“Today, re-launching a brand like Fragiacomo into the fashion market, is quite a challenge”, says Federico Pozzi Chiesa, leather house president. Fragiacomo was born in Milan in 1956 and has been taken over in 2010 by the group GC Holding. “Our family has been a customer of Fragiacomo from three generations – he says – So, one day my mother and grandmother have noticed that they were doing a sell-off, wondering why, they understood that the brand was about to close and we thought about the opportunity to buy it. I believe that the decision by the owner to sell it to us and not to others is due to the special relationship, of true affection, we have with Fragiacomo. He realized that we had no intention of changing its nature, not even to exploit it and make it one of those ultra commercial brand “. It is indeed a “great love” – a rare thing in the fashion industry – the one mentioned by Federico Pozzi Chiesa for a brand that has reached its fame in the 60s and 90s, with boutique throughout Italy and a percentage of sales in the United States and Japan. Despite a redrafting that took place after the death of the founder, Fragiacomo has always maintained a very high quality product and a position of great prestige: “Our aim is to provide the best shoes and the best bags with a good relationship between quality and price. All our products are made in Italy and, above all, are made by the best Italian craftsmen”. “Get into the market today is not easy, is a demanding market, because it is mature and big brands cover the major part of it, but we are on the right path”. The arrival of designer Bianca Gervasio was definitely an important point of this path: “She has a great ability to create different collections maintaining a thread thanks to the experience of creative director of the group Mila Schön. And then she knows how to identify the strength of a brand and how to renew it, maintaining at the same time the iconic features, just as she did with the iconic bicolor by Fragiacomo”. “Furthermore, in recent years, we have extended the range of our accessories with more daily bags, including our Icon Bag that we wanted to call Gloria as my mother”, says Federico. “And then the opening of the flagship store on Via Turati, that won the German Design Award for commercial spaces. The architect Sergio Calatroni, who developed the project, aimed at very innovative idea to symbolize the same revolution that Fragiacomo is experiencing, but that, with a simple glance, people can perceive the identity, the same as always”. “At the beginning we wanted to understand if the perception that we had of the brand was the same of the rest of the people. We have opened a small shop in viale Piave in Milan, an interesting area in terms of fashion and above all, it is only 500 meters as the crow flies from the old shop. So, we worked for the store in via Turati and after long negotiations we decided to buy the walls. This shows, in my opinion, how much Fragiacomo means for us and how much we believe in its potential”. A progressive growth that began in 2010 and that, step by step, is bringing back the leather goods brand in the place it deserves: among the international luxury brand. “Soon we are going to inaugurate a showroom in the fashion area of Milan and we are thinking about opening in Rome too, close to the historic shop in Via delle Carrozze. In addition, we are strengthening the team, but for now I can’t say more”.
Meanwhile, however, the real gem that we reveal as a preview is the agreement signed with a major Iranian distributor to purchase products and, especially, for the opening of three single-brand, two by the end of the year and one to early next year, in Tehran. “Iran is a country that is experiencing a rapid growth and with a strong potential, it is a market that it isn’t saturated yet and it opens the doors to the entire Middle East.”
