Brioni diversifies into womenswear

Brioni has resurrected its womenswear line. The Kering group’s Italian high-end menswear label is undergoing a revival after a troubled period, and has expanded its range by introducing women’s luxury ready-to-wear. A diversification that has started softly, with a first capsule collection for the Fall/Winter 2022-23 called ‘La Donna’.

Brioni had already made a foray into womenswear in the early 2000s, going as far as staging runway shows and calling on renowned designers like Alessandro Dell’Acqua. But the line never met with market success, and was abandoned in 2011. The label has now embarked on a new, completely different project, prompted by requests from the label’s bespoke tailoring customers’ wives and partners, keen to have the clothes they sometimes pinch from their men available in their own sizes.

Creative director Norbert Stumpfl has drawn his inspiration from the tailored elegance that characterises Brioni's menswear, and designed six winter looks featuring a handful of essentials in a masculine style, utilising the same fabrics and materials adopted by the men’s line. A white suit, a turtleneck sweater under a cashmere coat, a shirt, satin evening trousers matched with a dinner jacket, these are some of Brioni’s new womenswear essentials.

In addition, Stumpfl has created seven looks for the Spring/Summer 2023, which were unveiled at New York Fashion Week and will also be presented at the forthcoming Milan Fashion Week. A maxi coat, outfits in linen or silk, a trench coat, a blazer, boxy-shaped trousers, a workwear-style shirt and a shirt dress are some of the new collection’s items.

The winter collection has been made available in September at select Brioni stores exclusively through the label’s bespoke service, which allows for customised orders. In addition, the two capsule collections will be exclusively commercialised on a ready-to-wear basis by Net-a-Porter, for both the winter and summer seasons.

The goal is to offer a range of models in the same couture style of Brioni’s menswear but in women’s sizes and fits, in a spirit of “timeless beauty, sophisticated simplicity, unparalleled freedom and lightness, combined with top-notch fabrics and details,” as Brioni stated in a press release.

Brioni is currently distributed via five monobrand stores (in Rome, Milan, Paris, London and New York) and a made-to-measure atelier in Frankfurt, as well as via several department store concessions and through a global wholesale network. The Italian label has also recently opened its first store in Brazil, in Sao Paulo, with a franchisee.

Brioni diversifies into womenswear

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