Guess: Denim, Desire and Lawsuits — The Tumultuous Origins of a Bygone Fashion Powerhouse

Estelle Lefébure was the first Guess girl. The French actress and model, unknown at the time, became the first in a long line of names to don Guess jeans : from Claudia Schiffer to Eva Herzigova, via Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton or Carla Bruni. "Legendary Hollywood glamour with a touch of natural French elegance" is the phrase Guess uses to explain what the Marciano brothers began building their empire, now in the doldrums due to a product that is no longer competitive, a marketing strategy that no longer sells and numerous scandals that have been taking their toll on the business.

The origins of the Marciano brothers could not be further from the brand they founded in the 1980s. Although they were born in Morocco, Georges, Armand, Maurice and Paul grew up in Marseille in a very humble family of Italian origin, sons of an Orthodox rabbi.

When they were young, the brothers worked in the family clothing company (MGA, after Maurice George and Armand) and opened a series of clothing stores on the French Riviera. In the late 1970s, they left them behind (along with a debt of about ten million dollars in taxes) and emigrated to the United States.

Guess was born from the hands of the Marciano brothers, who, after launching the company, parted company ways.

The official story goes that the Marciano brothers settled in Los Angeles after spending a vacation in the city and falling in love with it. Their departure for the United States coincided, however, with the rise to power of socialist François Mitterrand, a period in which other businessmen also left the country.

Guess began in 1981, first with Georges and Maurice and then with Armand and Paul. The first was in charge of design, which positioned Guess in the beginning; the second led product development; the third was in charge of distribution and Paul took the lead and promoted the marketing of Guess, which would become the true hallmark of the brand.

It was the 1980s and sex was selling. And Guess built on it. Paul Marciano was (and still is) proud to have discovered some of the most relevant models, such as Eva Herzigova, who after posing for Guess starred in the Wonderbra ad that made her go around the world.

"My brothers wanted the product to be the protagonist, but it was clear to me that it was about creating an image. If you notice, none of my campaigns feature jeans," Paul Marciano explained to Vanity Fair magazine. "It's no mystery why we never used supermodels: we didn't have the money to pay them," said Marciano, who also pointed out that most Guess campaigns were in black and white, so that even the blue of the denim didn't draw attention to the models.

Claudia Schiffer was one of the models that Guess launched to fame.

Guess' first big hit was the Marilyn jeans, extremely tight pants with three zippers. With distribution in a single Beverly Hills store and a distribution agreement with Bloomingdale's, Guess sales reached $6 million in just one year, according to a Forbes article.

To meet its development, in 1983 the company sold 50% of its equity to the Nakash brothers (Joseph, Abraham and Raphael) of New York for $4.7 million. Although the alliance seemed fruitful, the Marciano brothers soon complained that their partners were copying their designs. The Nakash brothers, owners of the Jordache brand, accused the Marciano brothers of paying each other salaries above the contract terms.

Lawsuit after lawsuit, the two sets of brothers reached a settlement in 1990. The terms of the settlement were never disclosed, but the Marcianos emerged as the sole owners of Guess. But by that time, the differences between the Marciano's over the direction the company should take were more than evident. Georges then decided to sell his stake to his brothers who, to finance the operation, floated the company on the stock exchange in 1996.

To launch the company, the Marciano brothers allied themselves with the Nakash brothers, with whom they went to court.

Guess, which despite being a publicly traded company has always been run as a family business, began to weaken from 2000, when its sales stood at $779 million and its net profit at $16.49 million. Two years later, in 2002, the company's sales had fallen to US$583 million and the company had entered into losses, with red numbers of US$11.28 million.

A decade after Georges' departure from the company (who ended up suing the company for trademark infringement), another brother, Armand, also left the company, albeit quietly. Paul and Maurice then became co-CEOs, although Maurice would end up stepping down in 2007, leaving Paul alone at the helm of the group.

Paul's departure from his executive roles at the company would be anything but discreet. In early 2018, the businessman was fired after model Kate Upton accused him of sexually assaulting her during a lingerie campaign in 2010.

Maurice Marciano left the company in 2007 and Pal Marciano left in 2018 following allegations of sexual harassment.

With the company now led entirely by an external executive, Carlos Alberini, the company closed 2019 with a turnover of 2.609 billion dollars and a profit of fourteen million dollars. Alberini had taken over from Spaniard Victor Herrero (from Inditex), who had joined Guess as CEO in 2015.

A further step in the Marciano brothers' loss of relevance at Guess could come in the coming months. In mid-March, WHP Global submitted an offer to take over 100 percent of Guess to delist it from the New York Stock Exchange, in a deal that would value the company at $751 million.

WHP's offer excludes the shares currently held by Paul and Maurice Marciano, as well as those of CEO Carlos Alberini. Together, the three own approximately 43% of the company, leaving WHP the possibility of taking the remaining 57% and thus control of the company.