LONDON — The fashion sales and distribution business has changed drastically over the past 12 months, and the key to success today is thinking globally, and acting locally, according to Stefano Martinetto, the co-owner and chief executive officer of the agency and brand owner Tomorrow.
The disappearance of Matches, the sale of Farfetch to Coupang, and potential changes at Net-a-porter under new owner Mytheresa have rattled the industry and cut off once-lucrative sales channels for fashion’s middlemen.
Those changes, coupled with higher interest rates, higher prices and a cost of living crisis in Europe, have forced some European brands to shut, and prompted agencies, distributors and brand owners to re-think how they do business.
For Tomorrow, which owns Coperni, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy and Martine Rose and distributes scores of other names, the changes have led to a pivot in strategy.
In an interview, Martinetto said sales were down 9 percent to 10 percent year-on-year in 2024. The decline was all the more painful given that Tomorrow was getting used to 35 percent annual compound growth, with 2023 its most lucrative year ever.
Tomorrow’s new strategy puts a sharper focus on local relationships, with the expansion of showrooms in Paris and New York. Tomorrow has also sold two of the brands in its portfolio, A-Cold-Wall and the specialty London retailer Machine-A, as it doubles down on the sales and distribution side of the business.
Martinetto said the golden days when agencies like Tomorrow could distribute through a handful of online giants are gone. “Those retailers were phenomenal machines. As an agency, you worked with them, had a few, select wholesale relationships, and a direct-to-consumer business. Not any more. Now, business is way more intense.”
Tomorrow, he added, is returning to pre-digital strategies of the late 1990s, and re-adopting “old-school skill sets, where you rely on personal relationships, regional understanding and wholesale partnerships. You travel more, and need people on the ground to engage with local wholesale clients.”
Tomorrow’s showroom in Chelsea, New York.
As part of its efforts to woo the locals, Tomorrow will open a second Paris showroom, at 45 Rue de la Boétie, on Wednesday. The new space spans more than 5,000 square feet, and is right down the street from Tomorrow’s original, three-floor space at 5 Rue de la Boétie.
Together the two spaces span 26,000 square feet, with individual spaces dedicated to each brand and designer.
Martinetto said the second Paris showroom will allow Tomorrow’s staff to engage “with an even broader audience and showcase an expanded range of brands, from contemporary to high-end.”
The new space will showcase a mix of existing brands from the Tomorrow portfolio, including Loverboy, Hed Mayner, Ottolinger, Bluemarble, Bonsai, as well as the newly signed Gomme footwear brand, Meryll Rogge, Phenix by TMKT, Takahiro Miyashita, and YCH.
The new Paris showroom follows the opening a year ago of an 18,000-square-foot space in Manhattan’s Chelsea. Both openings, said Martinetto, reflect the brand’s “continued growth and dedication to providing top-tier, immersive experiences for the global fashion community.”
Tomorrow also has showrooms in Los Angeles, Milan and Shanghai, and Martinetto believes it was the company’s strong international footprint that acted as a safety net when the online fashion giants ran into trouble.
Tomorrow’s showroom in Chelsea, New York.
Martinetto said diversification is key and that brands need strong wholesale partnerships as well as a robust direct-to-consumer business if they want to flourish.
He said Tomorrow made some false assumptions over the past years and he and the team have learned hard lessons. “We thought Gen Z would be the dominant consumer force because they were so fast-moving and connected. But we were wrong. They walked away. And now, Millennials and Gen X are back in fashion.”
He also believes there were early warnings of a bursting fashion bubble as early as 2020, before the pandemic hit. “Prices were rising, and there was over-production and over-distribution,” he said.
Timothée Chalamet at the London premiere of “A Complete Unknown” last week, wearing Martine Rose, head-to-toe.
Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for
Looking ahead, Martinetto is expecting 2025 to be a year of “survival, simplification and flat sales growth.” He has higher hopes for 2026, when demand will begin to rebound.
Asked about China, he said end-customers are eschewing local shopping, and spending only when they go abroad, to places such as Japan and South Korea. “Tastes and values are changing among young Chinese consumers” and overconsumption is not viewed favorably, he said.
On the brand portfolio side, Tomorrow is not planning to sell any more companies, at least for the moment. Martinetto said he’ll continue to build and nurture Coperni, Loverboy and Martine Rose with an eye to selling them — eventually.
“There is no deadline, and no mandate to sell any of those brands,” he said, adding that his favorite part of the business is the “incubation and acceleration” of emerging labels.
Despite that passion, his focus will increasingly be on simplifying the Tomorrow business, doubling down on the services to brands and wholesale clients, and adapting to the demands of a fast-changing market.
