No diffusion lines for Giuseppe Zanotti!
Much like his contemporary, Christian Louboutin, the Italian shoe designer has avowed that he will never do a diffusion line. Unlike Jimmy Choo, which will soon launch its line for H&M, Zanotti says:
"For myself, no. I saw my scandal in an H&M on Fifth Avenue. And I took a shot and sent it to my friend, and he goes, 'It's not possible. They are they same.' I'm not super happy when they copy my shoes, but I understand it. It's nice when fashion is accessible to everybody. If a girl loves Balmain, and needs to have something like it, it's nice that H&M does that. But I don't think Giuseppe Zanotti designing for another brand makes sense. Some designers have a house behind them, but I am physically here and I shouldn't have to put my name on something like that. It's good in terms of popularity, but I think my customer wouldn't be happy. I respect when Karl Lagerfeld or Madonna do something with H&M, because they are personalities. But I am a shoemaker, and if I did it for a cheaper price for incredible worldwide distribution, it doesn't make sense."
Instead, Zanotti has opted to fare the recession by sticking to his guns:
"The recession was very negative for business and I had a lot of doubts about my strategy. My collection is consistently very expensive. But we needed to cut the costs, and when I tried to design the collection with this idea in my head, I was absolutely unhappy. I said, 'Forget it, I don't want to change. I want to be free even if it's the last season I do a collection.' And I did a really beautiful collection and all of the customers loved it because my competitors were doing sad colors and little collections. We started out the year very well and I think after 5-6 months of not buying, women said it was enough! Now they wants things that are special."
We're not sure that's true across the board, but we're glad it's worked out for Giuseppe!
Kudos!
[Image via Getty Images.]
Posted: October 27, 2009 at 3:03 pm
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