Benetton: United colors of fashion The history of the brand, from the first sweater to the iconic campaigns by Oliviero Toscani
On Tuesday 19 October Benetton will be showing for the first time in Milan. The brand will open the next Milan Fashion Week presenting the FW19 men's and women's collection with a co-ed show that will be held at the Area 56 in via Savona. The event will be an opportunity to learn how the heritage of the historic company will be interpreted and perhaps revolutionized by the new creative director Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. We take advantage of the upcoming event to retrace the history of a company that has made the history of Italian fashion and beyond, anticipated the giants of fast-fashion, making the sweater a trendy item, shocking and reflecting with the icons advertising campaigns created with Oliviero Toscani.
History.
It all starts in the early 50s as Luciano Benetton says:
"My sister Giuliana made sweaters for a shop in our area. One day, he gives me a sweater of a very bright yellow color. Well, everyone wanted it. They were tired of the sad and dull colors of the time. So I said: Come on, let's try, you Giuliana create and I sell. We bought an old machine that did the lines to the fishnet stockings. They sold it to the weight of the iron. We have transformed it. Since then, nobody has stopped us."
Their first official trademark is called Très Jolie and became Benetton in 1965 when the other two brothers, Gilberto and Carlo, who deal with the financial, technical and production aspects respectively, joined the project. Shortly thereafter appears "folpetto", the small octopus that recalls a particular weave of fabric, the logo designed in 1971 by Franco Giacometti and Giulio Cittato that will distinguish Benetton products.
The brilliant idea that brings the family to success is simple and, at the same time, innovative: to modernize the classic wool sweater, at the time available only in basic colors, elevating it to trendy items, proposing it in 36 colors thanks to the development of a technique of dyeing pre-packaged garments in unbleached wool that allows many product variants to be produced quickly, cheaply and on demand. The company took off in a very short time and from the first store opened in Belluno in 1966 the brand expands like wildfire thanks to low prices and a franchising system based on an independent network of commercial partners. The success of what is now the company listed on the Benetton Group Spa seems as unstoppable as innovations and winning ideas: an information system capable of creating a direct link between orders, warehouse and distribution; streamlined collections structure to accelerate production times and increase growth in the international network; first warehouse fully robotized as early as 1984. All decisions are the result of an excellent entrepreneurial intuition, but the factor X, the element that will allow the Treviso brand to enter into history is the partnership with Oliviero Toscani. It is his high impact social communication campaigns with shocking and provocative images that make Benetton known all over the world. It is always the photographer who develops the very famous slogan "All the colors of the world", then "United Colors of Benetton", a phrase that refers to the colorful clothes of the company and at the same time promotes a positive idea of cultural diversity.
Then everything changes. In 2000 the communication of the brand passed to Fabrica and the competition of fast fashion giants such as H & M and Zara took over the market. Instead of continuing to focus on the "fashion project", the management team begins to invest in other sectors: in motorways, in airports, in large stations, in motorway service stations. In 2003 the Benetton family announced the progressive withdrawal from the direct management of the company to leave room for external managers. The economic losses increase, close more and more shops and the reputation of the brand is affected by numerous facts, exploitative stories, violation of human rights, as the thorny conflict that opposes, in the Argentine Patagonia, the Mapuche indigenous to the Benetton Group, owner of 900.000 hectares acquired in 1991 and guilty, according to the accusations, to displace them from the lands on which they have always lived. The numbers are clear: Inditex, in 2016, invests more than € 23 billion, while Benetton only € 1.37 billion and in 2017 reports a loss of € 216.2 million, which follows that of € 37.2 million achieved in 2016. Outraged by the situation, the 80-year-old Luciano Benetton decides to return to the top of the company and in an interview with La Repubblica he explains:
"While the others imitated us, United Colors turned off its colors. We defeated ourselves. The shops, which were wells of light, have become dark and sad like those of Communist Poland. And I'm talking about Milan, Rome, Paris ... We closed in South America and the USA ... They stopped making sweaters. It is as if they had taken water from an aqueduct. I saw Russian coats, with double-breasted, wide lapel, thick shoulders ... of a dirty gray color. You think they closed the dye-works".
The historical collaborator Oliviero Toscani also returns with him. If the operation is successful, only time will tell it.
Benetton, Oliviero Toscani and the revolutionary advertising campaigns.
One of Benetton's greatest insights was to understand that communication should not be bought from an external supplier, it must be born from the heart of the company and that addressing an individual, rather than a client, a brand can identify its target starting from the age or income of consumers, but on the basis of a set of shared values. From 1982 to 2000, Oliviero Toscani helped the Venetian company to develop this concept. Together the two partners give life to iconic advertising, combining social criticism with simple, direct and impact images. So innovative that they are seen as a watershed between a commercial model of traditional and modern advertising photography, in which the relationship between text and subtext of the message is reversed. Social causes become the pivot of institutional campaigns, while product, brand, and commodity are now the subtext. Toscani realizes strong images that were born with the aim of capturing the interest and attention of people preventing indifference, shocking, trying diplomatic incidents, collecting criticism and complaints from the Vatican to the White House, often being censored and boycotted. The most widespread accusation is that of decontextualizing and commodifying the chronicle and the problems of the world, transforming them into a sort of disposable objects. Whatever the general opinion, it is undeniable that the Benetton and Toscani campaigns have marked our age and, thanks to the many controversies, have allowed the Italian fashion giant to become known all over the world. The subjects of the photographer are subjects suffering from AIDS, political prisoners, refugees, members of the clergy, people of any race, religion or sexual orientation.
Would they do it at the height of success? Maybe not. Now that Luciano Benetton has returned to the top and with him the trusted Toscani, things could change. It is hoped that even the strictly fashion offers will be improved and that the new creative director Jean-Charles de Castelbajac knows how to infuse with his experience and his love for art an interesting twist to the new collections, perhaps updating the creations with street influences or with some special collaboration, perhaps with an artist. It would be nice if Benetton's fate was not a pale memory of past success.
