Fabiana Filippi, international luxury

Venice. London. Rome. Paris Rue Saint Honoré. Fabiana Filippi, the renowned fashion enterprise, continues its worldwide growth in the sector of luxury and production made in Italy. “We have four new openings in 2015, but we will continue to invest in the retail channel in the future too, with a series of single-brand stores spreading our style gradually throughout Europe, to the U.S. and the Far East.” Fabiana Filippi, the company founded in 1985 by two brothers, Mario and Giacomo Filippi Coccetta, is a fruitful mixture of traditions, good taste and willpower. While on the one hand it incorporates the manufacturing traditions developed in Umbria in the Seventies by the brand Luisa Spagnoli, on the other it renews them through sagacious style choices and new collections. “What we have amounts almost to an obsession” explains Mario Filippi Coccetta, Ceo with his brother. “We use only the finest quality materials in cashmere, wool, silk and other noble fibers, and exclusively Italian craftsmanship. Here in Umbria, Luisa Spagnoli developed from small family-operated knitting mills for angora into a great company celebrated for its taste and expertise, and we definitely want to maintain that reputation.”

Fabiana Filippi’s is a consolidated business philosophy at this point, and has guided the company through thirty years of expansion. It now has 34 stores in Italy and abroad, marketing its products in both single-brand and multi-brand stores in the high range, and its growth has been constant and unwavering. “Much of our success has been due to our international expansion, which has taken us to Korea and Japan, to the U.S. and even to the extreme north of Europe” continues Filippi. “Today we have sales for 65 million euros, our growth is at 14% and 72% of our revenues come from abroad.”

Just luck? “Certainly not. Ours is a product that can't be made abroad, so we have never been tempted to outsource outside the country. Our guarantee of Italian manufacture from the design to the make-up is still a strong plus factor for sales.” And of course that's good news for employment too. Fabiana Filippi currently employs 110 people, 350 if you count the 120 associated businesses and small craft workshops that contribute to the production. “Every year we engage from 2 to 5 young people we want to start in the profession. We train them ourselves and we try to hold onto them.” Because the secrets of “Made in Italy” can’t be taught at school.