as a change agent in the luxury industry.

“Fashion is a hugely powerful tool to message change as is music and art. It’s an evolution from quiet luxury to where each AGCF piece carries an energy of positivity that goes out into the world,” he said.

Alexandra added, “When ethics and aesthetics align, the result is not only beautiful, but profoundly impactful.”

The couple see numerous ethical breaches in the luxury industry, from the 2022 Balenciaga advertising scandal that sexualized children to recent accusations of labor exploitation throughout the luxury supply chain.

“The system has been corrupted for decades,” Alexandra asserted. “I refuse to participate in it. It’s caused by the margin obsession of big conglomerates. They want to drive these practices.”

And Zarini added, “One thing I found in my years in finance and analyzing businesses, when you see one kind of bad ethical decision, it’s very likely there are many others across the company.”

Starting Small, Staying Focused

ACGF launched in April 2024 with a core collection of handbags, many adorned with the brand’s signature Unità link – Unità means “unity” in Italian – in what many would consider an accessible luxury price between $1,400 and $2,900. A demi-fine jewelry collection is also available featuring 18K gold vermeil over sterling silver and some accented with lab-grown diamonds, smoky quartz and Japanese Akoya Pearls, priced $200 to $1,500.

The brand was initially available online and in the AGCF boutique on Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills. That location was carefully selected to honor grandfather Aldo Gucci, who in 1968 was one of the early pioneers to open a luxury brand store on the street.

After showing the AGCF collection at Paris Fashion Week this past fall, the company is in discussions with numerous international and U.S. retail partners and just announced that five stores in the iconic Japanese Takashimaya department store chain will carry the line.

“Launching AGCF internationally is a defining moment for our brand,” Alexandra said in a statement. “Japanese consumers have an unparalleled appreciation for quality, artistry and ethical values, which are at the core of AGCF. Our partnership with Takashimaya is a testament to our shared commitment to craftsmanship and conscious luxury.”

It also helps that Japan led the world in luxury market growth in 2024, up 12%, according to Bain, as currency rates favored tourist spending last year.

Departing From Aldo’s Legacy

Regrettably, Alexandra had to depart from Aldo’s “Made in Italy” legacy in choosing manufacturing partners. “I could not in good conscience produce handbags in Italy, a country my grandfather made synonymous with luxury fashion. There are systemic issues with labor exploitation in Italy that have just come to light but that I’ve known about for years.”

Instead, Alexandra looked to Spain for family-owned workshops to produce AGCF leather goods. “The artisians use the same tools that their great grandfather’s used. The workshops are super clean and professional. Everyone takes pride in their work and they are all treated with respect and dignity.”

As for the leather used, it is a byproduct of the meat industry. “We try to be as sustainable as possible, so it means there is no animal cruelty in production and no animals are wasted in the process,” she explained.

Aldo Gucci’s Legacy Lives On

While the Kering-owned Gucci brand seems to have kicked Aldo’s legacy to the curb, Alexandra’s AGCF brand is carrying it forward into the 21st century.

“Alexandra’s work definitely shows the family heritage. She shows Aldo’s legacy in her designs and what we are seeing from her now is luxe and refined taste,” shared Daniel Jame Cole, adjunct assistant profession at Fashion Institute of Technology and co-author of The History of Modern Fashion (Laurence King, 2015).

“It is also important to note that in recent years, some of Gucci’s work – especially the runway fashion – has steered markedly off course from the luxe and refined taste that I associate with the founder; this is an opinion I share with many colleagues,” he added.

Alexandra’s overarching mission is to forge a path toward ethical, sustainable, purpose-driven luxury that the luxury industry may follow.

“I started AGCF because I saw there was a lot of darkness that is hidden behind luxury and all that prestige,” she concluded. “AGCF is my way of bringing light into those shadows and using the power of fashion to illuminate and address all these issues that have been ignored for too long.”