MILAN — Step into a Replay Country Store anywhere in the world and you’re whisked into an improbable mix of “Little House on the Prairie,” “Easy Rider” and “Giant.”
It’s a compendium of Americana, from the Old West to the hippie era, and it’s found in such far-flung spots as Milan, Hong Kong and Athens: rough-hewn wooden floors, aging tin signs, worn washboards, old-style detergent boxes and lots of American-looking sportswear.
Except it isn’t American at all.
Created by 36-year-old Italian entrepreneur Claudio Buziol, Replay is the brand name of one of Italy’s hottest and fastest-growing jeans and sportswear firms, Fashion Box. Even in the midst of Europe’s recession, Buziol’s formula of Made-in-Italy/American-style sportswear has taken off.
Although Fashion Box was founded in 1980, it is the Replay project, started in 1987, that has sparked tremendous growth in the last few years. Estimated 1993 revenue is up 54 percent to $118 million (200 billion lire at current exchange rates), while 1992 shows a 73 percent increase from the year earlier, according to Buziol.
What’s the secret?
“I was always convinced that in the long term, practical fashion would supersede the lace and flounce of the Eighties,” said Buziol. “My luck was that in the beginning the major jeans producers didn’t pay any attention to me — in 1987 I hardly produced 25,000 units, but by 1989 I was already making more than a million pieces,” he added.
The collection, which Buziol develops personally, consists of jeans and sportswear for men, women and children. Some of the leather goods, including jackets and vests, are licensed, but most of the clothing is produced in Italy by subcontractors in or around Fashion Box’s home town of Treviso, which is also home to that other successful Italian sportswear name, Benetton.
Prices for jeans average about $59 (100,000 lire), for shirts about $53 (90,000 lire).
In the past three years, under Buziol’s direction, Fashion Box has launched an aggressive campaign to open Replay stores and corners all over the globe.
Currently, the company operates 56 Replay stores, eight of which are directly owned and the rest franchised. Some 17 are in Italy, while the rest are spread across 20 other countries. Boosted by its success in Europe, Replay has taken the gamble of going into the very land from which it’s taken its inspiration. Replay stores were opened in November on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood and on Prince Street in New York by Buziol’s U.S. trading company, United Box Inc.
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So far, the reaction has been good, Buziol said.
“What really strikes me,” he added, “is the enthusiasm of Americans for this re-creation of the ‘old style’ that is really their own.”