Italian excellence progresses.

It was truly refreshing on Thursday to see Parah - the Italian historic beachwear and lingerie brand - proudly presenting their 65 years of business history at their Milan showroom in Tortona. 

As one of Parah's nostalgic consumers,  I have experienced their peak in the 90s, when their gigantic outdoor posters with perfectly tanned models in their swimsuits used to plaster the squares of Italy’s main cities. Those were the times when I longed for their creations in front of luxurious shop windows in Rome. I have furthermore lived with sadness the following period, which saw the brand suffer the new competitive scenario and slowly decline in appeal. As a business professional, fond of strategy and brands, I am naturally observing and analysing their developments. When eventually an Italian brand unexepctedly breaks the scene, then I can not resist my national pride :-). And here I am, talking about what I hope will be the start of Parah's renaissance.

Despite the challenging domestic economic situation, here is a Company which chooses to literally roll up their sleeves, lift their heads and humbly progress. How? By proudly looking back at its heritage of high quality artisanal workmanship combining tradition, innovation and creativity and by projecting, with the same values, the new swimwear and lingerie collection into a future of international expansion and presence. Parah chose a very minimalistic approach for their media presentation, where the beauty of their past and present products talked more than a lot of glitter. 

Parah is one of the very few Italian fashion brands, which has managed to remain 100% made in Italy; it is still owned by the same family who founded it in the 1950s. This is pretty remarkable if we consider what the beachwear and lingerie segment has had to face over all these years; as in many other fashion markets, radical changes affected both the product offer and the distribution. The entry into this highly profitable segment of prestigious fashion griffes has recently literally exploded.  Chanel, Armani, Cavalli, Gucci, Louis Vuitton are only a few examples of brands wanting to "line extend"; beside them, we observe the low-price offer of Zara, H&M and Mango, to mention a few. This polarisation of pricing has created a very crowded market with no medium range segment: the brands who have not managed to re-position correctly have suffered enormously.

In this increasingly competitive scenario, Parah is still betting on their technical know-how, their craftsmanship  and the resulting superior quality of their products, whose mix is now de-seasonalised thanks to the presence of their gorgeous lingerie and easy-to-wear new items, suitable not just for the beach and therefore sellable all through the year. Additionally, their current plans to further invest in international distribution, far and beyond their current 1,300 points of sale, demonstrate their willingness to take full advantage of the global increasing demand for our Made-in-Italy woman fashion (+4,7% in 2014, representing a whopping 59% of this sector's sales, with an increase from Asia only of 19,8%!). Parah also managed this year to fully join the official calendar of the September fashion week in Milan. It was time for a well-deserved recognition!

Now that the foundations of a re-birth have been set, the road back to antique splendour looks clearer. It will still be however a challenge for the company to effectively innovate their communication and sales strategy in this fast-moving digitalised world without losing the spirit and the values of their brand.  A good challenge to have though #parahworld!

Sources:  SMI Sistema Moda Italia, Nethi Partners