ATTICO CATCH: Remo Ruffini has acquired a 49 percent stake in women’s wear company The Attico through a vehicle called Archive Srl.
“The deal — to be considered a mere financial investment — is in line with Archive’s diversification strategy whose mission is to invest in the ready-to-wear as well as in the food and beverage and hospitality business,” said a note sent to WWD late Monday evening.
Archive is an independent company managed by Stefano Marcovaldi and controlled by Ruffini Partecipazioni Holding. Ruffini Partecipazioni is controlled by Ruffini, Moncler’s chairman and chief executive officer, and is Moncler’s main stakeholder.
“Archive srl is an independent company incorporated in June 2018 with the aim to acquire minority shareholdings in small companies operating in the ready-to-wear, food & beverage and hospitality sectors in order to develop their business,” said Pietro Ruffini, an executive member of the board of Archive and son of Remo Ruffini. “Archive’s mission is to support imaginative leaders and disruptive entrepreneurs in fostering their ventures, translating their vision into meaningful and sustainable long-term growth. To me it’s an exciting entrepreneurial challenge: it’s all about creating opportunities for small companies supporting them to achieve their full capability and business evolution. We have invested in The Attico as we consider it a promising venture with tremendously talented young designers and a still untapped potential which we are ready to nourish and sustain.”
Established in 2016 by top Italian influencers Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini, and launched as a collection of robes, Attico’s aesthetic is eccentric and sensual. Ambrosio and Tordini, who at presstime counted 631,000 combined Instagram followers, told WWD last year that “Attico was born from the desire to tell a women’s story developed by women,” and that the line does not follow specific trends. “We find inspiration in the vintage world. We like to look at pieces [that] already had a story, and our goal is that our customers consider Attico items as one-of-a-kind objects to collect and keep in their wardrobe forever,” Tordini said.
For spring, Attico turned to Palm Beach, Fla., in the Eighties for inspiration and presented fluid jersey dresses with ample, draped sleeves and minidresses splashed with upholstery-like retro floral patterns and sequined slipdresses decorated with a cascade of feathers in sorbet tones.