MILAN — Talk about girl power.
Kristen McMenamy and Katie Grand have joined sisters Vera, Sara and Mari Giusti, founders of Italian luxury footwear firm AGL, to develop a capsule collection.
The first such tie-up for the brand, the eight-style range will be presented as part of the AGL main fall 2023 collection to be unveiled on Feb. 23 during Milan Fashion Week.
According to sketches shared with WWD, the capsule collection will include ankle booties embellished with chains, Texan boots with kitten heels and towering platforms, among others. In addition to the black and off-white colors, purple was picked as a key hue to enhance the collection’s appeal.
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“Part of the magic of fashion is the exploration of imagination. Throughout my career, I’ve been very fortunate to collaborate with the brightest creative minds, in order to bring those ideas to fruition. My collaboration with AGL and Katie Grand feels like an organic and inevitable next step in that exploration of ideas,” said McMenamy. “Whether in front of the camera, on the runway or on the sidewalk in my daily life, I’ve worn every type of style and shape of shoe and throughout the years I’ve always toyed with an idea or two of what I would do if I was behind the sketch book,” continued the model, adding that partnering with the brand enabled her “to bring those musings to life.”
“The creative sessions became explosive thanks to Kristen’s talent,” said Vera Giusti, AGL’s head of design and creative director. “Her coolness, energy, love for shoes and details encouraged us to think outside the box, leading us into a world of wonders that was a little bit dark and a little bit innocent.”
Her sister Sara also highlighted that “nothing would have been possible without Katie Grand, whose sophisticated culture and intelligence have been able to bring together the souls involved to produce something very contemporary.”
The brand’s founders underscored that the idea of stepping into collaboration territory was sparked by their desire to experiment and converse with different creative minds.
“We’ve been used to working in chorus — from the intimate form when only the three of us get together for the design sessions to the more open ones involving the design team and the girls who carry out the most particular processes at our company. All women, always: Each of them brings out something special and enriches the creative process,” said Mari Giusti. “So this time we broadened our horizons and the fate and friends’ word-of-mouth took us to London, one of our favorite cities.”
Designed in London, the collection was manufactured in AGL’s factories in Montegranaro, in Italy’s Marche region that is renowned for being a footwear hub. Made-in-Italy materials employed in the production range from soft nappa leather for the slimmer shapes and a slightly padded version for the embroidered Western boots to natural rubber for inserts in the leather soles.
All styles respect AGL’s signature “wearable chic” approach, which the Giustis rely on to cater to women’s need for easy-to-wear footwear that doesn’t compromise the design quotient.
As reported, last year AGL’s founders further focused on this goal by expanding pre-collections and the overall assortment to include styles suiting different occasions, from chunky-soled mules and toe-less leather boots to metallic-accented sneakers and the introduction of materials such as PVC and satin.
Business-wise, the company also made a further push in Asia, landing on Tmall in June and opening accounts on Weibo, WeChat and Xiaohongshu. It additionally doubled its physical presence by opening a store in the SKP shopping center in Xian, which followed the shop-in-shop unit launched at Beijing’s SKP mall in 2021. Despite the stop-and-go closures in the region, founders said the market has proven to be highly appreciative of their products and they recently released a special sneaker collection to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.
Yet the U.S. remains the key market for the brand, accounting for 37% of total revenues last year, just as much as those generated in Europe. In 2022, AGL’s total sales were up 14% to more than 25 million euros compared to 2021.
Sales generated from the company’s e-commerce accounted for 12% of the total, registering double-digit growth from both the U.S. and Europe, which were up 43% and 34%, respectively.
Since last year, the AGL online store has been managed in-house. This move not only propelled sales but also enabled the company to improve its services, ranging from personalized customer care to 48-hour delivery and return thanks to the presence of warehouses in Montegranaro and in the U.S. In addition to direct operations, the latter offered an omnichannel management space at the service of the brand’s partners and multibrand stores in the market.
Looking ahead, after the Milan Fashion Week presentation, AGL will kick off a pop-up project to support its indie wholesale partners, as well as a road tour to boost visibility of its spring 2023 collection, which is set to travel across Europe to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece, among others.
Starting from the second half of the year, the brand will further improve its sustainable assets, including retooling its packaging to be certified and completely recyclable. While the clean energy production potential has doubled at its headquarters, where the photovoltaic system has been expanded from 200kW to 400kW since November, the company also invested in technology and new machinery for cutting and assembling uppers with a goal to improve the use of raw materials and reduce waste and scraps.
This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
