EXCLUSIVE: Magliano Gets Investment, Commercial Backing
MILAN — The buzzy Milan-based menswear brand Magliano is ready to step up the fashion game.
The company is to reveal on Wednesday that it has inked a strategic partnership with Underscore District, a newly established fashion business accelerator, formerly known as Impossible Brands, to ramp up its commercial strategy and get financial backing.
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As part of the deal, founder Luca Magliano has established a new company called Magliano Trademark Srl that owns the rights for the Magliano brand and has sold a minority stake in it to Underscore District. The latter will also separately acquire the brand’s global distribution rights, while Magliano’s manufacturing partner and licensee since 2016, Arcari e Co., will maintain that role.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“After years of work, great satisfactions and the achievement of many goals…we found in Underscore District a solid partner who shares our strategy and values and who can support us in an important growth phase,” Magliano said. “Together we discussed at length to find the right formula for future developments, and I am confident that this partnership will enable us to realize our ambitions for the brand,” he added, touting the skills and agile decision-making approach of Underscore District’s team of 30 professionals across various fields.
Underscore District manages Piumestudio, a footwear and accessories brand based in Italy’s Veneto region, and WOK Store, a street- and avant garde-leaning fashion concept store in Milan.
The financial and commercial prowess brought about by Underscore District is expected to support the brand’s growth and cement its global awareness. The company is helping Magliano set up a new design atelier in Bologna, Italy, the designer’s hometown, and a new showroom in Milan’s Tortona district, neighboring other fashion brands including Moncler, Herno and Fendi.
The launch of an e-commerce platform for the brand is scheduled for January, when the brand will also return to Milan Men’s Fashion Week with a live show on Jan. 15 at 11 a.m. CET.
“Magliano perfectly matches the characteristics of our ideal partners. The brand is an undisputed role model for young Made in Italy talents, having created a distinctive and recognizable style,” said Edoardo Di Luzio, chief executive officer and founder of Underscore District.
A fashion design graduate of Bologna’s Libera Università delle Arti, Magliano cut his teeth on Alessandro Dell’Acqua’s team in Milan prior to moving back to Bologna in 2013 to work with designer Manuela Arcari on the Ter et Bantine fashion line.
In 2015, the designer decided to go solo and launched the I Was Naked independent women’s brand, which has since been discontinued. The following year, Arcari, who is also the president of Arcari e Co., offered the designer the chance to produce his own line under license and the Magliano brand was born.
The winner of the ninth edition of Vogue Italia’s talent contest Who Is On Next? Uomo, he unveiled its fall 2018 collection with a runway show at Florence’s Dogana venue during Pitti Uomo and then joined the official Milan Men’s Fashion Week calendar.
Known for his tailoring and color sense, at times evoking grunge or vintage aesthetics, Magliano is positioned in the affordable luxury segment and is carried at around 60 retailers globally. They include Ssense, Vier Antwerp and 10 Corso Como in Seoul and O’ Luxury in Italy, among others.
