More of Everything (Except Goods) Brand guru

LUCKY DE LUCA MORE OF EVERYTHING (EXCEPT GOODS)

When Valentino de Luca launched his shirt and blouse collection Lucky de Luca 10 years ago, he radically questioned many of the industry’s hitherto-established rules. Thus, he intuitively created his own characteristic and humorous design language. As a designer, he pays attention to even the smallest details. His speciality remains to tell it like it is. Text: Isabel Faiss. Photo: Lucky de Luca

You demand more flexibility. Is your appeal directed at all protagonists in our industry?

It’s quite simple. Today, you need to be faster and more progressive than in the past. That’s the standard I set for myself, first and foremost. I always try to look further ahead and to adapt to market changes. In my opinion, things are still too static. The panic caused among retailers and certain brands by a fairly miserable last autumn has once again shown that we need more flexibility from all sides. This applies particularly to retailers, who need to abandon their well-trodden paths and be bold enough to rethink certain aspects, especially delivery rhythms. Fortunately, my product group is not dependent on the weather . We can no longer rely on seasons? Why should we make products dependent on seasons then? It’s all about progressive collections, fast and flexible delivery rhythms, and the joint planning of the collection cycle throughout the year. Who offers that? We prefer to offer many small delivery windows instead of large seasonal trap doors that leave retailers with a vast amount of surplus merchandise. We don’t need additional collections or warehouses! How can you deliver innovation via a warehouse? The last thing the market needs now is more goods! The market is overtaking itself. We prefer to make items scarce instead of making them available infinitely.

An institution of our industry is about to face its biggest challenge: the trade fairs. How relevant are they still?

They’re still hanging in the balance. I think the future will be decided this January. The Premium has announced a major re-launch and now it has to deliver on its promises. It’s not enough to simply place the labels differently. The current monopoly of the trade fairs is under pressure from online showrooms and Düsseldorf as a heavily frequented order hub. Again, it’s about flexibility. Modern customers want to decide for themselves when and where to order, and which distances they are willing to cover in the process. For a regular customer, it makes more sense to view a collection digitally and to decide based on fabric samples. We have to create a corresponding offer and present our collections in a sufficiently sophisticated manner. Generally speaking, the Pitti Uomo in Florence is currently the strongest trade show. Personally, I see a large question mark behind the topic.