How Heritage Brand Luisa Spagnoli Is Courting Younger Consumers
MILAN — With a history of more than nine decades, Luisa Spagnoli knows a thing or two about women’s evolving fashion needs.
Starting a few seasons back, the Umbria-based, family-run business has been carving out a revamped image, more in tune with the times and catering to a younger generation of dynamic and digitally savvy clients.
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Since last September, the brand has presented its collections with runway shows during Milan Fashion Week and Nicoletta Spagnoli, the company’s chief executive officer, president and creative director, acknowledged that a more youthful vibe ran through her most recent efforts, which were imbued with vivid colors and an eclectic undercurrent, the result of a renewed focus on Millennials and Gen Zers.
The fall 2022 ad campaign shot by Alvaro Beamud Cortés reflects that more youthful spirit, with models Isilda Moreira and Maartje Verhoef wrapped in cocooning knit separates and tailored peacoats in tone-on-tone colors, exuding confidence.
“We have always been considered a quite conservative brand but now our goal is to embrace a wider audience and tap into a younger target, all the while keeping close ties with our traditional clients who have modernized the way they dress in comparison with the past,” Spagnoli explained.
Alvaro Beamud Cortés/Courtesy of Luisa Spagnoli
As part of this strategy, the company this month debuted a revamped e-commerce site geared at omnichannel capabilities typically embraced by digital-native consumers.
“We have been looking at this opportunity for quite some time as we believe that an omnichannel structure can spur our international expansion,” said Spagnoli, noting how the past two pandemic-disrupted years have seen online sales grow steadily, with a 35 percent jump in 2021 versus the previous year.
The website offers customers a chance to book private in-store shopping experiences, as well as buy online and pick up in-store and in-store return services.
Mindful of new-gen customers’ sustainable expectations, the e-commerce platform will also provide different packaging options, including eco-minded, plastic-free boxes crafted from FSC-approved paper. A gift box option complements the offering.
The new website’s launch coincides with the internalization of its operations, which were previously outsourced, resulting in a nimbler distribution structure. Spagnoli noted that this will enable the brand to handle its stock more efficiently, unified under a single management tool that encompasses brick-and-mortar and digital doors.
Luisa Spagnoli’s physical retail network counts around 200 doors, including 156 directly operated flagship stores in Italy, as well as in London, Munich, Dusseldorf and in Poland and another 40 banners in key regions such as the Middle East and elsewhere in Europe, operated with local partners.
The brand will open three new doors in the former region, a key growth driver, according to Spagnoli, with flagship stores bowing this summer at the Riyadh Park mall in the Saudi Arabian capital and at The Pearl and DFC malls in Doha, Qatar. The brands also boasts 63 wholesale accounts.
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