Chinese firm enters Italian couture house

A model presents a design of Curiel, an Italian fashion house with more than 100 years of history. Photos provided to China Daily

Chinese luxury management company Redstone recently entered into a joint venture with Curiel, an Italian couture house with more than 100 years of history. Sun Yuanqing reports.

For a while now, Chinese magnates have been investing overseas in everything from castles to wineries. And now there is one more thing to add to that list: haute couture.

Following its success in luxury ready-to-wear, Chinese luxury-management company Redstone recently ventured into haute couture, forming a joint venture with Curiel, an Italian fashion house with more than 100 years of history.

Redstone will be a major stakeholder in the new company and provide managerial and financial support to help the brand grow on a global scale.

Raffaella Curiel and her daughter Gigliola Curiel, the third and fourth generation of the couture house, will remain at the creative helm of the brand.

Redstone will invest 5 million to 10 million euros ($5.6 million to $11 million) every year for the next few years to grow the business, says Zhao Yizheng, founder and president of the Redstone, after a news conference in Milan.

He did not disclose further financial details.

"It's as if I found a huge diamond on a mountain," he says of the deal.

"Now it is my job to cut it, polish it and make it valuable."

Zhao's confidence is not idle talk.

In the course of 10 years, Redstone has transformed Giada, a nascent Italian designer label, into a global brand that now sits across from Dior and Hermes in Milan's central luxury shopping district.