Why more and more brands are becoming independent

Carlotta and Nicolò Oddi have announced that they have reacquired the ownership stake that New Guards Group held in Alanui, the brand the two siblings founded in 2015 in Milan. This marks a return to independence for the brand, which will now manage all corporate functions autonomously, including operations and distribution. Carlotta Oddi will remain in her role as Creative Director, while Nicolò Oddi will continue as CEO, ensuring continuity in the business strategy. The buyback represents an opportunity for the founders to further strengthen the brand's identity and lead its creative direction. Starting from the SS26 season, Alanui will directly distribute its collections, particularly in the US and Europe, and will have its own showroom in Milan. The immediate goal will be to consolidate the wholesale channel in these areas before expanding further into Asia, where the brand has already explored the market through pop-up stores in Japan. The reacquisition of Alanui takes place within the broader context of the progressive dismantling of New Guards Group, a division of Farfetch, which has lost the Off-White license and sold Palm Angels to Bluestar Alliance amid a corporate restructuring process to cope with a (to put it mildly) complex financial situation.

However, the news fits into an even broader context than the sinking of Farfetch and the New Guards Group. In recent months, two other designers have also decided to reacquire full control of their operations: Stella McCartney and Giuseppe Zanotti both bought back the minority stakes that the Arnault family, through LVMH or L Catterton, had acquired in their respective brands over the years. What’s striking is the frequency of such cases, which with Alanui become three in six months, and which overall seem at first glance to be counterintuitive moves: regaining independence in a tough market like fashion in 2025 doesn't seem advisable – nonetheless, we can assume that in both McCartney and Zanotti’s cases, the business had become strong enough to allow a return to independence. Cutting out external investors also means regaining autonomy in an industry context where stock market listings and investor presence imply a loss of full control over the company and therefore less strategic flexibility – and of course, greater distribution of profits. But Zanotti and McCartney run multimillion-dollar businesses. Alanui’s case seems different, in many ways more similar to when the founders of Proenza Schouler bought back the brand from their investors in 2018. Overall, there seems to be a sense that both individual designers and big groups are rethinking the conglomerate model: the former want full autonomy without having to share the metaphorical pie, the latter have realized that overly large structures tend to collapse under their own weight.

With most luxury industry groups currently in troubled – or at least not optimal – waters, it’s only natural that the category of designer-entrepreneurs would want to distance themselves from a model that’s beginning to show signs of fatigue – especially now, in times of crisis, as several groups are considering divesting, selling or offloading brands that have become burdensome, converting them into valuable liquidity. This is the case, for example, of Capri Holdings: the WSJ recently reported how CEO John Idol first tried to steer Versace toward the quiet luxury territory by repositioning the brand and clashing with Donatella, only to ultimately decide to sell it when things didn’t improve. The same may soon happen to Jimmy Choo, which, according to a recent article in the Telegraph, could soon return to the hands of Tamara Mellon, the powerhouse executive who acquired it in 1996, turned it into a global phenomenon, and sold it in 2011. Last year, Tomorrow Group sold A-Cold-Wall just nine months after acquiring it from its founder, while recently LVMH both acquired minority stakes in brands such as Kapital and Our Legacy and sold off secondary brands in its lineup such as Off-White, Stella McCartney, and Thomas Pink – but according to rumors, it also considered letting go of Marc Jacobs. Kering sold off its outlet chain The Mall last January, Aeffe took advantage of Lorenzo Serafini’s entry into Alberta Ferretti to shut down the Philosophy line. Perhaps, following the philosophy of cutting “non-core” businesses, facing the storm by throwing ballast overboard, fashion is finding a path toward degrowth, breaking away from the “oligopoly” situation the industry had begun to fall into.