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Benetton’s Italian founder returns to save company, age 82

Luciano Benetton, one of the founders of the eponymous Italian clothing company, announced his return on Thursday to the helm of the struggling company.

Published: 30 November 2017 18:03 CET

Benetton's Italian founder returns to save company, age 82

Benetton's famous sweaters on sale in Milan. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

“In 2008, I left the company with €155 million euros in assets, and am taking it back now with the €81 million losses from 2016. And this year it will be worse,” the 82-year old said in an interview with La Repubblica.

“It is an intolerable pain. That's why I'm going back,” he told the Italian daily.

READ ALSO: United wines of Benetton: Red, White and Malvasia

The billionaire, who co-founded the company in 1965 and served as Benetton's chairman from 1978 to 2012, said that “while others imitated us, the United Colors lost their colour.

“We alone are to blame. The shops, which were reservoirs of light, became dark and said like those in Communist Poland. We closed our doors in South America and the US”.

He said the “worst sin” was having “stopped making sweaters: It's as if we removed the water from the aqueduct”.

The Italian, who dropped out of school aged 14 and saved money to buy a knitting machine to make sweaters, blamed those who took over from him for the company's decline.

The baton first passed to his son, who then handed over the reins to managers outside of the family.

The number of Benetton employees has dropped from 9,766 in 2008 to 7,328 today. Asked if jobs were at risk, Benetton said “we will give everyone a chance, but we must lighten the business”.

Luciano Benetton in 2002. Photo: Toru Yamanaka/AFP

French Vogue celebrates 100 years

French Vogue celebrates 100 years. Photo: Thomas Olva/AFP

But as well as celebrating the magazine’s storied history, the exhibit comes at a time of turbulence for the publication.

Just last month, it was confirmed that its editor of 10 years, Emmanuelle Alt, was out and wouldn’t be replaced.

She was not alone.

Looking to cut costs, owner Conde Nast International has axed editors across Europe over the past year, and put international Vogue editions under the direct control of global editorial director, Anna Wintour, in New York.

New York-based Anna Wintour now has overall control of French Vogue. Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP

Like much of the media industry, Vogue is struggling with tumbling sales and ad revenue in the digital era.

But the latest twist is also part of the endless push and pull between New York and Paris going back to its early days.

“The whole history of French Vogue is one of back-and-forth with Conde Nast in New York – growing more independent for a while, then being reined back in,” said Sylvie Lecallier, curator of the new exhibition, “Vogue Paris 1920-2020″, which opened this weekend after a year’s delay due to the pandemic.

The Paris edition was often the loftier, more bohemian sibling to its more hard-nosed New York version.

But it was also the hotbed in which much of 20th century style and womenhood came to be defined.

“Paris was the place to hunt out talent and content and bring it to New York,” said Lecallier.

The exhibition charts the evolution from art deco drawings of the 1920s through the erotic image-making of photographers like Helmut Newton in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its last peak was under editor Carine Roitfeld in the 2000s, who brought back a provocative Gallic identity by ridding the newsroom of foreign staff and becoming a fashion icon in her own right.

Her successor, Alt, was a quieter presence, though she still oversaw key moments including its first transgender cover star, Brazilian Valentina Sampaio, in 2017.

But internet culture has created “a perfect storm” for Vogue, says media expert Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis.

“The first 80 years of Vogue’s life, it had the market to itself, it was the bible for fashion,” McCabe told AFP.

“But online today, there are so many other ways to get your information. Influencers, Instagram, YouTube — everyone’s a threat.”

In a world where new fashion trends can blow up around the world in seconds, it has become much harder for a monthly magazine to set the pace.

“It’s not that they can’t survive for another 100 years — but they will be differently sized,” McCabe said.

Vogue has tried to branch out into different areas, including events.

“I used to work for a magazine, and today I work for a brand,” Alt said on the eve of French Vogue’s 1,000th issue in 2019.

But the big money was always in print, and Vogue Paris sales are dropping steadily from 98,345 in 2017 to 81,962 to 2020, according to data site ACPM.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the new top job in Paris, redefined as “head of editorial content”, went to Eugenie Trochu, who was key to building the magazine’s online presence.

She declared herself “thrilled to be part of Vogue’s international transformation”.

For the curator of the exhibition, it is ironic timing.

“We had no idea it would end like this when we started work on the exhibition,” said Lecallier.

“Who knows where it will go from here.”

The exhibition Vogue Paris 1920-2020 is at the Palais Galliera in Paris’ 16th arrondissement. The gallery is open 10am to 6pm Tuesday to Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Tickets for the exhibition are €14 (€12 for concessions and under 18s go free) and must be reserved online in advance.

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