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After hours of downpour in Florence, Italian retailer Luisaviaroma and British Vogue managed to stage a blockbuster, 2,000-capacity show in Florence’s Piazzale Michelangelo last night, featuring 50 archival looks from 50 brands, including Fendi, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Versace and Valentino. The partnership was designed to bring together British Vogue editor Edward Enninful’s A-list network and Luisaviaroma’s Italian heritage, to boost the retailer’s brand awareness at home and abroad.
Supermodels including Eva Herzigova, Natalia Vodianova, Pat Cleveland, Irina Shayk and Paloma Elsesser walked the runway, positioned in front of Michaelangelo’s David statue. Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli opened the show, singing to front row celebrities, including actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.
Rain or shine, the event wasn’t easy to pull off, said Luisaviaroma president Andrea Panconesi, speaking from Luisaviaroma’s Florence HQ the morning of the event. But, the payoff for Luisaviaroma is brand awareness internationally, as the retailer eyes further international expansion for its e-commerce operation, which is now 95 per cent of revenue, with 29 million monthly site views. Luisaviaroma doesn’t publicly disclose revenue, but said in 2020 it brought in €180 million in annual sales, a 30 per cent year-on-year increase at the time.
“It’s branding, that’s the reason,” says Panconesi whose grandparents Luisa Jaquin and Lido Panconesi launched Luisaviaroma as a store in Florence in 1929, “That’s what we are interested in. We want to represent the Italian luxury way of life to our consumers around the world.”
Luisaviaroma has heavily invested in star-studded events over the last four years. The brand staged its first fashion show in 2019, held in collaboration with former Vogue France editor-in-chief and editor of CR Fashion Book, Carine Roitfeld, at the same Florence venue. Post-lockdown, Luisaviaroma then held a star-studded Unicef gala in Capri, featuring a performance by Jennifer Lopez. Since it dialled up events in Italy, the country has become a leading market for the retailer, representing 21 per cent of orders and surpassing the US (20 per cent), Panconesi says, proving the return on investment from celebrity buzz.
Following Thursday’s show, 28 of the 50 looks will be reproduced and released in serialised drops every Thursday from 15 June to 16 November, which will also bring new energy to the retailer, Panconesi adds. The items will also be available on Google Shop, which partners with Luisaviaroma to sell its inventory to the Google audience.
The show’s looks tapped into timely trends, as young consumers increasingly seek out archival fashion and Y2K styles.
“Each of the designers brought something incredible to this show — their visions are iconic and unique and it’s been such a pleasure to weave them together in this way,” says Enninful, who worked with the brands to determine the archival looks based on a core palette of red, white, black, silver and neutrals. The scale, scope and ambition Enninful and LuisaViaRoma had for this project was “enormous”, he adds. “We challenged ourselves to go as big as possible — we weren’t working with limits in our imagination. But with that came the challenge of making this cohesive, especially with a strict colour palette. We love to challenge ourselves though!”
Luisaviaroma is looking to carve out its space in the online multi-brand space — which is highly competitive and has seen pandemic-era growth begin to falter. In 2021, private equity fund Style Capital invested €130 million in Luisaviaroma (a 40 per cent stake), to accelerate growth in key markets and expand internationally. Alessandra Rossi was appointed CEO the same year, taking over from Panconesi, who is now president and retains a 60 per cent stake in the business. The ultimate goal, the brand has shared, is an IPO, yet there’s no indication of when that might occur.
The retailer’s highest growth market has historically always been America, Panconesi says. And he hopes events like the fashion show will continue to attract US consumers. “We started our website in English in 1999, and America was the only place with internet in homes. Ever since, growth has always been the biggest in the US,” Panconesi says. This show helps establish Luisaviaroma as the epitome of Italian luxury, which is attractive to the international consumer and will hopefully bolster US sales. To further harness US demand, Luisaviaroma will open a store in New York’s Noho in Spring 2024.
Hundreds of people — internal staff, event partners — spent the past year planning Thursday’s event, Panconesi says. He originally wanted 3,000 guests but they had to reduce it to 2,000, because of logistical issues.
“Florence is a very difficult city. It’s very delicate. It’s not like New York where it’s updated all the time. Nothing changes here. It’s difficult to create a 100-metre runway in front of the statue of David!” he says.
Above all, Panconesi says he wanted the show to be fun. “All this work for a few hours, it’s crazy,” he says. “But fashion is temporary and it should be fun. We want our guests to have fun and customers to have fun.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
Update: This story was updated to include comment from Edward Enninful.
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