LONDON — Aquascutum is getting some Italian flair.
The British brand has just inked license agreements with Novaseta, the accessories company owned by Ermenegildo Zegna, and Antichi Pellettieri, which makes footwear and accessories for Missoni and Vivienne Westwood, among others.
Beginning with the fall season, Novaseta will produce ties and scarves for the Aquascutum men’s and women’s collections. Antichi Pellettieri will produce men’s and women’s footwear and bags, beginning with the spring 2008 collection.
In an exclusive interview with WWD, Aquascutum chief executive Kim Winser said the new product ranges would come under Aquascutum’s newly formed accessories division.
“Accessories has the potential to be a major part of the business,” Winser said. “Until now, it’s been underdeveloped, and we always did it in-house.”
She added that over the next two to three years, sales of accessories could generate 25 to 30 percent of Aquascutum’s sales.
Winser said she forged the licensing agreements because “we have no history of accessories. It is not our skill, and it’s a leading field for the Italians. Zegna has something like 22 tie designers — just think of what we’ll be able to offer to our customers now.”
Over the next few weeks, the company plans to announce the appointment of its first creative director for accessories.
Winser said the new accessories collections “will relate to who we are as a brand. We have a sartorial background, which means they’ll be about understated elegance, and be made with beautiful fabrics.”
Prices for the new collections have not been finalized.
In addition to establishing the accessories division, Winser plans to take Aquascutum back to the U.S. for fall 2007. She is in talks with major department stores and independent retailers there.
Aquascutum’s White Collection, the fashion-forward label that shows during London Fashion Week, and the Blue Label, the brand’s classic main line, will be sold in the U.S. this fall.
Winser said the U.S. had the potential to generate 25 percent of Aquascutum’s overall business in the next two to three years.
As reported, Aquascutum’s sales last May, when Winser took over, were 220 million pounds, or $430 million, and she plans to double them by the beginning of 2010. “We’re hoping the growth of accessories — and in the U.S. — will contribute to that,” she said.
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For fall, Aquascutum also plans to launch a special vintage collection featuring 10 coats and trenches the brand created for Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Sophia Loren, Humphrey Bogart and Cary Grant. Aquascutum designers Michael Herz and Graeme Fidler have reworked and updated the originals. The coats and trenches, in cashmere, cotton, leather and vicuna, will be priced from 1,000 pounds, or $1,960 at current exchange, to 15,000 pounds, or $29,400.
Since she took over last spring, Winser also has been developing Aquascutum’s wholesale division, which had been small. The brand now sells to stores including Lane Crawford, Harvey Nichols and Villa Moda. The company recently opened an Italian showroom on Milan’s Viale Majno, with one floor dedicated to women’s wear and another to men’s wear.
Closer to home, Aquascutum has moved its London headquarters from The City to Piccadilly, a short walk from its flagship on Regent Street. “I needed to be near the shop floor and listening to the customer as much as possible,” said Winser.