MILAN — With all of the “quiet luxury” talk and latest tackle tailoring seen on the catwalks in Milan and Paris this month, these are surely difficult times for streetwear and hype beasts. 

Yet encouraging news come from Maurizio Purificato, cofounder of luxury Milan-based multibrand store Antonia, who after establishing high-end puffer maker Khrisjoy, has backed emerging label Darkpark.

“It’s not like streetwear is over, it just moved from logos to speaking through volumes,” he noted. Good thing the ladies’s and men’s brand he cofounded with Inna Gerchikov in 2021 was already geared for this transition. 

In truth, Darkpark began with a focused offering centered on oversized denim and cargo pants, which immediately garnered the eye of premium department shops and multibrand stores with their roomy silhouettes and crowd pleasing washes and coverings.

In lower than 4 collections, the brand has expanded to more product categories and fine-tuned its vision of serving customers with a luxe tackle workwear, progressively moving from flashy styles to a toned-down and much more elevated approach to the segment.

“In case you analyze buyers’ requests, they’re demanding more clean lines,” noted Purificato, underscoring how this inclination requires “for every little thing to be impeccable” product-wise. Hence, Darkpark further heightened the eye to details and the fabrications of its Made in Italy designs via the introduction of the likes of leather and Tencel, a natural fabric originated from wood.

“I actually like start-ups, I like determining the direction a brand has to follow and I feel we found the appropriate evolution and path for this brand. We’re rather more coherent with our vision and may higher communicate what Inna represents,” said Purificato. 

The creative mind behind the label, Gerchikov is a self-confessed tomboy of Canadian origins, which largely influenced her passion for all things denim. This was reinforced during a two-year stay in Los Angeles, a city “that taught me every little thing on washes and denim culture,” she said.

When she moved to Milan in 2004, she arrange a distribution business that bridged the space between the U.S. and Italy as she brought in “the American brands I couldn’t find here,” specifically within the denim arena in addition to in intimate apparel and accessories, akin to Hanky Panky and G.H. Bass.

“During COVID-19 I had lots time to think, and realized that the denim market was flat. It was all about skinny jeans and there was nothing that suited my taste,” said Gerchikov, who for years used to purchase men’s jeans and pants, altering them to suit her slim figure. “I had the concept for a brand for years, but eventually it was born two years ago with Maurizio, who’s a person of motion,” she added.

The label’s name desired to evoke the unconventional, fun approach to pants, which firstly were heavier in stained, bleached, tie-dyed, distressed and sanded washes. Raw edge cuts, crystal panels, drawstrings, utility pockets and straps to cuff the bottoms were also a part of the brand’s aesthetic.

“At first we would have liked that ‘wow’ effect. And now that we’ve got that ‘wow-wow,’ we’re toning it down,” confirmed Gerchikov, who’s also committed to increasingly rounding out the offering.

To this end, the corporate tapped Marco Corso as head designer, bringing in-house “an incredible eye and know-how” in shirting and jackets, as Corso hails from Jil Sander. 

Those two product categories — shirting and jackets — enabled Darkpark to supply a complete search for spring 2024, delivering a group marked by softer textures and monochrome pieces. Military cargo pants crafted from Tencel and roomy utility options elevated with crystal chains were paired with mannish poplin shirts and bomber jackets in checkered fabrics that winked to a preppy aesthetic here and there, including in the lads’s offering.

Other highlights of the ladies’s range included denim pants with exaggerated cuffed bottoms, studded Bermuda shorts and the brand’s best-selling “Ines” denim style with mismatched closure and here rendered in subtler washes. The classic five-pocket jeans were also reinterpreted in relaxed suits “which can be slim but never skinny,” underscored Gerchikov.

The boldest propositions comprised neon accents, sequins peeking from the distressed effect of jeans and pants punctuated by crystals, which can add to a special capsule collection of 40 pieces with sparkly embellishments. 

Introduced last season via pants, leather was deployed for tank tops and overshirts, also for spring 2024, while Gerchikov teased the addition of cashmere pieces and the brand’s first tote bag in the following fall collection.

With retail prices starting from 350 euros to 1,900 euros for leather pieces — and a mean 550-euro price tag for denim pants — Darkpark is carried at greater than 100 doors worldwide, including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Ssense, Machine-A, Joyce, Tsum, Fwrd, Lane Crawford, Holt Renfrew, Antonia Milano, 10 Corso Como and Boon The Shop, to call just a few.

Gerchikov said the distribution will soon expand to 120 doors, as interest for the lads’s line is growing rapidly, too. Still, the ladies’s range accounts for 70 percent out of total sales in the intervening time. Without disclosing specific figures about 2022, Purificato said Darkpark goals to achieve 5 million euros in sales this 12 months.

The brand’s fundamental markets are the U.S. and Russia, with increasing interest from Asia and Germany, “which has many interesting multibrand stores just like the ones now we have in Italy,” noted Purificato.

“For us multibrand retailers are essential because they create the storytelling. They’re the most effective marketing tool we will ask for,” he added. 

Eyeing the implementation of pop-up corners at key department shops, the cofounders have already conceived and developed customized furniture and modular displays in shiny and matte surfaces aimed toward further enhancing the brand’s visibility in brick-and-mortar retailers.