Louis Vuitton and Gucci are the only 2 luxury companies to consistently rank among the world's most valuable brands for the last 20 years. Here's how they grew to dominate the high-end retail sector.

In the early 1900s, Guccio Gucci had an idea that would change the world.

In 1938, the Gucci shop opened on Via Condotti in Rome. Nearly a decade later, the Gucci logo was introduced, and soon after, the brand's famous red stripe was born.

Gucci, along with his sons Aldo and Vasco, created many of the brand's classic bags in the early 1950s and turned their store into a national staple.

But it wasn't until after Guccio died in 1953, that the brand became an international emblem of luxury.

Source: WWD

After the founder's death, the Gucci family opened other stores around the world, including in Paris, London, and Tokyo.

But then hard times came, and it would be decades until the brand saw the height of its early glory days again.

In the 1990s, Tom Ford made Gucci synonymous with the word chic; the 2000s saw Frida Giannini define the brand as heritage. But it was Alessandro Michele, who, in the 2010s, once again made the brand synonymous with decadence.

Long before Guccio Gucci was even born, Louis Vuitton — the founder of his namesake brand — had arrived in Paris and opened a luggage company of his own.

Hailing from the village of Anchay in France, Vuitton came to Paris in 1837 and was welcomed by a city in the midst of the Industrial Revolution. In 1854, he opened his first luggage store in the city, then moved the workshops to Asnières-sur-Seine, a commune northeast of Paris.

It was there that he and his craftsman created what is still regarded as one of the most iconic travel accessories of all time — the waterproof flat top luggage trunk.

In 1896, the iconic LV monogram was introduced — nearly 50 years before Gucci's emblem was designed.

In 1997, Marc Jacobs was tapped to be artistic director of women's collections at Louis Vuitton, and the brand was catapulted to the forefront of fashion's new era.

"[Louis Vuitton] is a testament to how you have to be a really strong brand with absolute clarity and conviction in who you are and what you stand for, internally and externally," Rebecca Robins, global chief learning and culture officer at the consultant group Interbrand, told Business Insider. "The stronger you have that, the harder and stronger you play with others, and that is why Louis Vuitton is the first to have ever hit the top 20 and top 100 and that's why its the only luxury brand to have stayed there."

As Vogue reports, Marc Jacobs made hat boxes popular and launched artistic collaborations that defined the late 2000s, introducing monogrammed umbrellas, tights, fans, and even fur muffs. The Louis Vuitton logo became recognizable around the world.

In 2013, Nicolas Ghesquière replaced Jacobs as the artistic director of women's collections. Ghesquière is now helping to lead the brand through a time where streetwear is the new jet-set, and tiny bags are the new trunk luggage.

In 2013, Nicolas Ghesquière replaced Jacobs as the artistic director of women's collections. Ghesquière is now helping to lead the brand through a time where streetwear is the new jet-set, and tiny bags are the new trunk luggage.

But it seems no cultural turning point was too sharp for the company to surmount, as Louis Vuitton today ranks as the world's No. 1 luxury brand, with its brand valuation topping $30 billion, according to Interbrand.

In 1994, Tom Ford became creative director of Gucci, just three years before Jacobs took the helm at Louis Vuitton.

According to Interbrand, in 2000, Louis Vuitton had a brand valuation of $6.8 billion and maintained a steady-but-faltering single billion-dollar estimation until 2005.

By that time, Jacobs had launched many successful collaborations, including one with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who, according to Vogue, is credited with creating the now iconic white and multicolored LV bag pictured above.

In 2004, to celebrate its 150th anniversary, Louis Vuitton opened stores around the world, including in New York City and Johannesburg.

The brand grew steadily into the 2010s, reaching a $21.86 billion valuation in 2010 — the highest the company had ever been valued since Interbrand began tracking brand valuations in 2000.

During the first part of the century, Jacobs modernized and reworked the LV logo, featuring the monogram on everything from umbrellas to tights, in the hopes of making the brand a constant fixture in the minds of the world's next generation of buyers — the millennials.

Meanwhile, when the new century began, Gucci only had a brand valuation of $5.1 billion, which faltered until reaching its lowest value of $4.715 billion in 2004.

By 2005, Gucci had climbed back up to a valuation of $6.619 billion, but it was still nearly $10 billion less than where Louis Vuitton was around the same time, according to Interbrand.

Ford, as reported by CR Fashion Book, is credited as being Gucci's "savior." He was creative director from 1994 until 2004 and was known for helping to infuse a "sex appeal" that wasn't found in high fashion at the time.

After Ford's departure in 2004, Alessandra Facchinetti stepped in to lead the womenswear division, while John Ray took over menswear and Frida Giannini was named creative director of accessories, Vogue reports.

As writer Kimberly Ong noted in her 2017 essay about the brand, Gucci had suffered a massive blow to its image during Giannini's time at the helm, which ultimately followed the brand into the 2010s.

"Gucci was associated with bad taste," Ong wrote. "It was associated with gaudiness and outdatedness, and ultimately [it was] unrelatable. No one wanted to buy Gucci, and the company faced near bankruptcy."

Giannini left Gucci in 2015.

Louis Vuitton, meanwhile, entered the 2010s with a $21.86 billion brand valuation.

Jacobs remained the artistic director of women's collections at Louis Vuitton until 2013, when Nicolas Ghesquière took over. Over at Gucci, Alessandro Michele was tapped to take Giannini's place when she departed in 2015.

Ghesquière was then known for being the creative force behind the reinvention of Balenciaga.

In fall 2017, LV created a collection with Supreme — arguably one of the most profitable and influential fashion launches of the century.

In 2018, Louis Vuitton appointed Virgil Abloh, founder and CEO of the popular streetwear brand Off-White, as the artistic director of its menswear collection.

Abloh's appointment made him the first African American to be named artistic director of a French luxury fashion house, according to the New York Times.

Interbrand reports that LV's brand value increased substantially between 2017 and 2018, from $22.919 billion in 2017 to $28.152 billion in 2018.

By 2019, the brand had jumped to a $32.223 billion brand valuation, making it the world's most valuable luxury brand, according to Interbrand.

Since then, the brand has been on a quest for (luxury) world domination. In January 2020, Louis Vuitton bought the second-largest diamond in the world, as Business Insider previously reported, in addition to launching a multiyear partnership with the NBA. It also announced plans to open up a restaurant in Japan.

Meanwhile, under Giannini's successor, Alessandro Michele, Gucci became 2019's fastest growing luxury brand, with a growth rate of 23% and a brand valuation of $15.949 billion — nearly double the valuation it had when Michele first took over the reins in 2015.

Meanwhile, under Giannini's successor, Alessandro Michele, Gucci became 2019's fastest growing luxury brand, with a growth rate of 23% and a brand valuation of $15.949 billion — nearly double the valuation it had when Michele first took over the reins in 2015.

In 2017, Gucci grew 44.5%, Forbes reported, and had made up 39% of Kering's corporate revenues, and 57% of Kering's Luxury activities segment. In a 2017 interview with CNBC, Kering chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault said that nearly 50% of Gucci's sales were coming from millennials. Today, Interbrand reports that number has jumped to more than 60%, with their fastest growing audience being Gen Z.

Much of Gucci's success comes from the way the brand has been able to utilize social media as a digital marketing tool.

On the internet, the new Gucci collections stand out — they've got a contemporary feel, mixed with vintage classics. Michele even brought back the interlocking GG logo and the iconic Gucci bags from the 1960s, while introducing consumers to the Dionysus buckle.

In fact, as reported by Forbes, Gucci's CEO Marco Bizzarri told the Julius Baer Global Advisory Board that Michele had designed nearly all of Gucci's best selling items.

Gucci has been able to appeal to younger audiences by teaming up with contemporary icons of the day.

"[Gucci] has become much more open, inclusive, transparent, and collaborative," Robins said. "It's almost a masterclass in leadership style, [of] a really powerful combination of creative and business leadership."

In turn, the "gaudiness" Gucci was once negatively associated with has become its signature. In 2019, Gucci sponsored the Met Gala, which had the theme "camp" — defined by Susan Sontag's 1964 essay as "love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration."

Gucci is, as many would say, the modern day example of "camp." Or, to others, simply "ugly fashion."

And so now it's the turn of a new decade, and Gucci's snake logos, butterflies, wolves, interlocking G-tights, clashing colors, textiles, and fabrics — once considered emblematic of the brand's "outdatedness" — has become a signature of the time.

And so now it's the turn of a new decade, and Gucci's snake logos, butterflies, wolves, interlocking G-tights, clashing colors, textiles, and fabrics — once considered emblematic of the brand's "outdatedness" — has become a signature of the time.

Through the use of successful digital marketing, Gucci finally became cool again — because, quite simply, they told everyone they were cool.

And then they proved it.