Maska
Italian womenswear prêt-à-porter firm, founded in 1968 in Scandiano (Reggio Emilia). It distributes four clothing lines, including M.K. for a youthful customer base. It has opened showrooms in London and Düsseldorf and exports to Japan. The brand has experienced highs and lows in its search for a lost style, but this has been rediscovered with Simon Kneen who has designed the company’s collections since Spring-Summer 2003. The look has been revised and corrected, without abandoning the tailored over garments that have always been the company’s specialty: severe trouser suits that almost became tail-coats for winter 2003-2004. But the jackets could also be teamed with tiny slips that fluttered around the waist. Kneen’s signature often has a sharp edge: 360ú restyling in order to rejuvenate the new brand in the Fin.part stable.
&Quad;2002, June. Simon Kneen, from Liverpool, was made creative director at Maska. He had already worked for the company in the past, as well as the GFT Group, Belfe, Simint, Laura Biagiotti, Les Copains, Trussardi, Pierre Balmain, and Adrienne Vittadini. Furthermore, he has designed a line that has been distributed in own-brand stores bearing his own name. He replaced Istvan Francer who moved on within the Fin.part Group to manage the principal Cerruti lines, collaborating with Samantha Sung (who came from Ralph Lauren) for women’s collections and Adrien Smith (with experience at Gucci and Ferré) for the men’s.
&Quad;2003, February. Simon Kneen’s second collection showed in Milan with a new interpretation of Maska’s classic garment, the perfectly tailored jacket. Within the Fin.part Group, Maska, which closed 2002 with a turnover of 65 million euros, is increasingly considered to be a high quality product.
&Quad;2003, June. Fin.part sold all its shares in Maska for 26.1 million euros. 85% of the shares were purchased by Go & Create Investment, a Luxemburg company of an industrial group coordinated by Luigi Francesconi, while the remaining 15% went to Gianni Trevison, CEO of Maska. The deal was intended to reduce a net financial debt of about 20 million euros.