Ferrari is already synonymous with the sleekest sports cars and is trying to attract fashion hypebeasts with a new clothing line that includes logos, monthly product drops and media partnerships.
Ferrari’s first ready-to-wear collection will be unveiled on Sunday via a physical catwalk show in his hometown of Maranello in northern Italy. The company has put together a highly skilled team to bolster the collection’s positioning as a serious fashion proposition: Headed by Bureau Betak (the production company behind Kim Jones’ debut show for Fendi earlier this year), the show will be styled by Vogue Italia contributor Jacob Kjeldgaard, with Yves Saint Laurent Global Beauty Director Tom Pecheux and hairstylist (and Gucci favorite) Paul Hanlon, who watches behind the scenes.
The event coincides with a “Ferrari Experience” that invites guests to his own new fashion boutique and, from June 15, in the new Cavallino restaurant under the direction of Massimo Bottura, the Gucci restaurant of the Gucci Osteria in Florence.
All of this is part of Nicola Boari, Ferrari’s Chief Brand Diversification Officer, “to reach a wider audience and create meaningful business opportunities” – a goal he says was given by interim boss and Ferrari heir John Elkann became 2019. (Earlier this week, Ferrari announced that semiconductor manager Benedetto Vigna would take on the role of CEO in September, while Elkann remains as president.)
Ferrari’s new clothing collection
It comes just a few months after Ferrari’s majority shareholder, the Agnelli family holding company, Exor, bought 24 percent of upscale shoe maker Christian Louboutin for € 541 million and a majority stake of € 80 million in Chinese luxury brand Shang Xia, leading to speculation about a planned one Acquisition feeds a serious luxury lifestyle player.
Boari says Ferrari is entering fashion “as a lifestyle brand” [which will be] integrated into the core business “.
“We want to grow in a very controlled way,” he adds, affirming Ferrari’s previously announced goal of expanding the non-motorsport area of its business (which also includes entertainment and customer engagement projects) to around 10 percent of company profits in seven years ten years. “That was before Covid, but of course we will try to meet this goal,” he says.
Although automotive brands have recently entered into collaborations with designers, such as Mercedes-Benz with Virgil Abloh from Louis Vuitton, a separate high-fashion line with an in-house design team of eight is uncharted territory for the industry.
Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc wears the new collection
Ferrari’s Made in Europe collection is aimed primarily at a young audience and consists of men’s, women’s, children’s and accessories. Like Ferrari’s auto department, it awards “performance and innovation”, says creative director and former Giorgio Armani designer Rocco Iannone, 37.
This approach has resulted in a futuristic motorsport aesthetic that features hooded anoraks with slits, trench coats with reinforced back panels, and jeans with knee pads. These consist of fabrics that are partly made from plastic bottles that are combined with vegetable-dyed leather. “These are technical fabrics, but with a very sophisticated feel and feel, similar to haute couture,” says Iannone.
The collection is also plastered with brand icons. In addition to an illustrated racing car and Ferrari’s characteristic Cavallino dancing horse, which were made into knitwear and shirts, the name Ferrari is emblazoned on belts, skirts and scarves. From 120 euros for a T-shirt with an embossed logo to 3,000 euros for a hooded coat, the collection is by no means cheap, but it is definitely accessible for owners of Ferrari vehicles from around 200,000 euros. The two young drivers of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, were nominated as campaign stars of the collection.
Rocco Iannone, Ferrari Creative Director
Nicola Boari, Chief Brand Diversification Officer
Ferrari partnered with the pioneering online agency Highsnobiety, which became the publication and youth culture bible Highsnobiety, to help them “reach the brand lovers we can’t,” says Boari.
In the future, Ferrari will avoid the traditional fashion format of the biannual collections. Instead, it will feature an annual collection in June and then follow the popular “drop” model favored by brands like Supreme and Kanye West’s sneaker label Yeezy with monthly capsule collections. These will be sold in specialty boutiques in Maranello, Rome, Milan, Los Angeles and Miami later that year.
Ferrari’s foray into the fashion world, Boari hopes to “create stronger connections with the younger generation who we believe are strategic from a business and brand value perspective.”
Check out our latest stories first – follow @financialtimesfashion on Instagram
The post Ferrari is racing in high fashion first appeared on monter-une-startup.
