Philipp Plein held a black-tie event to have fun creations in fragrances, timepieces and eyewear.

The party took place Wednesday night at his fabulous domain perched high up within the hills above the town of Cannes, France. The event took place in tandem with the Tax Free World Association trade show in Cannes’ Palais de Congrès below and just days before the birth of his third child was expected. The brand new creations were all developed through licensed categories.

Plein shined a highlight on his brand’s fourth fragrance, called No Limit$ Gold, which comes with the tag line “The alchemy of success.” It’s the third men’s scent within the No Limit$ collection and was created by master perfumer Alberto Morillas, who used olfactive notes including bergamot, elemi, amber woods and patchouli.

“It’s very sunny, orange flowers, Mediterranean and sensible,” said Morillas.

Plein said the aim was to supply something unique and linked to his brand’s DNA.

“The bottle has a bank card shape,” he said, referring to the gold-colored flacon. “The thought was to sell the dream of getting a bank card with no limits on it. Who didn’t ever dream of that?

“I desired to have something ironic, something fun — not only an incredible, sophisticated smell and juice,” said Plein. “It’s very nice to offer not only a fantastic juice, but additionally a message within the bottle. It’s playful.”

For Plein, fragrance is a fantastic entry point into luxury. His first scents ever were from Joop and Calvin Klein, with the latter — CK One — concocted by Morillas.

“He also created my mother’s favorite fragrance — Opium, by Saint Laurent,” said Plein, who decorated his childhood room with those initial perfume bottles.

Plein also feted his brand’s launch into the Swiss-made luxury watch segment, following its entry into the posh fashion watch segment through a license with Timex Group that spans 4,000 sales points in 60 countries.

“It’s very exciting. We reached about 100 million euro retail value of turnover inside two years,” said Plein. “That is something from zero to hero in a really short time period.”

Out first from Plein’s luxury watch division, based in Lugano, Switzerland, might be the Crypto King and Crypto Queen collections. Thus far, they’ve been sold by preorder only through exclusive events staged worldwide.

“We’re principally sold out until the tip of the 12 months,” confided Plein. “That is an excellent exciting project. We’re expanding more on this direction.”

For spring 2024, he’s introducing an upper-luxury eyewear collection with licensee De Rigo, comprising 18 models, including sun- and prescription glasses.

The designer said Philipp Plein has reached all its targets within the category and is now 40 percent over budget for 2023.

“We’ve got not only a fantastic sell-in but additionally great sell-out within the industry,” said Plein.

Altogether he has 14 licenses today, including ones for wallpaper, children’s shoes and golfwear and accessories in South Korea, an enormous jump from 2020, when the primary license began. Plein said those licenses have added value to his core business and for his consumers.

“I’m very blessed and glad to have partners within the industry which gave me the liberty to essentially be a part of the project,” he said. “I desired to do it with my DNA.”

The licenses, he added, are “an incredible opportunity to expand the brand, its distribution and awareness. With the license partners alone, we added nearly 10,000 latest points of sale. We’re leveraging from this. It’s giving the brand one other accelerator and helping or not it’s much more established.”

Fashion-wise, tailoring is the category that’s fastest growing for Philipp Plein — especially blazers, for men and ladies.

“Everybody who’s wearing a blazer nowadays has a tough time finding alternatives available in the market,” he said. “Philipp Plein shouldn’t be only a distinct segment market specialist. Additionally it is a specialist find demands available in the market.

“We hearken to what’s occurring and what the buyer actually wants and is in search of,” continued Plein. “Now, after COVID especially, while everybody was focused on loungewear and jogging [clothes], persons are going again to dinner parties, like tonight, and festivities where you dress up. There’s a requirement — rather more than before COVID. We’ve got a fantastic product and a extremely high-end Italian sartorial division.”

Plein’s women’s blazers are worn with every little thing from hot pants to denim, for day and night. He has implemented a sartorial corner in all Philipp Plein stores.

“This may also help us again to sell shoes which will not be sneakers,” said Plein, explaining the brand offers a complete look. “Today we sell more easily a tuxedo jacket for $3,000 than a leather jacket.”

He explained that despite his brand turning 25 this 12 months, it still has tremendous growth potential.

“We’re still on the very starting,” said Plein. “We’ve got loads of time ahead of us, where we are able to carry on growing organically.”

That’s to say, without external investors. Plein feels that is a vital message to share, especially with entrepreneurs, corresponding to young designers, within the increasingly competitive landscape dominated by a handful of huge groups.

“If ever anyone tries again to create a brand from scratch, the one advice I can provide is that originally, you will not be a brand — you’re only a product,” said Plein. “Because of this we’ve all the time been a maximalist brand, because we needed to create a product which delivers such a powerful message.”

Also to command elevated prices, the products have must be useful, he reasoned.

“We’re still driven by product,” said Plein. “That’s why we’re so playful in all our designs and what we do. This, actually, is the key of success of this brand over 25 years. It was all the time the product which was selling — never the brand.”