Romeo Gigli

Romeo Gigli [ ˈdʒiʎːi ] (born December 12, 1949 in Castel Bolognese ) is an Italian fashion designer and the name of the fashion brand he founded in 1984.

Gigli achieved worldwide fame in the 1980s for his unconventional fashion and is still considered an outstanding designer in the industry today. Gigli has had no connection with Romeo Gigli , which had its heyday in the mid-1980s to the end of the 1990s, since 2004 .

Life and company history

Early years and advancement in the fashion industry

Gigli, who came from a family of antiques and booksellers , studied architecture in Florence for a year . When he was 18 years old, his parents, Ancora and Alfa Gigli, died; his father in an accident, his mother shortly afterwards. Then Gigli traveled the world for a few years. 1972 began his career as a fashion designer. He initially designed knitwear collections for the fashion company Quickstep in Bologna and from 1978 worked for Dimitri Couture for Italian-born designer Piero Dimitri in New York City for almost a year . During this time Gigli, who had no formal training as a fashion designer, devoted himself intensively to fashion design .

After returning to Italy, Gigli presented his first fashion collection for women in 1985 under the name Romeo Gigli with the help of his ex-girlfriend, the then editor-in-chief of the Italian Vogue special editions, Carla Sozzani , and her partner Donato Maino. Gigli, Sozzani and Maino owned shares in the company Romeo Gigli. The first presentation took place in a former garage on Corso Como in Milan. Gigli's models were bought by Browns' London fashion store and Hong Kong's Joyce fashion department store . He showed his fashion in the following seasons at the Milan Fashion Week . Sozzani left Vogue in 1986 and after a short time as editor-in-chief of the Italian Elle (magazine) , she concentrated on the Gigli brand as PR manager from 1987 .

The Romeo Gigli brand

Romeo Gigli achieved his international breakthrough in March 1988 when he presented his collection at the Paris prêt-à-porter fashion shows . In the 1980s he designed slim-fitting and graceful-looking fashion, which earned him recognition despite the contrast with the shoulder padding trend at the time. A men's collection was launched in 1986. In the same year he took over a design contract for the Callaghan fashion line from Zamasport as the successor to Gianni Versace until 1996 . Romeo Gigli had previously commissioned Zamasport to manufacture its fashion collections. Accessories from Romeo Giglii followed in 1987. At the end of the 1980s, his variant of the V-neck was mass-produced. In 1988 a Romeo Gigli store opened on Milan's Corso Como, where Gigli sold his fashion alongside the collections of other designers such as John Galliano , Maison Margiela , Sybilla, Jean Paul Gaultier and Issey Miyake . In 1987 the Japanese market was opened up through a license agreement with Takashimara.

Gigli coined the term cocooning , which stands for a certain type of cut that surrounds the body with voluminous fabric and thus gives it a new shape. His fashion was characterized by soft contours, unusual color combinations, asymmetrical cuts, different lengths of fabric and narrow silhouettes. His stylistic devices included items of clothing artfully draped around the body, large shawl collars, tulip-shaped skirts and flat women's shoes. In addition to women's and men's fashion, Gigli also designed sunglasses, ties, perfumes, various accessories , home textiles and even carpets. His workshops and studios were in Milan . Vogue compared Gigli for his intellectual design talent with the Japanese designer greats Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake .

In 1989 the company's first perfume named Romeo di Romeo Gigli for women was launched; a men's fragrance followed under the name Romeo Gigli in 1991. In 1990, the second line of fashion G Gigli, aimed at a younger audience, was added to the portfolio in collaboration with Stefanel . As a result, further secondary lines were established and further shops opened their doors in Milan (Corso Venezia), Hong Kong and New York City. In 1990 Alexander McQueen worked as an assistant at Romeo Gigli.

Decline and sale

In the early 1990s, Gigli fell out with his business partners Sozzani and Maino, who drove him out of business. After many years of legal proceedings, the Geneva company Maison RG took over the rights to the Romeo Gigli brand in 1997 . Gigli himself remained employed as chief designer and was bound by an exclusive contract.

In 1999, the Italian IT Holding took over Romeo Gigli for 30 million euros. Gigli himself kept a 20% stake in the company and remained chief designer. At that time, however, the Romeo Gigli brand had lost its appeal. IT Holding handed over the unprofitable brand Romeo Gigli 2004 to the Luxembourg Euro Holding Sarl , which the license for Romeo Gigli turn to the men's fashion company Fratelli Prandina from Vicenza whose and CEO Pierluigi Mancinelli missed. For this purpose the company Mood Srl was founded by Mancinelli . Gigli struggled before court in vain against this sale and left ultimately the company.

Romeo Gigli without the company founder

In 2006 the designer Gentucca Bini was hired by Romeo Gigli, who had to leave the company in 2008. Mood Srl filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2008 . In 2010 the worldwide trademark rights to Romeo Gigli were secured by an Italian investigative judge. As a result, the company was subject to an insolvency administrator.

In 2011 the Romeo Gigli brand was sold to the Luxembourg investment company DOG Sarl around the Italian entrepreneurs Emilio Pistolato, Pietro Suaria and Francesco Converti, who has owned all the license rights since then. DOG appointed the Italian Armando Mammina as marketing director, who is responsible for the design of all licensed collections. Numerous Gigli licenses were issued from 2012 under the management of DOG Sarl. The license for Romeo Gigli men’s fashion lies with the Copen Group, for women’s fashion with Facis, for knitwear with Imma, for glasses with Logoproject Design and for perfume with Profumeria Italiana. In addition, there are licenses for large women's fashion ( Romeo Gigli Plus ), belts, children's fashion ( Romeo Gigli Kids and Baby ) and others.

Life after the Romeo Gigli brand

At the end of 2008 Romeo Gigli launched a short-lived fashion label independently of the Romeo Gigli brand with the Latin name Io ipse idem (in German roughly: I myself the same ). The brand was discontinued at the end of 2009 after Giglis stopped giving investors any more money. The former website ioipseidem.com is no longer online. In collaboration with Merce Cunningham , Gigli designed some stage costumes in 2009. At the beginning of 2010 he started the high-priced women's fashion brand XII XII XLIX par Romeo Gigli with the Italian knitwear manufacturer Fuzzi for a few seasons . These Roman numerals ( 12 12 49 ) stood for Gigli's date of birth. In 2012, Gigli created women's and men's collections for several seasons under the name Joyce by Romeo Gigli for the Hong Kong fashion chain Joyce, which had already bought its first collection in 1985.

Romeo Gigli is married and has a daughter (* 1998).

Collections

The collections of the 1980s and 1990s included:

• Romeo Gigli - high-priced main line for women and men
• G Gigli or Gigli - fashionable bridge collection for young women and men
• Gigli Sport - sporty leisure collection
• Gigli Jeans - denim-based second line for women and men

Web links

• Official homepage of the Romeo Gigli brand
• Website of the Romeo Gigli licensee for glasses
• XII XIIXLIX par Romeo Gigli on fuzzi.eu

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dizionario della moda - Gigli
2. ^ Romeo Gigli talks to Filep Motwary , dapperdanmagazine.com, May 30, 2013
3. ^ A Page Out of History , nytimes.com, August 28, 2005
4. ↑ Do you understand cocooning? , gala.de, November 8, 2013
5. ^ Romeo Gigli For Joyce , vogue.co.uk, August 6, 2012
6. ^ Romeo Gigli: Repurchase of trademark and license rights , textilwirtschaft.de, September 18, 1998
7. ^ IT Holding sells Romeo Gigli , textilwirtschaft.de, April 28, 2004
8. ↑ Sequestrato il marchio Romeo Gigli , businesspeople.it, January 20, 2010
9. ↑ Romeo Gigli returns with Luxus-Linie  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , textilwirtschaft.de, December 4, 2008  
10. ^ Romeo Gigli Designs Headed to Stage , wwd.com, April 16, 2009
11. ↑ New Collection XII XII XLIX by Romeo Gigli , ladylux.com, February 3, 2010
12. ↑ JOYCE by Romeo Gigli Spring / Summer 2013 , the-dvine.com, February 6, 2013
13. ↑ Wherefore art thou, Romeo Gigli? ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , telegraph.co.uk, September 5, 2012