Tomorrow Puts a New Spin on Investment, Looking at Heads and Hearts

LONDON — Fashion is a hot-blooded business, and Stefano Martinetto takes that to heart when he looks at potential acquisitions for Tomorrow London Ltd., a full-service business and creative platform for designer labels, which he co-owns and runs with Giancarlo Simiri. Despite the discipline, detail and precision that go into making collections, fashion is also a messy affair, and the road to success is cluttered with bad investments, botched strategies, soured partnerships, mismanaged expectations and often a fundamental lack of understanding about how the business actually works. That’s one reason why Martinetto talks about the importance of undertaking “emotional” due diligence before investing, and why his team prefers to wait — and court — designers and brands before taking stakes in their brands. He’s also hoping that Tomorrow’s unconventional strategy will be a winner, and that the company will be able to offer small, independent designer businesses an alternative to private equity investment, big luxury groups and wealthy — but often inexperienced — individuals in an ever more difficult climate for fashion. “I try to put myself in the designers’ shoes and understand that they need money, but they also need a high-quality organization. Often they can’t afford it because it costs millions of

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

Read More...

from WWDWWD https://ift.tt/30HzgIE