Gucci's high profile personalities, designer Tom Ford, 41, and CEO Domenico De Sole, 59, have announced that they will leave Gucci in April 2004. Six months' negotiations about the renewal of their contracts with the PPR Group, major shareholder of Gucci, failed to lead to an agreement.

Undoubtedly, the contribution of “Tom and Dom” has turned the almost moribund Gucci brand into one of today's largest luxury groups of the world. The question that now arises is whether Gucci can be run as any major conglomerate, independent of the stamp of dominant personalities.