PARIS — With 2023 promising to be one other yr of designer musical chairs in the posh industry, not less than one brand is joyful to stay and not using a creative figurehead.

Berluti, which belongs to French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is back on the official calendar of Paris Fashion Week this season for the primary time because the departure in 2021 of its artistic director Kris Van Assche.

Removed from being dormant within the interim, the home has overhauled its ready-to-wear and accessories collections, and is now ready to indicate off the work of its in-house team.

It marks the primary time since the launch of its ready-to-wear line in 2012 that the footwear specialist has operated and not using a creative director, following the tenures of Alessandro Sartori, Haider Ackermann and Van Assche. Antoine Arnault, chief executive officer of Berluti, said the change of substances had proved useful.

“While you may think there’s a risk that it would depart us out of the conversation, or less in tune with trends, it’s nice to see that precisely the alternative has happened. And by stepping out of the style scene, with this obligation to deliver something recent every season, we’ve benefited from being far more self-assured and faithful to our craftsmanship roots,” he said.

“We now not do a runway show, but we communicate in a different way. We do a number of one-to-one appointments with our historic clients. Special orders and made-to-measure are doing increasingly well, so it’s all very virtuous, and it’s nice to be a little bit less visible,” Arnault added. “This works significantly better for us and our clients are feeling it too.”

While the manager declined to supply figures, he said sales reflected the renewed momentum of the brand coming out of the coronavirus pandemic. “Our shoes and leather goods are doing extremely well in Asia, especially in Japan,” he noted. “Whenever you have a look at the department store rankings in those countries, we’re not far behind the most important brands.”

Harold Israel, vp marketing and image of Berluti, said the “superb” performance in 2022 was the fruit of a general update geared toward reinforcing brand pillars, highlighting craftsmanship and streamlining its ready-to-wear assortment, with a deal with travel-friendly pieces that marry comfort and luxury.

“By focusing a little bit less on fashion, and overhauling our pillars and our assortments, we’ve made our message and brand identity much clearer and our customers have returned,” he said. “All our iconic products have been revamped to enhance the standard of the development and refine the execution by way of linings and finishings, and above all to harmonize them.”

Berluti’s fall 2023 collection, titled “The Great Escape,” might be presented on Wednesday in a showroom on the brand’s headquarters in Paris.

Launching in September is a six-piece line of baggage and bags featuring the brand new Toile Marbeuf canvas, featuring a fresh tackle the Scritto, Berluti’s signature 18th-century manuscript motif. With its wealthy brown leather trimmings, inspired by the woodwork and club chairs present in the brand’s historic boutique on Rue Marbeuf, it’s designed to have a retro feel.

Meanwhile, Berluti plans to ease out the Signature canvas it introduced in 2020.

On the footwear front, the brand is offering recent variations on classic styles just like the Ultima, now lined in shearling for a wintery feel, and its bestselling Shadow sneaker. Meanwhile, classic bag styles just like the Trois Nuits, launched in 2005, have been given a makeover.  

“Shoes are really on the core of our expertise, so the standard is incredibly high. We wanted our leather goods offer to be on the identical level,” Israel said.

Likewise, Berluti has been refining its ready-to-wear to make it increasingly weightless, with items including a burgundy leather version of its B-Way blouson, a deerskin varsity jacket and a light-weight down blouson crafted in supple patinated leather.    

“Constructing a light-weight piece will not be easy. It’s much simpler to make something quite structured and rigid, and it’s also inexpensive, whereas refining pieces like this could be very complex and requires real know-how,” Israel noted.

The autumn collection is split into 4 drops, landing in stores from July to December. While Berluti has no plans to grow its global network of around 60 stores, it has a program of pop-ins timed to essential releases, which include a golf capsule collection and the brand new Lorenzo Drive loafer in the primary half, and the Marbeuf canvas within the second half.

The brand plans to reprise its Live Iconic campaign, launched in 2022 with images of two of its legendary clients, Marcello Mastroianni and Andy Warhol. It’s all a part of its recent customer-centric strategy.

“Our message is that we’re more of a luxury house than a fashion house — that’s really the territory we would like to explore, but we don’t need to do it in a repetitive or boring or uncreative way. We wish to do it with an intention, which is to spotlight our know-how and to indicate how we envision a men’s wardrobe, and we expect that vision is relevant and real,” Israel said.