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MILAN — After selling a majority stake to consumer investment giant L Catterton and presenting its fall 2023 collection during Paris Fashion Week, A.P.C. is capping off a busy month by officially planting a flag in Italy. The contemporary fashion label has opened its first store in Milan’s arty Brera district, which will be celebrated with a cocktail event on March 30.
“Italy has always been in our development plan but it was mostly a question of timing. Our recent growth on the Italian market has been a strong sign that it was now the time to open,” told WWD Jean Touitou, who founded the brand in 1987.
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Touitou noted that the country counts “many hyper-qualitative specialty stores,” and “distributing the brand in wholesale has been very profitable for us over the last years, thanks to our local partner Giacomo Piazza (247 showroom). Having said that, we feel we were missing a dedicated space to express A.P.C. values. The store is clearly a strong lever to achieve this strategic objective.”
Asked about the location selected, Touitou said Brera has “the cool vibes that we can have in Paris when we are in Le Marais.”
To further enhance the familiar vibe, the company partnered with longtime collaborator and design studio Laurent Deroo Architecte for the interior project.
“Laurent Deroo has designed A.P.C. stores over the last 20 years so there is not really a question [of] ‘what partner’ [to select] when it comes to architecture but more ‘which project,’ since Laurent always adapt his design to the local context,” Touitou said.
For this unit, the studio was inspired by the Arte Povera movement and Italian modernist artist and furniture designer Enzo Mari, to develop functional and sober interiors, nodding to A.P.C. own collections carried at the store, encompassing women’s, men’s, denim and accessories lines. As hinted by the store facade and the triangular window detail standing out on the wooden door, graphic and angular wood displays dominate the space and contrast with ice gray walls.
Whether the Milan store marks the first of a series in Italy is to-be-determined, since Touitou said “the roll out plan is still under discussion.”
“The A.P.C. retail network is still very small compared to our competitors, so we have room to expand either in countries where we already have stores or in new countries: the plan is obviously to open but we don’t want to rush,” added the founder.
The brand has more than 70 company-owned stores across Europe, the U.S., Australia, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.
“The overall distribution strategy remains unchanged: we want to keep our geographical balance (Asia, Europe, the U.S.) together with our channel balance (retail, wholesale, digital),” said Touitou, adding that “’continuity’ should be the main word to characterize this strategy,” so no revolution is to be expected.
Ditto for the product: as reported earlier this month, while speaking to journalists after the show in Paris, Touitou said “nothing is going to change” after the L Catterton investment, and he will continue to head the creative side.
There, he also said he felt a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders after a tough business spell during the pandemic, and that he was not the right person to lead the business to the next level, though the time was right for it to grow.
Speaking to WWD following the sale news, L Catterton Europe partner Eduardo Velasco said that A.P.C. has revenue of more than 100 million euros and he believes it is poised for growth up to 500 million euros.
L Catterton is backed by luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and has invested heavily in fashion brands, including Birkenstock, Etro, Ganni and John Hardy, in recent years.
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