So it all came true, and PPR did, indeed, buy Italian men’s wear luxury brand Brioni. So far, so rumoured. But what does it mean? It seems to me there are two main implications to the deal:
1. Men’s wear is the new frontier.
Although widely heralded as one of the greatest men’s wear brands, Brioni itself spent several years chasing the women’s market. This began in the early noughties under then-CEO Umberto Angeloni, with ready-to-wear that looked a lot like men’s wear (think elegant cashmere suiting), and continued when the family took the helm back under Andrea Perrone, with snazzier styles by Alessandro Dell’Acqua. Mr Perrone was the founder’s grandson, but he resigned last year to make way for another non-family CEO Francesco Pesci (complicated, I know). But they all sought to tap the theory that women shopped and spent more than men.
The efforts didn’t work, and they gave up on women’s wear last August, which seems to have sat well with PPR. Indeed, in their statement, PPR was careful to call Brioni a “men’s wear-only brand,” a telling appellation. PPR has enough women’s wear brands after all; their only brand with a major upmarket men’s wear presence is Gucci. Their investment is in the guy factor – especially as it relates to China where it is the men who shop and spend more.
Vanessa has been the FT’s fashion editor since 2003, and is based in New York, though she lived in London for 12 years.