Inghirami

Italian clothing group. It is among the four most important conglomerates in Italy. It controls more than 40 companies in Italy and overseas, with a total turnover of about 700 billion Lira. Within its structure, it counts some of the most prestigious names of the textile sector (Reggiani, Cantoni, Duca Visconti di Modrone, Multifibre, Lanificio di Carignano, and Textiloses et Textiles) and some of the most renowned manufacturing brands such as Sanremo, Ingram, Fabio Inghirami, Reporter, and Pancaldi, as well as licenses with important brands from Laura Biagiotti to Guy Laroche. It was established in 1949 in San Sepolcro as a shirtswear factory by Fabio Inghirami. Its success allowed the company to increase the production to a total look: jackets and suits of classic and traditional inspiration, reinterpreted with modernity, and always open to study and research. The company’s development took place between 1970 and 1990, through acquisitions of specialized companies in their own sectors with traditional background. The group’s main characteristic is its vertical organization. From yarns to fabrics to clothes manufacturing, the one element that favors synergy between the various companies is an elevated know-how. The product knowledge and the introduction into old and new markets is a real strength. In the last few years, important investments were made in Spain, Hungary, Bulgaria, France, and China, where a joint venture was created for the production and selling in the Chinese and Asian markets. The group has branch offices in New York, Barcelona, Paris, Budapest, and San Paulo. Among the group’s latest news was a custom-made project, which allows the client to purchase custom-made clothes at affordable prices with the guarantee of quality, speed, and the alliance with the designer Fusco for a new line.
Among the most curious items displayed at Pitti Immagine Uomo was the revolutionary ‘use and throw-away’ shirt One Day, manufactured in a fabric non fabric, which is to cost about 20 Euros.
‘Now by Pancaldi’ is the new collection with which the group relaunched the Pancaldi brand, the group’s only womenswear line. It was targeted at a 25 to 30 year-old age group and made its debut in July.
The Pitti Immagine Uomo award was presented to Giovanni Inghirami, the president of the group, during the opening ceremony of Pitti Immagine Uomo (62nd edition), which was held, as usual, in the Cinquecento room in the Palazzo Vecchio (city hall), Florence. Giovanni’s father, Fabio Inghirami, was remembered on this occasion. The president of the Florence Center for Italian Fashion, Alfredo Canessa, justified the award: “In two generations and starting from one of the Tuscan poles of fashion, the one in the area of Arezzo, the Inghirami group imposed itself as one of the most meaningful European realities in the clothing and textile sector”.
The group organized an international contest for young designers. The judging panel was chaired by Beppe Modenese, and composed of Laura Biagiotti, Daniela Giussani (Elle Italy), Richard Buckley (Vogue Homme International), Franca Sozzani (Vogue Italy), and Alfredo Canessa. Its job was to evaluate the creations of emerging designers who had studied architecture or at fashion schools. A sketch of a new design for men or women together with a written report was to be entered by the emerging designers. The prize was 25,000 Euros.
The Inghirami group with the Duca Visconti di Modrone, Reggiani, Fabio Inghirami, Ingram, Reporter, Pancaldi and Sanremo brands arranged a joint venture in China. A market where it expected to open 60 to 70 new stores in three years and where it had been present at production level since the mid 1990s. The new spaces in the coastal areas of the south and southwest were to be managed by the Sanremo Shanghai Garment company with an agreement with the Sanremo Shanghai Garment group Imp & Exp Corp. owned by the State. At the end of 2002 a turnover of 7 million Euros was expected for the new company, of which the Italian Group holds 65%. In the meantime Inghirami was exploring other markets in order to increase its single brand stores from 40 to at least 210 in two years. Inghirami, which produces its lines in Italy, China, France, Hungary, and Bulgaria achieved a turnover of 250 million Euros in 2001.
For Pitti Immagine Uomo, the Inghirami award was awarded to Isabel Fernandez, aged 25, from Madrid, and to Caroline Barulis, aged 22, from England. The theme to develop was ‘ecology as a must for evolution’. Fernandez introduced pieces of landscape to her designs in a new vision of the body-environment relationship. Barulis gave life to multifunctional garments, drawing inspiration from the unusual cutting of Japanese designers.
An agreement was signed with the designer Chiara Boni, who had left the Textile Financial group in July 2002, an organization founded in 1985. Inghirami was to manufacture the designer’s menswear collection, which was exhibited at Milano Moda Uomo (June 2003). 50% of Chiara Boni’s brand passed to the control of the San Sepolcro group.