DAAD DANTONE is a multi-brand based in Milan, with more than 50 years of history and experience. It is the result of the transformation of a family-run tailoring business located in Piazza San Carlo, awarded the “LE FORBICI D’ORO” (Golden Scissors), a prestigious and coveted prize for “Made in Italy” products, in a top-level concept store offering a choice selection of profoundly innovative international designers. It is acknowledged worldwide as a unique place, where new ways of creating fashion can be discovered thanks to the sophisticated, diligent and tireless research work of Giorgio Dantone. DAAD Dantone is still one of the most interesting and leading design incubators, in which hugely talented emerging designers have studied and grown, many of whom have become designers and brands that are now internationally renowned and appreciated across the world.
Giorgio Armani Dolce&Gabbana Jean Paul Gaultier Maison Martin Margiela Rick Owens Gareth Pugh Undercover Yohji Yamamoto
Dolce&Gabbana
Giorgio Armani
Maison Martin Margiela
Yohji Yamamoto
Undercover
Jean Paul Gaultier
Rick Owens
EVOLUTION Giorgio Dantone is an elegant, sophisticated man, who keeps an eye on the future and on the constant evolution of fashion and the market, always one step ahead in spotting the new trend in the fashion world. He was one of the first to offer the unstructured fashion of Giorgio Armani in the late 1970s and the collection with which two young designers, unknown at the time, made their debut: Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, today known globally for their Dolce & Gabbana brand. Giorgio Dantone’s research was then expanded by exploring those designers who, in the 1980s, were able to radically innovate clothing styles and to conceive fashion and its space, such as Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto and many others, with which a selected, demanding and international client base began to get acquainted, thanks to DAAD DANTONE.
Clients at DAAD Dantone were, therefore, the first to dress in Ann Demeulemeester, Raf Simons, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Bikkembergs, Les Hommes, and Kriss Van Assche, discovering Belgian design and later the “Japanese� one that Giorgio Dantone, always paying attention to the evolution of fashion, society and the market, began to offer at his store in Milan, where Number Nine, Mastermind, Junya Watanabe, Issey Miyake, Undercover, L.G.B., If Six Was Nine, and many others are still present. Today in his new concept store, and preceding everyone by a few years, Giorgio Dantone has began to include Chinese designers such as Uma Wang, Jun Li and Ziggy Chen. They come from a rapidly evolving geographical area whose energy is extremely useful in order to guess the new directions that society and customs will take.
Giorgio Dantone has transformed DAAD Dantone into an innovative and modern company, a kind of landmark in the complex and evolving fashion scene for anyone who wants to guess the new trends and dress in a contemporary way. With its 50 years of experience, DAAD Dantone has grown gradually but continuously thanks to its great skills but also thanks to a remarkable sixth sense, inherited from his father, for discovering anything new and innovative, always remaining strictly consistent with his concept of fashion. The need for an increasingly larger space to present innovations, no longer and not only in fashion but also in style, design and beauty, have led Giorgio Dantone to design a new store in the centre of the fashion district, Via Santo Spirito, where the new and larger DAAD Dantone Global Store will be opened.
Milan Fashion District
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DAAD NOWADAYS Via Santo Spirito: Via della Spiga:
Multibrand store, headquarter e-commerce
Gestione diretta Philipp Plein monobrand uomo
Via Montenapoleone: Consulenza sulla gestione del flagship store Philipp Plein donna. Via Santo Spirito: Progetto di aprtura di un nuovo DAAD Dantone GlobalStore
DAAD YSTERDAY Piazza San Carlo: Alta sartoria Uomo insignita de “Le Forbici d’ Oro” prestigioso riconoscimento del Made in Italy Corso Vittorio Emanuele: Primo negozio di abbigliamento uomo Corso Matteotti:
Multibrand store
THE BRAND DAAD Dantone’s success is due to its strong and unique aesthetic identity, which comes from constantly seeking new points of view and original perspectives to interpret, create and communicate fashion and its designers. The tailoring heritage of Giorgio Dantone allows for both structural and semantic innovations in the way an item of clothing and contemporary luxury are designed and created, consistently choosing original collections and new designers that are often destined to become successful international brands. Over the years, this intense and continuous research has shaped the strong identity of the brand and the interest of design schools, including the Istituto Marangoni, the Royal College of Art and the Accademia del Lusso, where students have focused their attention on DAAD Dantone.
SKILLS Fifty years of activity in the world of fashion and retail, remarkable product know-how, a large number of partnerships and, recently, a digital background that includes brand communication through the institutional website but also through social networks, blogs and the structuring of an e-commerce service with the relative logistics: these are the key elements that ensure an absolutely exclusive shopping experience that is increasingly appreciated by an ever-growing international client base.
DAAD Dantone has always conceived and created fashion in a very different way when compared to large shopping centres, which, today, are perceived as increasingly obsolete and unable to keep up with the evolution of society, customs and the market. As stated by a well-known journalist in the sector, Lidewij Edelkoort: “This is the end of a system called fashion and we will have to invent new ideas.� In fact, if shopping centres offer brands, DAAD Dantone offers ideas. Shopping centres worldwide, just like airports nowadays, are all similar and have become repetitive, lacking their own identity. DAAD Dantone, instead, is inspired by the clothing styles of various designers and combines them to offer unique and innovative products, thus providing, through research, its own concept of fashion.
The end of a way of conceiving fashion through a brand, as we know it, is bound to stir greater attention from an increasingly growing audience. This is why refined, demanding clients, famous international journalists in the sector, professors and students of the main fashion and design schools, and fashion designers, acknowledge DAAD Dantone as one of the most important, interesting and specialist stores in the world.
The experience of DAAD Dantone and the trust that many brands have placed in it have led Giorgio Dantone to start a parallel business: CONSULTING to open new brand stores directly promoted and developed by DAAD Dantone. DIRECT MANAGEMENT of brands such as the flagship store of PHILIPP PLEIN. COLLABORATIONS With its skills and knowledge, DAAD Dantone, in collaboration with the designers, designs and creates exclusive LIMITED EDITION collections, from clothing to design.
Rick Owens Milano
DSquared2 Milano
Philipp Plein Milano
DEVELOPMENT A local brand focused on RESEARCH with global CLIENTS will necessarily tend to INTERNATIONALISE its own distribution network, offering aesthetic solutions by choosing designers and adapting to the characteristics of the market and to consumer habits in the countries in which DAAD Dantone opens new stores with local partners.
NUOVI PROGETTI For 2015, DAAD Dantone has planned: DAAD Dantone Global Store DAAD Dantone Profumo DAAD Dantone Design The opening of DAAD Dantone / Concept Stores abroad
DAAD Dantone Global Store
Uma Wang and DAAD Dantone Profumo
PATNERSHIP PROJECT New stores need to be opened with local partners aiming at development of the brand across continents: China, South East Asia, Japan, Korea, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Brazil, South America, the United States and North America.
Development of a coherent concept that may include all or some of the following activities FASHION FOOD DESIGN BEAUTY SPA OLFACTORY CATWLAK ATELIER MADE TO MEASURED ATELIER DESIGNED TO MEASURED CLUB
PATNERSHIP PROJECT Giorgio Dantone and a small group of selected and internationally renowned professionals (who share his vision, direction and style), research and select, with the partner, a location consistent with the specific perspective with which DAAD Dantone sees fashion. Concept design will never be presented as a simple set of materials and architectural elements that can be repeated worldwide in the same way. Each new DAAD DANTONE creation is a new project, a space created through the energy of the context in which it is placed, the lifestyles of its host country, and the taste, style and quality of the environments that require the sophisticated vision of space, light and colour of Giorgio Dantone.
Together with his best and closest collaborators, Giorgio Dantone will carefully select the staff for the new store, often after a training phase at his store in Milan. Each season, training will continue at the new store with the arrival of new collections and designers, where Giorgio Dantone and his collaborators will explain and transmit not only enthusiasm and passion for their work but also the meaning of the garments from the various designers selected and present at the new store. After closely observing the way of life in the country where each new DAAD Dantone store is to be opened, Giorgio Dantone and his buyers choose the most innovative and best suited garments for that specific market during the fashion weeks in the world’s major cities.
Giorgio Dantone and his best collaborators will plan the fittings and visual elements of the store windows so that the new store is consistent with the vision and style of new fashion trends. Giorgio Dantone will periodically check every sales outlet in order to ensure extremely high standards for clients. The collaboration will continue with communication through suitable advertising campaigns and media planning via social networks, fashion blogs and TV. An e-commerce platform may also be developed, which will favour an increase in the number of clients and, consequently, knowledge of the concept store, its selection and economic development in the local area. It can also be extended to the study and creation of clothing lines and new products in line with our mood and vision of the fashion world.
ADVANTAGES FOR PARTNERS DAAD Dantone is an alternative concept to the sales model of a shopping centre, where we find absolute obsolescence, especially in the Far East. It is therefore an innovative and creative business model that offers new opportunities to present and sell everything regarding lifestyle: fashion, design, perfumes, cosmetics, food, wine, technology, contemporary art, hospitality, interiors, etc. The decision by DAAD Dantone to open new stores with strong local partners ensures a lower business risk for the partner, since the proceeds from the fees related to trademark use can be partly reinvested in the project in order to potentially set DAAD Dantone shares in the new company. As in the case of Milan, Giorgio Dantone discovered and launched many brands that have since opened their single brand stores very close to DAAD Dantone. And these designers still rely on Giorgio Dantone’s consulting services and the network offered by his expertise which will provide the opportunity to develop related real estate activities inspired by the opening of DAAD Dantone in Shanghai.
After entering the Chinese market, thanks to the selection carried out by DAAD Dantone, many designers present in the new space in Shanghai will be able to open their single brand stores near the Global Store DAAD Dantone. Since Shanghai is a destination for wellestablished clients, these designers will be able to rely on the consulting and management services provided by Giorgio Dantone. Hence, investors will find that Giorgio Dantone is a strategic partner with whom they can explore a new and more effective way of selling, as well as having the unique opportunity to open and manage new single brand stores promoting the designers discovered and supported by Giorgio Dantone.
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Giorgio Armani Dolce&Gabbana Jan-Jan Van Essche Jean Paul Gaultier Maison Martin Margiela Tsolo Munkh Rick Owens Gareth Pugh Boris Bidjan Saberi Undercover Yohji Yamamoto Uma Wang Ziggy Chen