PARIS — With 2023 promising to be another year of designer musical chairs in the luxury industry, at least one brand is happy to remain without a creative figurehead.
Berluti, which belongs to French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is back on the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week this season for the first time since the departure in 2021 of its artistic director Kris Van Assche.
Far from being dormant in the interim, the house has overhauled its ready-to-wear and accessories collections, and is now ready to show off the work of its in-house team.
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It marks the first time since the launch of its ready-to-wear line in 2012 that the footwear specialist has operated without a creative director, following the tenures of Alessandro Sartori, Haider Ackermann and Van Assche. Antoine Arnault, chief executive officer of Berluti, said the change of gear had proved beneficial.
“While you might think there’s a risk that it would leave us out of the conversation, or less in tune with trends, it’s nice to see that precisely the opposite has happened. And by stepping out of the fashion scene, with this obligation to deliver something new every season, we’ve benefited from being much more self-assured and faithful to our craftsmanship roots,” he said.
“We no longer do a runway show, but we communicate differently. We do a lot of one-to-one appointments with our historic clients. Special orders and made-to-measure are doing increasingly well, so it’s all very virtuous, and it’s pleasant to be a little less visible,” Arnault added. “This works much better for us and our clients are feeling it too.”
While the executive declined to provide figures, he said sales reflected the renewed momentum of the brand coming out of the coronavirus pandemic. “Our shoes and leather goods are doing extremely well in Asia, especially in Japan,” he noted. “When you look at the department store rankings in those countries, we’re not far behind the major brands.”
Harold Israel, vice president marketing and image of Berluti, said the “very good” performance in 2022 was the fruit of a general update aimed at reinforcing brand pillars, highlighting craftsmanship and streamlining its ready-to-wear assortment, with a focus on travel-friendly pieces that marry comfort and luxury.
“By focusing a little less on fashion, and overhauling our pillars and our assortments, we’ve made our message and brand identity much clearer and our customers have returned,” he said. “All our iconic products have been revamped to improve the quality of the construction and refine the execution in terms of linings and finishings, and above all to harmonize them.”
Berluti’s fall 2023 collection, titled “The Great Escape,” will be presented on Wednesday in a showroom at the brand’s headquarters in Paris.
Launching in September is a six-piece line of luggage and bags featuring the new Toile Marbeuf canvas, featuring a fresh take on the Scritto, Berluti’s signature 18th-century manuscript motif. With its rich brown leather trimmings, inspired by the woodwork and club chairs found in the brand’s historic boutique on Rue Marbeuf, it’s designed to have a retro feel.
Meanwhile, Berluti plans to ease out the Signature canvas it introduced in 2020.
On the footwear front, the brand is offering new variations on classic styles like the Ultima, now lined in shearling for a wintery feel, and its bestselling Shadow sneaker. Meanwhile, classic bag styles like the Trois Nuits, launched in 2005, have been given a makeover.
“Shoes are really at the core of our expertise, so the quality is extremely high. We wanted our leather goods offer to be on the same level,” Israel said.
Likewise, Berluti has been refining its ready-to-wear to make it increasingly weightless, with items including a burgundy leather version of its B-Way blouson, a deerskin varsity jacket and a lightweight down blouson crafted in supple patinated leather.
“Constructing a lightweight piece is not easy. It’s much simpler to make something quite structured and rigid, and it’s also less expensive, whereas refining pieces like this is very complex and requires real know-how,” Israel noted.
The fall collection is split into four drops, landing in stores from July to December. While Berluti has no plans to grow its global network of around 60 stores, it has a program of pop-ins timed to important releases, which include a golf capsule collection and the new Lorenzo Drive loafer in the first half, and the Marbeuf canvas in the second half.
The brand plans to reprise its Live Iconic campaign, launched in 2022 with images of two of its legendary clients, Marcello Mastroianni and Andy Warhol. It’s all part of its new customer-centric strategy.
“Our message is that we are more of a luxury house than a fashion house — that’s really the territory we want to explore, but we don’t want to do it in a repetitive or boring or uncreative way. We want to do it with an intention, which is to highlight our know-how and to show how we envision a men’s wardrobe, and we think that vision is relevant and real,” Israel said.