MILAN — Marco Marchi, founder of contemporary label Liu Jo and president of the Exelite group, is mapping out the next chapter of the Blumarine brand.
In an interview with WWD, the Italian entrepreneur said that Exelite has taken over the management of Blumarine through a master licensing agreement covering the production, promotion and distribution of all product categories previously handled by the brand’s parent company Blufin, including the management of the associated existing licenses. These include deals for categories such as eyewear; kidswear under the Miss Blumarine banner; home textiles, and wallpapers.
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Exelite, which was formerly known as EIH Eccellenze Italiane, acquired Blufin in 2019. As part of the operation, the two parties also agreed on the transfer of a business unit related to the Blumarine-branded retail division, which became effective Jan. 1.
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“Exelite is a roughly 500-million-euro company [in 2024] with a solid structure in terms of human, financial and management resources, and that in a phase of severe market contraction remains a highly efficient platform,” Marchi said about the deal. “Today this industrial and distribution machine is the perfect home to propel the next phase of development for Blumarine.”
As for the other brands operated by Blufin, which also include Blugirl and Anna Molinari, Marchi said discussions are still in progress to evaluate and develop the best strategy moving forward, including possible collaborations with third parties.
As Blufin pivots from an industrial company to owner of brands to license, the change will come with roughly 20 layoffs, mostly linked to the production activities of the firm. “These numbers are in flux, since in the past few weeks we also had spontaneous exits,” Marchi said.
“By stopping operations, Blufin has activated the ‘cassa integrazione’ [wage support measure] for those involved in these activities,” he said. “However, it’s important to emphasize that Blufin has made a commitment to its workers. This commitment was obviously supported by the unions to best facilitate this critical phase and this [discussions] aimed to facilitate voluntary redundancies.”
As reported, Marchi acquired the Gruppo Blufin from the founding Tarabini family in November 2019. In the first phase of the relaunch of the company — which, like Liu Jo, is based in Emilia Romagna’s Carpi town, a storied knitwear manufacturing district — Marchi put the focus on Blumarine, hiring Nicola Brognano to succeed Anna Molinari as designer and reorganizing its distribution.
“The acquisition of Blufin was driven by the desire to support an iconic brand, deeply rooted in the Italian fashion heritage,” he recalled. “In the past, it had suffered from a lack of visibility and notoriety for some time…but I’ve always believed in it and I think that now we can still propel a strong growth for the brand.”
The goal is to scale up the business, which is estimated to have generated around 20 million euros in revenues last year, but Marchi declined to share sales targets for the future. The new chapter will kickstart with a busy month, as Blumarine is confirmed to show during Milan Fashion Week and will open a flagship in the city, both on Feb. 27. In particular, current creative director David Koma will unveil the fall 2026 collection at 12:30 p.m. CET, as per the preliminary schedule released by Italy’s fashion chamber last week.
Marchi said Koma’s arrival at the creative helm of the house “has rekindled an attention that had partly begun by Brognano and his work with [stylist] Lotta Volkova.” He praised Brognano’s four-year tenure for bringing a “big change” to the brand, for his intuition in tapping and spearheading the Y2K trend that drew both nostalgic customers and a new audience to the label, putting it back on the international map and making it resonate in the U.S. and Asia.
Koma’s appointment in July 2024 — when he was called to succeed Walter Chiapponi, who exited Blumarine after only one collection — was intended to further raise the global profile of the brand.
The Georgian-born, London-based designer, whose first collection at the brand bowed for pre-fall 2025 in January 2025, was the ideal candidate for Marchi due to his background.
“He comes from a melting pot of culture and creativity. He took over a brand that has a very different aesthetic from his own and has refreshed it immediately, with a great respect for the Blumarine codes, this South European femininity and sensuality, use of colors and embroideries — all this sophisticated part, but without [making it corny],” Marchi said. “As a customer best put it, he maintained the brand’s ethos but gave it a scratch, a modern edge.”
After one year, during which Koma acclimated to the role, he “reached a very interesting maturity, which has been recognized by industry operators as the sales campaign is going well,” Marchi said. “There’s still a lot to do, but we’re extremely positive about this journey and that’s why with determination and some courage we decided to open a flagship store in Milan.…It was time to give credibility and visibility to his work.”
Nestled in the Brera district, at Via Fiori Chiari 28, the store will add to an existing unit in Rome and will highlight the best-performing product categories for Blumarine, which Marchi said are the dresses, the signature knitwear and the denim separates. These clusters will remain the priority going forward, as the executive underscored the goal is “to give our hero categories more space and attention” before embarking in any assortment expansion.
“The plan for the next two years will surely see a growth of the brand but we’re very careful not to stretch it, since we think it still has so much unexpressed potential,” Marchi said.
Ditto for distribution. Marchi teased that, following the Milan opening, he’s eyeing an outpost in Dubai, as part of an expansion plan that will be also supported by online sales both through Blumarine’s own e-commerce and partnerships with key marketplaces such as Mytheresa and Revolve.
He pointed to the Middle East as a strategic area for the brand’s development, second only to the U.S., where the company is pondering the opening of a local subsidiary to support activities. “This is the first market for our e-commerce and we see retailers increasing their orders season after season, so that’s encouraging. Once you make it there, it’s a little bit easier to gain traction in Europe and Asia, too,” Marchi said.
As for the wholesale channel, Marchi intends to stick to the selective approach to ensure “an organic and sustainable growth.” Blumarine currently counts 200 doors worldwide, “which are not that many, but we partner with the most credible ones…especially now that the traditional wholesale channel is impacted by a strong disruption, to find the right partners is not banal.” Blumarine has corners at the likes of Rinascente, SKP, Shinsegae, Hyundai Department Store and Lotte Avenuel World Tower, among others.
While Marchi finds it necessary to have a known designer for Blumarine, he’s not eager to adopt the same strategy for Liu Jo, the contemporary label he founded in 1995. The label, which spans ready-to-wear, bags, shoes and accessories, in addition to licenses such as fragrances and eyewear, is designed by an studio team.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” the executive said. “The brand is healthy, resilient and approaches new interesting markets such as the Middle East, North Africa and South America, [so] I don’t feel the need to change it, especially for a project that has never been part of its nature in these past 30 years.…A designer can be an asset of visibility on one hand, but on the other, it can also turn into a point of weakness, and the company might fall to be its victim.”
Conversely, Marchi is open to expanding the reach of Exelite, which he established on the heels of the Blufin acquisition with the goal to create a competitive Italian fashion conglomerate and boost the business of small and medium-sized local firms on the global scene.
“We remain a platform open to acquisitions.…In an extremely complex market undergoing a structural crisis, we can offer to Italian excellencies an opportunity to join and leverage a series of strategic tools,” Marchi said. The firm’s structure was further strengthened recently. Following the rebranding of the holding in 2024, in October 2025 Marchi appointed his right-hand Maurizio Croceri as chief executive officer of Exelite.
In 2019, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marchi said the ultimate goal for the group was an initial public offering. The listing was postponed twice due to unfavorable market conditions, first with the pandemic and then with war in Ukraine.
Marchi is still open to the idea, if the market allows it, he said. “We’re not actively looking for any financing, the company has its own economic stability, so if we were to proceed [with an operation], it will be with an IPO to further develop the group, not for any financial urgency,” he concluded.