How changing tastes can provide new opportunities for a 50-year-old business.
TEXT LYNETTE KOH
“Sorry if I repeat myself,” says Antonio de Matteis, in Italianaccented English, several times during our chat at the Kiton store at Ngee Ann City. The second-generation CEO of Italian family-owned clothing company Kiton is apologising for his frequent use of the phrase “top quality”. But we can hardly blame him for being proud of his brand’s USP – after all, which other label has a $50,000 suit (made from materials such as ultra-lightweight vicuna) as one of its icons, or can say that it makes 90 per cent of its own fabrics (with the remaining 10 per cent exclusively made just for it)? Here, de Matteis shares what else goes into making the 50-year-old brand a top choice for the world’s one-percenters.
We have gone from a formal company to a more sportive one. People are dressing differently from before. The key is to show that we are ready to develop all our ideas. I travel more than 200 days a year, and I see how people dress – people flying first-class no longer wear jackets and suits; they wear jogging pants. This is especially so for the younger generation. But while they are less formal in some ways, they are also much more maniacal when they have to dress formally. (Smiles)
When a young guy has to wear a tuxedo, he wants the right shoes, the right socks; he wants his pants to fit in the perfect way – the length has to be just right, not 1mm less or 1mm more. When men of my generation were this age, we liked to wear formal items, but we wouldn’t care if our pants were half a centimetre too long. But young guys, they care. To me, this is a good sign. It shows us that there is a new generation looking for formal, classic pieces, done in a modern way.
We don’t license anything, we don’t make anything outside; everything is done in Italy. Our customers don’t need anything because they already have everything, but they are always looking for something new. So we have (innovations like) vicuna denim, which is 100 per cent vicuna, treated to look like denim. We launched it a year ago, making 200 sports jackets with it. And they have nearly sold out. (Ed’s note: A single vicuna-denim jacket, retailing for $29,380, was available for sale on the day of this interview.)