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Chester Perry 1971–8
C.P. Company 1978–present
C.P. Company was founded in 1971 in Bologna, by designer Massimo Osti (1944–2005). The brand was originally called Chester Perry, but following legal action by Chester Barrie and Fred Perry, the name was changed to C.P. Company in 1978. In 1981 Trabaldo Togna Holding SpA (an Italian fabric manufacturer) acquired 50 per cent of C.P. Company SpA from Raimondo Cattabriga. In 1983, Massimo Osti sold the remaining 50 per cent of the company to San Benedetto del Tronto–based Italiana Manifatture. Gruppo Finanziario Tessile (GFT) acquired the shares of Italiana Manifatture and Trabaldo Togna Holding SpA in 1983, achieving 100 per cent ownership of the company. Carlo Rivetti left GFT in 1992, founding Sportswear Company SpA with his sister Cristina Rivetti. In 1993, Sportswear Company SpA acquired the Stone Island, Boneville and C.P. Company brands. The company’s early design philosophy was centred on garment dyeing, which is the process of applying colour to garments after they are created, frequently combining natural and synthetic textiles to achieve a variety of results. In 1987, C.P. Company developed the capability to coat the inside of cloth with a porous rubber coating, which resulted in the invention of Rubber Wool and Rubber Flax. Research into protective hoods resulted in the Explorer jacket and the Mille Miglia jacket in 1988. Both designs incorporated lenses into the garment’s hood or collar, allowing the wearer to see through them.

In 1991 they launched a range called Continuative Garments that saw the same garments being released each season, with only minor changes to the colour and fabrication. Massimo Osti resigned as creative director in 1994, and Romeo Gigli (b. 1949) took over, designing menswear and launching a womenswear line. In 1997, Moreno Ferrari (b. 1952) succeeded Gigli as creative director. Ferrari designed the Urban Protection range which launched in 1997 and was developed each season until Autumn Winter 2001. The outerwear garments featured built-in technology, including torches, headphones, personal alarms and pollution detectors. Ferrari also designed the Transformables range for Spring Summer 2000 that included several inflatable or transforming garments, such as a coat that turned into a hammock, a jacket that inflated into a chair, and a coat that turned into a kite.

In 2000 Alessandro Pungetti was announced as the company’s new creative director; he remained in this role until 2009 when Wallace Faulds (b. 1979) was appointed by Carlo Rivetti as the new head of design. C.P. Company was sold by Sportswear Company SpA to FGF Industry SpA in 2010. Alessandro Pungetti was reappointed as joint creative director alongside Paul Harvey in 2012. In 2015 FGF Industry SpA sold the company to Tristate Holdings Ltd.
In 2019, the son of Massimo Osti, Lorenzo Osti, was appointed president of C.P. Company. The brand’s flagship store opened in Milan in 2019, followed by new retail locations in Amsterdam in September 2020, Riccione in June 2021 and London in 2022.
Sources: Lodovico Pignatti Moreno, ed., C.P. Company 971-021: An Informal History of Italian Sportswear (London: IDEA, 2021); Italian Collection; WWD.

Façonnable was founded in Nice, France by tailor Jean Goldberg in 1950. He retired in 1961 and the business was taken over by his son Albert Goldberg who renamed the company 'Façonnable', based on the word 'façonner' meaning 'to shape'. He also shifted the business into men's ready-to-wear.

They opened stores across the French Riviera and in the 1970s began collaborating with American brands such as Sebago, Alden and Van's. They opened their first store in the United States in New York in 1993 and in 2001 were bought by Nordstrom, the US retailer. Façonnable was acquired by the Lebanon-based company M1 Group in 2007.

Carol Christian Poell was founded by Carol Christian Poell (b. 1966) and Sergio Simone in 1994 following Poell’s graduation from the postgraduate design course at Domus Academy in Milan. Poell set up C.C.P. Srl to serve as the production and distribution company for his label. He released a small capsule collection for Autumn Winter 1994 consisting of a pair of trousers, a jacket, a shirt and a T-shirt, followed by his first full collection the following season. In 1999 he started a womenswear collection. Poell’s use of leather throughout his career has been influenced by his family’s lengthy experience in the tannery and leather industry. This has resulted in his adventurous and experimental methods of cutting and assembling his clothes, as well as a rethinking of the basic construction language. Poell’s investigation into the transformation of dead animal skin into garments has informed his choice of venues to show his collections which have included a slaughterhouse, a morgue and Milan’s Naviglio Grande canal, where models’ apparently lifeless bodies floated downstream past the invited fashion guests and the public. Poell continued to explore this fascination in his Autumn Winter 2001 video presentation, ‘Public Freedom’, by locking models inside the cages of a Milan municipal dog pound.

Sources: Grailed.com; Terry Jones and Susie Rushton, eds, Fashion Now 2: i-D Selects 160 of Its Favourite Fashion Designers from Around the World (Cologne: Taschen, 2008); New Yorker; U-Wire.

Jean Paul Gaultier (b. 1952) presented his first womenswear collection in 1977, launching his menswear line in 1984 with a collection titled ‘Boy Toy’ featuring men in variations of the French marinière striped jumper. As part of the Spring Summer 1985 ‘And God Created Man’ collection, Jean Paul Gaultier presented several models wearing kilts, which the media erroneously reported as the introduction of skirts for men. More than 3,000 were sold by the brand that season. In 1986 the first Jean Paul Gaultier store opened in Galerie Vivienne, Paris.

The label launched the Junior Gaultier line in 1988. Designed as a lower-priced diffusion range from Jean Paul Gaultier, it was deliberately aimed at a youth market. More than 450,000 garments were sold in the first season at the boutique on Rue de Jour, Paris. In 1989 the Japanese company Onward Kashiyama took a 60 per cent stake in Junior SpA, the Italian manufacturer of the Junior Gaultier line. In 1994 Gaultier ended the licensing deal with Onward Kashiyama and discontinued the line. Gaultier signed a new licensing deal with Stile Moda of Italy to produce a new line for men and woman called JPG. In 1992 the Gaultier Jean’s label was launched. In 2004 the Gaultier Jean’s line was manufactured by Euro Cormar and renamed Jean’s Paul Gaultier. In 1999, Hermès International paid US$23.4 million for a 35 per cent stake in the company. In 2008, they acquired an additional 10 per cent of the business. In 2011, the Catalan group Puig acquired 45 per cent of Jean Paul Gaultier from Hermès International and 15 per cent from the founding couturier.

It was not until 2002 that the first Jean Paul Gaultier boutique was opened in the United States on Madison Avenue, New York. The company’s first fragrance for men, Le Male, was launched in 1995, followed by GAULTIER² in 2005 and Kokorico in 2011. A men’s cosmetic and skincare line called Tout Beau, Tout Propre appeared in 2003. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presented a major retrospective of the designer, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk in 2011. It then toured Dallas, San Francisco, Madrid, Rotterdam, Brooklyn, London, Paris, Munich, Melbourne and Seoul. In 2014 the Jean Paul Gaultier prêt-à-porter menswear and womenswear lines were closed. The label was revived in 2021 with Florence Tétier (b. 1983) appointed as the new creative director.

Sources: British Vogue; Financial Times; Jean Paul Gaultier, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, ed. Thierry-Maxime Loriot (Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Abrams, 2013); WWD.