Malo Updated With Tradition in View

"We hired Tommaso and Roberto to reposition the brand in all its aspects, from merchandising to ad campaigns and from marketing strategies to the look books," Notarpietro said. "They bought a very valid technical and professional contribution, also thanks to their industrial culture and marketing sensibility."

Notarpietro noted that in terms of sales, the woven pieces are in a forward throttle because they represent the new element, one that consumers are eager to indulge.

"It's important that our customers see beyond the knitwear because I don't want a Malo sweater to be relegated in a corner with Pringle and Ballantyne," Notarpietro said. "Our objective is to sit at a table with the major department stores to propose a project, a philosophy and a direction."

Malo is carried in 400 sales points worldwide, including Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York in the U.S., and in the brand's 30 namesake stores in major cities such as Milan, Paris and New York, and in resorts such as Portofino and Aspen.

For the past three seasons, Malo has shown in New York and will continue to present in the city.

"A good positioning on the U.S. market is the desire of every brand,'' Notarpietro said. "Success there is like receiving a diploma and a master's because it has the most competitive and professional distribution. U.S. retailers are very straightforward, for good or for bad."

Malo's new course has piqued the interest of other markets such as Russia and Japan, he said. During the last year, Malo has secured 10 points of sale in Moscow alone and at the end of November, held a major trunk show in the Russian capital.

Malo is also targeting China and pushing Japan, after the brand recently took distribution control back in-house from Itochu. "We have an inexistent presence in the [United Arab] Emirates and will take advantage of the IT Holding showroom that will open in Dubai at the end of the year," Notarpietro said.

"We don't want our distribution to grow exponentially, but we want to have more visibility in certain department stores, especially now that our product range is so much wider," he said.