Style Capital takes control of the Alessandro Dell’Acqua brand. The designer stays at the creative helm. The question is how the balance between signature and numbers will hold.
The Milan-based brand is changing structure. Style Capital has acquired control of N°21, and Gilmar, the longtime industrial partner, has sold his stake after requesting a negotiated debt restructuring procedure in October. The price has not been disclosed.
The detail that interests me most is another one: Dell’Acqua stays in creative direction. Personally, I consider N°21 a brand I like very much, and Dell’Acqua one of the best designers around. His signature has been recognizable for years. Now the question is how much a fund will let that signature follow its own instinct instead of the numbers.
The brand has a solid base. It debuted at Milan Fashion Week with the Autumn/Winter 2010-11 collection, moved into menswear in 2014, and then into footwear and accessories. Today it is stocked in over 250 multibrand stores and has monoshops in Tokyo, Milan, Hong Kong and Seoul. The project therefore starts from a commercial network that is already built.
Style Capital, based in Milan, has Zimmermann, Soeur, Autry, Forte_Forte, MSGM, Essential Parfums and Re/Done in its portfolio. It is led by Roberta Benaglia, an engineer with a degree from the Politecnico di Milano, who has worked at Borsa Italiana, in venture capital and in private equity. A founding partner in 2005 of the company now called Style Capital SGR, she has been its CEO and main shareholder since 2016. Between 2012 and 2017 she led Golden Goose as CEO and chair. Those who know the supply chain from the inside make the growth promise more concrete.
Three things to watch in the coming months. The resilience of multibrand distribution, which says more than any press release. The consistency of the collections with Dell’Acqua’s signature. Which markets get the next monoshops. In deals like this, the risk rarely lies in the change of owner. It lies in the contracts: if creative control is not written into the agreement, it remains a verbal promise.
