Landmark institutions and storied family brands can evolve and branch out successfully as long as they stay true to their founding values.
That was a key takeaway from the conversation between Giampaolo Grossi, chief executive officer of Giacomo Milano, established in 1958 by Giacomo Bulleri, and Stefano Canali, president and CEO of menswear brand Canali, founded in 1934, moderated by Martino Carrera, WWD’s Milan business and fashion editor.
Speaking at the third edition of the Fashion Loves Food gala hosted by WWD with The Style Gate and Galateo and Friends, Grossi said modestly that since his arrival at Giacomo Milano in September 2023, all he had to do was “analyze, observe and respect the talents and know-how we had in-house that Giacomo developed and passed on, and give guidelines.”
Grossi arrived at Giacomo with experience honed in the restaurant business as general manager of Prada Group-owned Marchesi 1824, Bice in New York, Kuwait and Florida, and Starbucks Italy. It was a time of change, following the full acquisition of Giacomo by Fidim, the investment holding of the Rovati family, known for its pharmaceutical business.
He credited the founder and his family for building “a very strong company” with several outposts in Milan and in Tuscany’s Forte dei Marmi, Pietrasanta and Fiesole, and inside the Grand Hotel Tremezzo on Lake Como. His first steps were “to structure the processes while maintaining and respecting the authenticity of Giacomo, enhancing it, creating a new path without overturning anything, and allowing the team to express their best version of themselves.”
Charting a new path in continuity with its roots has been Canali’s North Star, too, as his family’s company ventured into hospitality by opening its first branded restaurant last July — Locanda Canali, in Hong Kong next to the brand’s flagship.
Asked what prompted this decision, Canali joked it took “a great deal of unawareness, moving into something so far from our core business.”
More seriously, he said the brand extension was executed “consistently, offering an authentic experience that is synergic and functional, aligned with the brand’s founding elements since 1934.”
He explained that the Locanda stemmed from Canali’s own need to diversify, from a request by Harbour City’s Gateway Arcade, where the store is located, and from the alignment with chef Gianni Caprioli, who is “Italian but is well-settled and deep-rooted in Hong Kong.”
Grossi also underscored the importance of execution and treating your team well, as much as the restaurant’s patrons. “The experience in the restaurant is objectively measurable, but it is interpreted subjectively.”
Leading a restaurant successfully means “your are a master at the subjective level because one guest may enjoy a dish at one table, but another guest at the next table may not, even if the dish is prepared the same way. Everything stems from the attention and the relationship with the client, observing and catching information that can create that relation.”
As an example, Grossi cited how he feels at home in a small restaurant in Sardinia, which has had the same exact menu for 20 years. “Sure, the culinary offer could be expanded, but that authenticity makes me subjectively feel well in that context. Yes, there are standards, but there is no perfect playbook or cookie-cutter recipe. I think it’s the same in fashion.”
Canali concurred that innovation and creativity are important, but that “the evolution must rely on what has made you successful, with extreme attention to the quality of the product. That has been always the case for us since 1934 and it will never change across the board and that same philosophy is applied to the very high quality of the ingredients at the Locanda, with recipes that have a dash of innovation so that they are never banal or predictable.”
Grossi said he compares to culture and education “the excellence and ambition we aspire to. Welcoming people so that they feel well is a tradition that Giacomo can’t lose and that is too important, in a journey that continues to evolve, fueling those fundamental values that cannot change.”
In a patriotic nod, Canali said that Italians are used to living “in an open-air museum, our senses are stimulated by beautiful landmarks, palaces, statues and churches. Our duty as brands is to reflect this beauty each with our own lifestyle and point of view.”
