Promoting naive fashion: interview with the founders of Clothes Agency A project born in 2019 from the minds of Luca Fortugna and Carlo Zollo
One of the features that makes Clothes Agency different from the rest is the deep respect dedicated to all brands represented, a list now including renowned and emerging names in fashion such as Lemaire, Cormio, Courrèges, David Koma, Panconesi, Wales Bonner, Séfr, and Louisa Ballou. A project launched in 2019 by Luca Fortugna and Carlo Zollo, two former commercial sales professionals, Clothes Agency now rests on the three cardinal points of European fashion: London, Milan, and Paris, where this weekend marks the inauguration of the first showroom, Clothes Showroom. Despite the challenge of expanding their business in a cultural hub like Paris, not a small feat in a city hosting luxury industry giants, what led founders Carlo Zollo and Luca Fortugna to believe in Clothes Agency was precisely the level of difficulty it required. After all, to be able to change the game takes a great deal of courage. We met the founders of the agency a few days before the new opening to learn more about their project.
With the growth of the company, there was an increasingly felt urgency to give way for a physical space to be built in Paris, and so Clothes Showroom was born in 2023 as an extension of the agency. This weekend, Zollo and Fortugna will unveil the AW24 selection inside the new space, showcasing brands Panconesi, Cormio and two debut collections from Ottange and GASM, OR? «The idea was to create something personal that had greater significance than just business terms,» Zollo tells us about the showroom, a project tasked with carrying forward all the values promoted by Clothes Agency, even more radically. «There is a growing alignment between our agency, the brands we represent, and the collaborations we could explore,» adds Fortugna in view of the agency's upcoming commitments. «A shift is crucial for continuing to sell fashion in a changing landscape. We hope this can become a collective change, spurred on by the perspectives of the new generations. Rest assured, we are committed to playing our part in this transition.»
