Haute Heritage

How has Woolrich changed in recent years? We decided to work on branding a different way. Until 2016, before we did a merger with an American company, we had licensing deals, and the brand was a little different. After we merged, we saw it was a very complicated portfolio: There was a European line, a Japanese line, and more than a couple of licenses in the U.S. We started to clean up everything, and we ended up with two lines. One is a contemporary line, and the other is a new outerwear line. For Fall ’19, we’ll also have an outerwear line in collaboration with our Japanese shareholder, Goldwin, which works with brands like The North Face. We want to be a global brand. To be a global brand, you cannot have different positioning around the world. You need to have one message that’s very clear. Then we started to think about how to express again that we are American because, in a sense, we are American: The company has been here for 200 years.

How’d you go about communicating that to the world? We decided to collaborate with Black Frame; I worked with [Black Frame founder] Brian Phillips 20 years ago, so I started to discuss how we could be seen again, how we could express the soul of America. So we invented American Soul to describe what we’re interested in developing for the future as a communication strategy. Brian said the easiest way to start is with the real soul: music. Why did Woolrich decide to join forces with Ms. Lauryn Hill? She represents a kind of modern authenticity very well; it’s the same message we have on our product side. We wanted to do something a little different from what we’ve done in the past. She’s an icon, and our brand is an iconic brand. And for people who see America from the outside, something that’s always been very important and American: the diversity of different

communities, and the possibility to express yourself in a way that’s quite rare in other parts of the world. The point is not to become vintage, but to remain on the market with a new soul. We felt the 20th-anniversary of [her album] The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was the perfect fit; [Hill] is so political, and she has a different attitude with her music, which was interesting for us. She invented a type of hip-hop that at that time, 20 years ago, was rare. Woolrich is an iconic product that needs to be modernized, and she was a bridge for us. What was the design process like with Ms. Hill? We gave her total freedom—she wanted more oversize garments. She’s a strong lady, Ms. Lauryn Hill! I showed her a couple of iconic pieces, like a black coat, and parkas, and she did her own interpretations. She cut two coats in the middle and put them together, and added embroidery and prints. She wanted to work with a men’s parka and embellish it. Tell us more about the campaign. Why did you want to work with stylist Mel Ottenberg? Mel loves heritage products, especially with an Americana kind of statement. He loves red and black, and he has soul; we wanted to work with people who have soul. Mel has also worked with many important music industry people, so he knows how to treat people; you have to handle them with care. Another important component of the team was the photographer: Jack Davison is young, and has a lot of precision in his pictures. He shoots photos that are simple and strong. How would you describe Woolrich’s design DNA? We are functional, iconic, and simple in design. We invented the red and black check in 1850. It was invented by John Rich when he came [to America] in the 1800s; he took that from an old pattern of an English clan from the 1700s. He changed it and Americanized the check. They started to manufacture for the lumberjack industry, because they needed to be visible in nature. It’s trademarked, and even been shown at MoMA. Flannel is interesting because people really use it; it’s a garment that is recognizable. The other [products] have lost a little bit of identity, so we needed to build that. Any other musicians you’d want to partner with? Not now. The intent is not [for the brand] to be related to music. Music is an aspect of the soul of America that was easy as a starting point. Then we have a lot of other issues we want to cover, that we’re working on. In the Spring/Summer campaign, you’re going to understand a little better that the diversity of our approach to American soul is not only related to music. Tell us about the forthcoming NYC store! We developed the last formal store format with Wonderwall, a Japanese design firm. What we’re going to develop in New York is something different, because I feel New York has become our hub for changing, on a global scale. I see in the retail business that it’s about experiences, for sure. For us, the experiences have to be close to the brand’s outdoors essence; that will be in the New York store as well, but the philosophy and concept is going to be a little different. Everything is moving so fast, so even a retailer has to think about temporary, compared to the old way of doing a huge store as a big investment. That is not really what is happening, because of real estate and many other things. So the idea is to have a concept that could travel the world, and we want to develop the concept here in New York. Let’s say it’s a pop-up shop, with a long-term lease! In the age of online shopping, why do you think it’s important to have a brick-and-mortar experience for customers? Maybe because I’m an old-school guy. [Laughs] No, I think the Internet is a fantastic tool, to do volume, but there is also a quality side, a sense of well-being. We’ve trained [store employees] to tell the Woolrich story, the emotional connection, and the technical side, in a more appropriate way. You’ve been with the brand since 1985—how has it evolved? At the beginning, it was a real outdoor company. Then, it became lifestyle- and outdoor-oriented. We needed something more solid and strong, so the point was to go back to what people recognize in Woolrich: the performance side…our outerwear is also performancewear. Last year in Milan, we created this experience called “Extreme Room,” which was -20° Celsius; you could test the product to see how it competes in terms of technical features. We are modernizing iconic pieces like the parka, but they still have to perform. This is the message behind the company. For the 100th anniversary of Woolrich, a book was made, and there is a sentence I’ve looked at many, many times: “We do garments with a purpose.” I think this is an important message we have to keep.

The point is not to become vintage, but to remain on the market with a new soul.

BY ARIA DARCELLA