ALBERTO BIANI KEEPS IT CLEAN
Byline: Samantha Conti
MILAN — Designer Alberto Biani is an eccentric in the fast and furious world of Italian fashion.
For Biani, whose sporty but very simple pieces have become wardrobe staples in the U.S. and Europe, coming up with a collection has always been a private affair; the business of promoting and selling he finds somewhat distasteful. He even downplays his 50 percent ownership of Staff International, which produces and distributes his collections as well as some other designer lines.
He’s a sort of fashion monk, in fact. Biani doesn’t read fashion magazines, stage big runway shows or pay much attention to the trends. In fact, he swears he’s been designing the same clothes over and over for the past 20 years. His skinny stretch pants have been a hit since he first sold them in 1977.
“I always tell more or less the same story, my theme is always sexual ambiguity, mixing the feminine and the masculine in a 1950’s sort of style. My ideal has always been to step outside of time and create a collection that has nothing to do with the trends,” said Biani at Staff’s Milan showroom.
In fact, he says he has an unbridled admiration for certain Japanese designers “because they seem so removed from time and because they design for women who actually exist.”
Biani’s approach to the business, however, is no longer exactly ideal.
In Italy, he never advertised and his label won recognition in the Eighties thanks, in part, to the enthusiastic backing of one of Milan’s top retailers: Rosi Biffi.
“There was no advertising involved. Leading shop owners decreed it to be a successful line — and it turned out to be one,” said Simona Segre, a senior consultant at GPF & Associati, a consulting firm here.
Today, the 45-year-old Biani admits that times are harder and that he’s been forced to change his attitude in order to compete. He said he’s realized the importance of designing broader, more diverse collections and creating an “image” in order to compete in today’s market.
“I never liked the idea of advertising, marketing…and in the past we never did anything to attract customers. We were a little presumptuous with our foreign clients — they came on their own. We did nothing to cultivate them,” Biani said.
“Our error was not understanding that if you want to have a successful business, unfortunately you have to follow certain rules. Today you have to attack the market on all fronts. Unfortunately, you can’t just have a product,” he added. Biani, who designs Alberto Biani, Alberto Biani per New York and Gym, said he is working hard to create an image for the company. He put his name on the New York label four seasons ago and plans to double his advertising budget for 1996 to $625,000 (1 billion lire), and focus on the Italian, German and U.S. markets.
Biani admits his own collections are the least lucrative of the lines Staff produces. The Biani collections had a turnover of just $3.75 million (6 billion lire) last year, less than 6 percent of the company’s estimated 1995 sales of $56.3 million (90 billion lire), which Biani hopes to increase 22 percent in 1996. Most of Staff’s sales come from its licensed lines: Vivienne Westwood’s Red Label, Valentino’s Oliver, Martin Margiela and Costume National. Biani co-owns Staff with Sandro Dall’Pra, a former classmate from Bologna University. Right now, exports represent 35-40 percent of Staff’s turnover, and Biani said he would like to see that figure rise to 50 percent over the next five years. Over the next two years Biani plans to open 20 sales points: a mix of shops and corners. He plans 10 in Italy, four in Germany and Austria and six in the Far East.
About 60 U.S. stores currently carry his collections, including Barneys and Intermix in New York, Susan in San Francisco, Acacia and Ron Herman and Fred Siegal in L.A. In the U.S. the strategy is to encourage well-established clients to buy more each season.
An Alberto Biani per New York suit costs $156-$187 (250,000-300,000 lire) wholesale and an Alberto Biani suit costs about $62 (100,000 lire) more. Prices for his jeans line Gym, born from a failed venture with Guess jeans, are considerably lower, with a pair of jeans costing $31-$40 (50,000-60,000).
While still at university, Biani began working for a sportswear and jeans firm in Noventa, Italy, overseeing their production and sales. He then formed his own company in the early Seventies to produce casual sportswear and started designing the clothes, he says, because there was no one else around to do the job. In 1983, Biani and Dall’Pra formed Staff International. The New York label, known in the U.S. as Alberto Biani per New York Industrie, was created with the idea of dressing women in jackets and suits made from fabrics traditionally used for men’s wear.
Those simple, androgynous pieces remain the core of his collection and are still flying off retailers’ racks in steady if not large quantities.
“No one can cut a jacket like Alberto Biani. He is phenomenal,” said Rodney Walker, an owner of Intermix in Manhattan. “Anyone can wear his clothes. You can be an Amazon or five feet tall and still look terrific in Biani. His appeal lies in his clean, cool classic cuts — not so much his designs.”
Walker said Biani’s stretch pants sell like hotcakes. “The supermodels go crazy for them: Karen Alexander, Naomi Campbell, Paulina all come in here asking for them,” he said. “Give Biani some time and he’ll be as big as Prada and Gucci. In another two or three years he will blow New York away.”
This sort of enthusiasm has caused the fashion monk to alter his theology: he is trying now to turn out trendy pieces and a broader offering of clothing alongside his classic black stretch cigarette and ski pants, fitted jackets in wool gabardine and camel coats.
The spring/summer 1996 collection was heavy on mod: clean, boxy jackets worn with slim, low-slung trousers that narrowed or flared around the ankles, reminiscent of the Beatles’ early days. For evening there were boxy tuxedo jackets and trousers paired with electric bright blouses.
Biani unveiled the Alberto Biani and New York collections during the Milan shows in October at a discreet show — not on the official calendar — at Staff’s showroom in Milan’s trendy Navigli district.
The designer said that only with this latest collection has he begun to reconcile the creative with the commercial, to turn out a collection that he actually likes and thinks will sell.
“It’s actually the first time I really like one of my collections. I think I’ve finally found my equilibrium,” he said.