Red Bull’s AlphaTauri Takes Over Milan’s Rinascente
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STEP ON THE GAS: Red Bull’s fashion label AlphaTauri is screeching into Milan by taking over the city’s Rinascente department store starting today until Feb. 17.
Launched in 2016 as a brand extension to the Austrian conglomerate, AlphaTauri’s collections are based on innovation and functionality, aiming at using the newest technologies to create everyday apparel, suitable for office and outdoors.
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As part of the tie-up, the label took over the department store’s eight windows facing the arcade on central shopping thoroughfare Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and installed two pop-up shops inside, dedicated to men’s and women’s wear, respectively, to mark the retail debut of its spring 2020 collection, which the company presented last year during Berlin Fashion Week.
“We debuted in 2016 in the German-speaking area — Germany, Austria and Switzerland — but Italy represents our first move into global expansion. The country will play a major role as it’s an important player in fashion and therefore it made sense for us to make our debut here, starting from Milan,” said Ahmet Mercan, AlphaTauri’s general manager.
The executive said France and the U.K. come next as the brand is negotiating with local premium department stores to replicate a similar tie-up there. Japan is also a market high on the company’s agenda.
The Rinascente pop-ups, running until Feb. 24, will be instrumental in showcasing AlphaTauri’s innovations, including 3-D Knit, a high-tech knitwear range that avoids stitching to enhance comfort and save around 30 percent of yarn compared to traditional knitting techniques.
Among other innovative textiles worked for the spring collection, a performance membrane featuring three layers to enhance water-resistance is doubled with soft-touch cotton, while the patented Taurex fabric is treated with titanium to give the garments the ability to reflect the infrared radiations the human body naturally produces, thus trapping warmth and benefiting the blood’s circulation.
“We are always looking through the lens of innovation, which has always been our main approach together with functionality, a topic that is important in the apparel industry. But we’re also always looking at it without sacrificing the beauty of products, which is key. Functionality is an added value,” Mercan explained, adding sustainability is also a byproduct of innovation.
The Rinascente takeover will coincide with the unveiling of the new livery of the Formula 1 Scuderia AlphaTauri’s racing car, which the brand will start sponsoring with the 2020 season. One of the two racing teams owned by Red Bull, the Scuderia AlphaTauri, based in Faenza, Italy was previously named Scuderia Toro Rosso.
The Red Bull-owned brand installed a life-size racing car on the department store’s facade that will be unwrapped on Feb. 14. The installation is flanked by projections of the brand’s logo through a mapping technique.
Drawing its name from the brightest star of the Taurus constellation, AlphaTauri counts 80 wholesale accounts in the German-speaking region and two directly operated retail units in Saltzburg and Graz.
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