Gucci Revamps Design Team

Gucci, the world's third-biggest luxury goods group, has revamped its design team yet again, as it looks to bounce back from a 23 per cent slide in profits. The Italian fashion house also sees the shake-up - just two years after star designer Tom Ford quit the firm - as a crucial part of chief executive Robert Polet's drive to double the firm's turnover by 2012.

Gucci has not said why Ms Facchinetti, who showed the second of her two collections just two weeks ago, had fallen out with Gucci's management. Acrimony and fallouts have been a trademark of life at Gucci over the last few years and could have been a contributory factor in the slide in 2003's earnings to £116.2 million. Mr Ford and former chief executive Domenico De Sole left after their own disagreement with managers at Pinault Printemps Redoute, the French firm which bought out Gucci last year.

Ms Facchinetti, Ms Giannini and men's designer John Ray all worked under Mr Ford in the style teams which piece together the ready-to-wear collections that show twice a year in Milan and pave trends from the top of the fashion set to the shopping mall. Analysts have said that Ms Facchinetti's designs had failed to wow the industry and suggested the shadow of Mr Ford still hung over her.

Ms Giannini, however, has seen her designs lauded. Her pieces have also featured prominently in Gucci's new advertisements; a solitary GG logo shoe or shimmering leather purse replacing the clotheshorse models which dominated the magazines and billboards during Mr Ford's time. Gucci managing director Mark Lee said: "Since joining Gucci more than two years ago, Frida has displayed extraordinary creative talents and leadership qualities. "The enormously positive response to the current collections attests to these exceptional strengths."