MILAN — Changes are ahead for another brand in New Guards Group’s stable.
After Bluestar Alliance’s acquisitions of Off-White and Palm Angels, Alanui’s cofounders, siblings Carlotta and Nicolò Oddi, have bought back the stake held by New Guards Group, or NGG, in the high-end knitwear brand they launched in 2015.
Financial details were not disclosed but it is understood the Oddis bought back the majority stake NGG had, regaining full control of the brand. NGG first invested in Alanui in 2017.
As result of the move, Alanui will directly and independently manage its business from operations to distribution, with Carlotta and Nicolò Oddi retaining their roles as the brand’s creative director and chief executive officer, respectively. Starting from the spring 2026 collection, Alanui men’s and women’s lines will be directly distributed by the brand from a Milan-based showroom.
“Alanui reflects our vision and values,” Carlotta Oddi said. “An imaginative, creative travel is always the starting point, season after season, for the creation of our collections. Today we start a new, exciting journey, that celebrates our origins but that is very much projected into the future. Alanui means ‘long path’ in Hawaiian.…We can’t wait to walk that extra mile,” said the designer, who underscored that the past eight years under NGG have been “formative and of growth, both for the brand and on a personal level.”
Alanui fall 2024
Courtesy of Alanui
Leveraging her experience as a fashion editor and consultant and seeing a gap in the market and opportunity for knitwear in a moment dominated by T-shirts and hoodies, Oddi presented Alanui’s first collection in March 2016. The brand launched with a single product — a luxury belted cardigan with a boho-chic vibe that is still the centerpiece of the label’s offering and reinterpreted in new ways each season. These comprise intarsia designs, which frequently telegraph Oddi’s escapist approach and evoke her seasonal traveling themes or mystical inspirations.
Through the years, the brand’s globetrotting ethos, craftsmanship and research in knitting techniques expanded to ready-to-wear, accessories, mini-me, pet and home lines.
“For us, this is a fashion house — everything is centered around a lifestyle linked to travels, every collection is a destination,” Oddi said.
Alanui fall 2023
Courtesy of Alanui
The fall 2025 line, which was already presented to buyers but is to be officially unveiled with a see now, buy now timing, offered the Oddis other encouraging signs that they are moving in the right direction, as the CEO said sales of the collection were up 15 percent over the spring 2025 collection.
“In quite a particular moment for the market, we’re getting positive feedback. And this is linked to the values, strong DNA and recognizability of the brand,” said Nicolò Oddi, who also highlighted the creative consistency across product categories and constant dialogue with the brand’s community as key factors in its success.
“The vision will remain the same going forward. We’re structuring the company to sustain an organic and constant, double-digit growth season after season for the coming years,” continued the executive, who plots collaborations and activations aimed at boosting Alanui’s customer experience and international visibility.
Without disclosing sales figures, Oddi said the brand’s current best-performing markets are the EMEA region – led by Italy, Germany and the U.K. – and the U.S. The priority now is to consolidate its wholesale footprint in these areas, before expanding in Asia, which the founders already explored via the launch of pop-ups in countries like Japan last year.
In the longer term, the goal is to open the brand’s first standalone store, seen as key in communicating the Alanui world even more effectively. Oddi said the location would be in Milan, as it would be easier to manage and help it test and learn.
The Alanui Finest fall 2024 collection
Courtesy of Alanui
The store would display Alanui’s ever-expanding assortment. The cardigan and its different iterations, such as the cardi-crop style, are still the best-selling items, followed by crewneck sweaters and longer options doubling as coats. Other categories ranging from pants to accessories are on the rise, signaling customers’ shift in their perception of the label as a full-fledged offering.
In parallel with the main collections, each season the Oddis are slowly expanding the Alanui Finest line, introduced in 2023 and representing the pinnacle of the brand’s offering with monochrome and timeless silhouettes crafted from even more premium yarns, including an exclusive cashmere and silk blend.
That launch enabled Alanui to reach different clusters of customers, as the label’s target is currently aged 20 to over 60 years old.
Alanui has also released different collaborations, ranging from The Rolling Stones and Looney Tunes to Jacques Marie Mage, Sebago and Moon Boot, to name a few. Carlotta Oddi said these have been important for the brand as they were developed with companies with shared values, recognizable identities and which were specialists in their own product categories. The plan is to explore more in the future.
Alanui fall 2024
Courtesy of Alanui
The Oddis’ decision to regain full control of their business differs from the fate of other NGG brands.
As reported, last month global brand management firm Bluestar Alliance LLC acquired luxury streetwear firm Palm Angels from NGG. The brand was founded in 2015 by Francesco Ragazzi, who exited the company as result of the deal and, after a fortnight, introduced his new gig, a high-end fragrance label named Réservation.
The deal followed Bluestar Alliance’s acquisition of Off-White from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton at the end of September.
A division of Farfetch, NGG is still home to brands including Marcelo Burlon County of Milan, Unravel Project, Heron Preston, Peggy Gou, Ambush and There Was One.
Farfetch acquired NGG for $675 million in 2019. South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang took control of Farfetch at a knockdown price of $500 million at the end of 2023.
As reported, in November, two weeks after losing the license to distribute Reebok footwear and apparel in Europe, NGG filed for Chapter 11-style proceedings in Italy, undergoing a restructuring and debt management process under Italian bankruptcy law.
The filing is known in Italy as a CNC, and offers troubled companies the time and space to restructure and chart a path forward. It is not an insolvency procedure.
