A party in Ibiza, new markets and more modern collections – the reorientation of Baldessarini has been gaining momentum since Florian Wortmann took over as Managing Director. Founded in 1993, the brand approaches a younger target group with influencers and exposure on social media. But she also wants to keep her current customer base.
‘Yes’ to confection
The brand invites partners, the press, influencers and a selection of customers to Ibiza. At the end of May, Baldessarini presented its ‘White Collection’ wedding capsule on the party island, in which the brand relied particularly on light colors such as white and cognac for shirts and suits, as well as matching accessories such as handkerchiefs and bow ties – and thus said ‘yes’ to the return of ready-made clothing. The pandemic has forced men to dress in comfortable and loose pieces like sweatpants and sweatshirts, but this casualization was only due to the circumstances, and Wortmann doesn’t see it as a trend.
“Now we are noticing that ready-made clothing is coming back. We respond to this with ‘Baldessarini White’; a cool, casual look for all celebrations,” says Wortmann, who dressed himself in a casual look with a peaked cap, aviator sunglasses, an unbuttoned shirt with blue and brown stripes, long, slightly rolled-up trousers and brown, comfortable mules as well as tattoos and jewelry Event in Ibiza showed. “From marriage to divorce, you can get everything with us. Returning to the formal look, we show that it can not only be boring and staid, but also cool.”
And this in the midst of a time marked by the pandemic, depressed mood caused by the war in Ukraine and global supply chain problems. However, the Baldessarini boss gets good customer feedback, he said in an interview with FashionUnited in Ibiza. “The relaunch is very well received, we don’t scare away any old customers, we get a lot of new ones,” says Wortmann. “We have a completely different visibility and radiance than Brand. At the moment I have to say: We still live in a very good cosmos here.”
This cosmos allows the brand to pause reality for an evening and hold an event that focuses on the wedding theme and looks straight out of millennial dreams: a candy bar, a ping-pong table with red cups for the drinking game beer -Pong, a pool with inflatable hearts and wedding rings awaited the guests. A tattoo artist gave the guests a souvenir for eternity in a ‘Wedding Chapel’ in Las Vegas style.
The location couldn’t have been more suitable either: The outdoor area of a hotel that embodies the American vibe of the 70s. This fits not only with the theme of the event, but also with the style of the casual yet dressed brand, which takes inspiration from the Hollywood style of the period. Baldessarini wants to become “one of the solid pillars” in the premium segment again.
“We don’t want to be comparable for the customer with this unique attitude to life. If you go through a premium department with Boss, Joop and then it’s onto Zegna, Windsor and Sandro Cloth and all the contemporaries, we’re a good link that bridges the gap between: you know what you’re getting, but you also are always fashionably ‘on point’ without looking disguised”, Wortmann describes the orientation.
So that the lifestyle also appeals to the younger target group, the brand offers its guests on Ibiza numerous photo spots – like in an Instagram museum. Influencers pose in front of a white stretch limousine, set themselves in scene in a heart-shaped pool and bring out their brightest smiles in front of the typical photo wall. But also moments like the cutting of the wedding cake, which was accompanied by guests with sparklers, offered the content creators dressed in Baldessarini a special photo moment.
The brand used the location and the influential guests for its social media presence. During the event, she posted several Instagram stories. Among others, influencers such as DJ Justin Prince (200,000 followers on Instagram), model Luca Heubl (412,000 followers on Instagram) and Tobias Reuter (779,000 followers on Instagram) were seen playing the beer pong drinking game, which the brand dubbed “Team Don Promillos”. titled. Scenes that could also come directly from a bachelor party and strengthen the young image of the brand.
Baldessarini does not want to dance at all weddings at the same time
However, this image does not only seem to go down well in the domestic market, where Baldessarini is focusing on expansion in stationary retail, but also in neighboring countries. Poland is currently the strongest export market for the brand, but growth rates are high in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Great Britain, according to the Baldessarini CEO. The brand is now also active in Italy, where it presented itself for the first time since 2016 at the international menswear trade fair Pitti Uomo in Florence. But Baldessarini also still supplies the much-discussed Russian market, since the partner’s stores “are operated locally by Ukrainians,” explains Wortmann. In Spain, on the other hand, the brand is not currently represented, despite the party on Ibiza, as this is very complex due to the many department stores. “You either go in with a shop-in-shop or you don’t,” he said of the Spanish market. “It’s also important not to dance at all weddings at the same time, but to look at your pre-markets again first, to position yourself properly there and not to fall into internationalization”. However, the brand still wants to “visit all weddings – step by step”.
€79 shirts are not ‘brand appropriate’
Despite the party mood at Baldessarini, the brand cannot avoid the price increases in view of the tight supply chains and rising energy prices and has to increase them by 10 to 15 percent. However, initial price ranges would no longer have any particular relevance for the brand. “I don’t need jeans for 99 euros or a shirt for 79 euros at Baldessarini. This is not branded. We want to get out of this pool,” says the managing director. “We are upper premium, but still affordable luxury design, which refers to design luxury and not luxury price. A shirt costs 119, 129, 139 euros here, where you pay 350, 400 euros elsewhere.”
He sees bigger problems with the subject of core price ranges in the mass market, where the price increase of customers is more noticeable. But anyone who previously bought Baldessarini jeans for 129 euros would also buy them for 139 euros.
Live the inheritance
Baldessarini was founded in 1993 under Hugo Boss AG and named after the fashion designer and manager Werner Baldessarini, who also held management positions for the Metzingen-based fashion group. In 1998 the late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld photographed the spring/summer season catalog and since 2002 fragrances have also been part of the range. In 2006, Baldessarini was taken over by the Herford-based fashion group Ahlers AG, which also owns brands such as Pierre Cardin and Pioneer.
Florian Wortmann now wants to bring the brand back to its former glory and exploit the brand’s actual potential. “Back then, I decided on the Baldessarini brand because it was clear to me that the brand can do more than it currently performs,” says the Baldessarini boss about his decision to return to the Ahlers Group and manage the brand. He thinks that “there is still plenty of room out there for authentic brands that tell a story that you can relate to. We are very successful with the relaunch and are exceeding expectations. We only managed to do that because we are aligning the brand in a very clear and polarizing way.”
However, Baldessarini has also set itself strict sales targets and wants to become the brand “heading towards 100 million. In the first step we want to crack 50 million and then we can continue.”
FashionUnited was invited by Baldessarini to the event in Ibiza.