Man on a custom-made mission

Berluti's ready-to-wear menswear feature Italian, French and British design elements. On top are leather goods from Berluti.

At Berluti's price points, there are very few players in a very competitive market serving a very exclusive and demanding clientele. All of them have their strengths and RTW has a way of instilling brand loyalty among their clients. When pressed, Sartori identifies the following (other than bespoke tailors) as his competitors - Loro Piana for knits, Tom Ford for design details and Kiton and Brioni for suiting. He reveals his methods for approaching and capturing this highly coveted market.

"Many of our RTW customers start off with shoes then went to RTW and others have never bought shoes at all. What is interesting is that we don't have a specific age group of customers. They don't belong to an age matrix. We have 20-year-old to over 70-year-old customers. They are more ambassadors than clients of the brand," says Sartori. "This is a very educated customer who wants something more for himself. Our customers are very demanding but at the same time once we have a good relationship with them, it is very difficult for them not to come back into the stores."

The brand's positioning is clear: On the surface, the high prices keep the brand exclusive. But delve into every collection closely and the most perfect construction and most unusual fabric treatments and weaves are uncovered. The resources and time spent on research, development and labor would make mass production impossible.

"We keep strong brand awareness only for connoisseurs because we don't want to talk to everybody and we can't because of the product and the price," says Sartori. "More than becoming big, we want to be close to our customers and make the brand feel like a men's club."

Aside from communication to and from boutiques, Berluti stays in direct contact with their customers through special events which Sartori calls the "Gentleman's Club". These are held in various cities, most recently in London.

About 100-120 customers and their friends (potential customers) were invited to an evening trunk show featuring about 20 outfits where Sartori explained every look and the store took private appointments either for personal shopping, semi-mesure and even Grande Mesure (fully bespoke, done by the Paris Left Bank tailor Arnys).

"The next day, we had 10 appointments from people who were curious about the brand," says Sartori of this particular event. "We want to be deep and tight more than huge, but very close and in step with the customer. We need to grow but in a strong and clever way."