Word: branded
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...Anderson, S.C. In 1946 her reputation as a teenage daredevil in her hometown of Greenville, S.C., led Bill France, who co-founded NASCAR the next year, to recruit her as a draw for fans in a local race. Before retiring in 1956 at the urging of her husband--whose brand-new Ford she had totaled in a 1947 race--Smith won 38 events in various classes. "I was just born to be wild," she said...
...side of the room, ensconced on a banquette with some Parisian notables, was François-Henri Pinault, the affable CEO of PPR (formerly Pinault-Printemps Redoute), which owns Bottega Veneta and other high-end brands such as Gucci. At the center table, surrounded by furniture dealers and a smattering of old friends, sat Tomas Maier, 49, the German-born creative director of Bottega Veneta and the designer largely responsible for ushering in a profitable countertrend of subtlety and refinement to the overblown, logo-besotted luxury market. The mood he had created for the dinner jibed seamlessly with the mood...
...Maier opened 18 stores in 2005; 10 more will make their debut this year. He has transformed Bottega Veneta, which is on its way to an estimated $238 million in sales this year, into PPR's second most successful label after Gucci--even surpassing the iconic Yves Saint Laurent brand. Revenue grew 66% last year to $190 million, and profits tripled to $17 million. PPR didn't expect to earn a dime on the brand--which it bought in 2001 from the Moltedo family who founded it--until next year...
Maier and his team are luxury rebels. They have refused to succumb to the democratization of luxury brands, marked by big logos, lower-priced offerings and "it" bags. Even the most label-conscious consumers--the Japanese--don't seem to miss the blatant badges. At a trunk show in the brand's new Omotesando boutique in Tokyo last week, Maier sold $308,000 worth of bags in less than two hours. (Of course, the Japanese customers asked him to sign them on the inside.) "'It' bags mean nothing," said Maier of styles like Fendi's $1,430 B bag. "Women...
Maier's concept--that the consumer can recognize a brand by the design and quality of the product instead of by a logo--is limited to a very sophisticated consumer, but élitism is what makes it work. A survey conducted last week among wealthy Americans by the New York City--based Luxury Institute revealed that Bottega Veneta outranked Hermès and Armani as the most prestigious luxury fashion brand this year...