Fiorucci is working on several initiatives as part of its ongoing relaunch. Founded in Milan in 1967 by Elio Fiorucci, the storied Italian brand was purchased by Swiss businesswoman Dona Bertarelli in October 2022 through her family office. The company is making its direct retail debut with two pop-up boutiques in Milan and Paris, after the September release of its inaugural collection, which was overseen by Francesca Murri, creative director.
The first, which takes up 120 square meters on the fourth floor of the Milanese department store, debuts this Thursday, February 1. It will be open for business all month long. The second pop-up, which occupies about thirty square meters, will debut in Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Elysées in Paris on March 4. The brand is testing this in an attempt to grow through department store corners.
Paris holds great significance for us, since we aim to establish our presence in Europe and collaborate with fashion capitals, which are the locations of our intended clientele. Although we have a lot of potential in Korea and Japan, we are now focusing on major multi-brands and European cities. Our goal has always been to reposition Fiorucci in the market for accessible luxury goods by emphasizing a creative, high-quality product that is created entirely in Italy, says Managing Director Alessandro Pisani.
Exhibited in prestigious multi-brand stores next to labels like Acne Studios and Jacquemus, Fiorucci is positioned with premium goods priced at an introductory €350 for jeans, €400 for knitwear, and €700–750 for bags. A larger pre-collection with around 380 ready-to-wear and accessories models debuted in November, after the initial 180-item collection that debuted in September.
The more inventive pieces, together with denim and accessories like jewelry and bags like the marshmallow-shaped one, proved to be highly sought-after by consumers. Conversely, the manager observes that there was less interest in the most fundamental elements. The product has won over about sixty multi-brand stores, including some very nice boutiques in unexpected places like Ukraine and Poland, as well as the British brands Selfridges, END, and the Italian Sugar.
The business, though, doesn’t plan to stop there. It has set a packed schedule for the upcoming months, starting with a fall show at Milan’s La Triennale to honor founder designer Elio Fiorucci. On February 12, it will launch its new corporate website and e-shop. By drastically altering the label’s image and adding content to the website, the goal is to move away from its previous, highly commercial positioning that was primarily based on the brand’s iconic baroque-pop motifs and toward the more sophisticated and modern aesthetic of the new collections.
The new collection’s presentation, which is set for February 22 during the upcoming Milan Fashion Week, is another significant occasion. In the new “Casa Fiorucci” (Fiorucci House), it will be unveiled “in a very creative and ironic way”. Over the next several months, the brand will be moving its showroom and offices to this 1,000-square-meter location in Chinatown, where it will also establish a creative hub and house some of its archives. Fiorucci is organizing a large celebration with artists in a Milanese club that same evening in order to unite the brand’s new followers around a real experience.
