In The News

Catching Up With Umberto Angeloni

By: Karen Alberg Grossman

February 11, 2010

Few people know more about luxury menswear than Umberto Angeloni, former CEO and shareholder at Brioni (1990-2006), author of several books on luxury lifestyle and now co-owner and CEO of the new Caruso collection, launched this past fall as part of Raffaele Caruso SPA. Here, we chat with him about the future of luxury business at retail.

How are you doing with the new Caruso collection?

We are at present in 11 multi-brand boutiques (up from four a year ago) and in four Neiman Marcus locations. In January 2010, we opened our showroom in New York with Enrico Di Giovanni as general manager. Caruso has made the U.S. market a priority for both the immediate and for the long run, since this is the largest market by far (over 28 percent of the world’s final consumption, seven times China’s, and 2.5 times that of BRIC—Brazil, Russia, India and China—combined) and its affluent consumer is quite sophisticated. That said, we’re not looking for blanket distribution; we’d rather be more important in fewer stores.

How can high-end Italian brands re-gain credibility after the tremendous amount of price cutting that occurred in major U.S. stores last year?

Their credibility was already lost through years of brand-diluting policies activated by the brands themselves. These include price discrimination, overly broad distribution, brand extensions, diffusion lines, poor service, inferior value and blurred heritage. In order to grow market share, too many companies adapted these kinds of practices that should be alien to the luxury market. And all of these need to be reversed in order to refocus identity and regain authenticity.

Having lost so many aspirational shoppers in this recession, can the luxury market now attract enough true luxury customers to sustain growth?

If brands were more concerned with building their equity for the long-term, they would find plenty of “true luxury customers.” The aspirational shopper was the sub-prime customer of the Luxury industry: his purchases were unstable, there was no brand-loyalty and he was driving away the good customer. But wealth should not be the guiding light for luxury brands since the nouveau riche can be equally status-driven and push the brands in the wrong direction.

How can the luxury market attract younger customers?

Part of the problem has been that luxury brands have been disloyal to their core customers. They pretended loyalty while simultaneously looking for a “different” customer: younger, better looking, more famous, bigger spender, further away (China, and now the Web)… How about minding the existing customer? Focusing on a share-of-customer instead of market share? Targeting an attitude instead of a demographic?

Would you speak to the future of tailored clothing in an increasingly casual market?

The classic tailored suit will always remain the staple of a gentleman’s wardrobe because of its history and ability to evolve. No other man’s wardrobe component has the intrinsic modernity and mystique of a suit. What’s more, a tailored jacket can dress-up more casual apparel, thereby bridging the gap between formal and informal as men’s lifestyles and interests evolve.

Any final thoughts on the future of luxury menswear?

The mission of Caruso (which generates about a third of our total sales, the rest being private label and production for other brands) from the beginning has been to introduce Italian luxury product at the best value. (We also have some new concepts in the works, not yet for publication…)

The big stores are realizing that value is not about opening price or higher margins; they tried this and it failed. This recession has brought with it some enduring changes in the way consumers think and shop. If the big stores are genuine in their commitment to control inventories and buy more selectively rather than act as landlords only to be suffocated by too much product, business will improve. And I believe that it will: stores have surely learned a lesson.

 

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