MILAN — Giorgia Gabriele has experienced firsthand the fast-paced cycle of fashion — and she’s had enough of it.
A former buyer and a fashion insider, she introduced her first brand, Wanderings, in 2016, building on her quest for seasonal newness to fill her wardrobe with.
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After a few seasons she folded that project to embark on a similar but radically different venture called Armarium and stemming from the same personal need to shop for her closet, only this time embracing a timeless approach.
“I was tired of my wardrobe and seasonal trends, I found myself always looking for high-quality essentials, less trend-driven, less colorful perhaps,” Gabriele said at the brand’s showroom in central Milan, outfitted in track pants, woolen sweats and trainers.
“I needed a return to elevated basics as I had purchased too many recognizable outfits, so I started from what I consider being the staples of a women’s wardrobe,” she noted.
During Milan Fashion Week, the creative, also a social media personality and the spouse of Off-White chief executive officer Andrea Grilli, unveiled her new brand Armarium’s first collection, dubbed “season zero.”
The name is evocative in more ways than one.
The Latin translation of the word “closet,” Armarium nods to the label’s offering of wardrobe-building staples — think perfectly cut perfecto jackets; recycled cashmere sweats; denim galore, and easy-going trenchcoats.
She sourced natural fabrics — no blend or man-made fibers are allowed, she stressed — and had them manufactured across Italy, selecting ateliers excelling in each field. A couple of accessories complement the look, such as a men’s-inspired belt and a baseball cap — but she’s already longing for the introduction of handbags with season one in February.
“It’s not easy to convey the concept of luxurious basics but during the sales campaign I discovered I was not alone, there’s a real need in the market for this,” Gabriele said.
In sharp contrast to the strategy of like-minded Millennials venturing into fashion who tend to embrace direct-to-consumer, she’s a wholesale person and jumpstarted distribution via a tight-knit group of about 25 retailers she met in Milan. They include Bergdorf Goodman, Selfridges, Neiman Marcus and Beymen, among others.
“They were all very enthusiastic, for its quality, aesthetic and storytelling. I think especially with the first collection we needed to establish mutual trust,” she said, explaining she has no plans to launch an e-commerce site in the immediate future.
In sync with her less-is-more approach, Gabriele will drop two collections every year, each shipping in two drops a season. The collection retails at 1,800 euros for leather jackets, 1,500 euros for trenchcoats and between 390 and 750 euros for jeans and pants, respectively.
Retail plans may be hard to lay out so early, but Gabriele underscored that’s one of her ambitions. She actually started the project musing about what an Armarium store would look like and from that envisioned the brand as lifestyle.
Cue the showroom furniture, which she personally sketched. All the design pieces are available on a made-to-order basis. They include travertine marble and resin tables, sophisticated stools and classic steel and walnut wood closets.
Asked about expanding the brand’s scope, she said she knows men, too, are always on the hunt for essentials. “I’ve always been fascinated by menswear as you can probably tell from this collection, which nods to men’s tropes,” she said.
A potential dual- or non-gender development for Armarium is on the table.
“As such it opens up to countless additional categories, be they eveningwear, activewear, underwear,” she said.
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