Lin Jiyong and Wang Bingkun established the firm in 2004. Its first offices were in Dongguan. It had 4,200 shops in China in 2020, as well as various showcase facilities outside of China.
De Rucci previously claimed to have been founded in 1868 by a "Leonardo de Rucci". De Rucci's advertising prominently showcases an unnamed European-looking man, who has been described as the "most famous face in China".[3]AWall Street Journal investigation identified the man as John Timothy Dirstine, an American resident in China, and confirmed that he had allowed the company to use his face for perpetuity in 2009.[3]
In 2021 China Daily criticized the usage of his face to suggest a non-Chinese origin for the company.[1] The author of the article, Zhang Zhouxiang, stated "such blind worship is uncalled for in China now that it has become the world's second-largest economy."[4] David Fickling of Bloomberg News argued that the usage of the man of European origin and European-inspired branding reflected an internalized inferiority felt in China, similar to that felt by people in Japan in the mid-20th century, before the rise of the Japanese economy.[1]
