Simply Abu Dhabi XXIX

2 3 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Corneliani BeyondAppearance F ounded in 1958 by Claudio and Carlaberto Corneliani in Mantua, the northern Italian region of Lombardy, Corneliani is a world-renowned menswear manufacturer with a signature line in suits and sports coats. Corneliani is widely admired for producing fine Italian tailoring and craftsmanship in a very competitive industry. In 2016, the private equity firm Investcorp acquired the majority of Corneliani’s capital from the founding family and named Paolo Roviera as CEO of the brand. Roviera and his team have worked hard to transform the brand and elevate it back up high on the ladder of the international scene. To understand the new direction that Corneliani has taken, I met Stefano Gaudioso, Style Director and General Merchandising Manager of the brand. After working for 18 years for Zegna and Pal Zileri, during which Gaudioso was in charge of merchandising, he was hired by Paolo Roviera to help with the relaunch. IvanAllegranti: Is Corneliani embracing a new beginning ? Stefano Gaudioso: Corneliani is living an evolution. In fact, after Investcorp acquired the majority of the brand, Paolo and I decided not to disrupt the brand but to make it evolve. We decided to evolve in terms of elegance, sophistication and style, without forgetting our DNA and our loyal clientele. So, what we did is to change the way we created and approached the collections. We undertook style research, we changed suppliers, we used new textiles. Together with this we rebuilt the brand, changing the logo, the packaging and studying a new store concept designed by Marco Costanzi, which we will reveal in March in Rome. We will open with this new store concept also in London and next year in New York. And after that we will renovate our stores, including the one we have in Dubai. IA: Seeing and feeling your newFall/Winter collection, it’s clear that you that you have chosen more precious textiles. Are you also changing the target clientele? SG: Intentionally we did not change our target clientele but in our retail we did add a selection of more luxury products, and they sold so well, more than the others, that our target has evolved into a much higher one. IA: The evolution is evident also on your website. Is the change reflected in e-commerce? SG: Yes, in fact, we rebuilt the website and we’ve launched the e-commerce products that are available all over the world, except in China and the US. But, especially with the website, what we did is to give to it a new spirit and make the customer feel a lifestyle experience. IA: And how do you feel about it? SG: I feel a great passion for my work and for life. Our strategy is to guide our customer through his passions—from cars to yachts to a luxury lifestyle—and to make him feel more. IA: Do your own passions match with those of Corneliani’s man? SG: Well, I have many of them. At Corneliani our goal is not only to “describe” the Corneliani man, but also to make him experience his passions. For example, a few months ago, we organised a vintage car experience with Riccardo Pozzoli and his NGA (No-Girls-Allowed) club, just for young entrepreneurs, creating the perfect environment to promote a capsule collection we launched that’s devoted to cars. So, what we are trying to do is not make the brand evolve statically, but to evolve the brand in a much deeper way. It’s not only cars, this summer we did also other events about sailing, riding, golf and motorbike worlds. IA: Can you tell us about the final customer? SG: What’s important is that someone is living the experience. Especially working with influencers: they live the experience and they make their friends live it. So, for now it's something very small but in the future we will make it possible that our loyal customers can live, for example, with a reward programme. Those experiences give to the customer a full service. And our concept is “Style Life”, we help our client to curate his style. Like for an art exposition, we are “curators” of our clients and we guide them step by step to discover new experiences and new style options. Stefano Gaudioso Tramonte