Giving the name to a perfume is one of the most common licenses by designers, a tool to reach more customers or to jump to foreign markets to which Spanish fashion turns to as an economical balloon of oxygen, creating from sheets to socks, glasses or tiles.
Thus it is affirmed by the designers Roberto Verino, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and Roberto Torretta at the Urso Hotel during the breakfast “60 minutes of fashion with EFE Style” where they have ensured that the control they maintain over their licenses is “very intense” and generates as much responsibility as launching their own collection.
A very high percentage of the designer’s business turnover focuses on the diversity of licenses, in the case of Agatha Ruiz de la Prada this percentage rises to 95%, Roberto Verino estimates it at 10%, while for Torretta it is 70%.
“When I started as out a designer no one expected that I would sell, and now I’m the one that sells the most”, assures Ruiz de la Prada – with a sense of humour – the designer is a pioneer in this field holding fifty licenses distributed in 120 countries.
“They are a good starting point between industry and design,” affirms Torretta, even if behind them, “there are a lot of failures,” adds Ruiz de la Prada. “They must come out at the right time, if you have any doubts, better not do it. Does not bode well, “she states.
For Roberto Verino a license is “like a couple’s relationship,” a transaction in which “both sides have to win,” underlines the Galician designer, who assures that any product that is not done rigorously “will not succeed and deteriorates the brand’s image. ”
“The brand protection is not negotiable,” says forcefully Torretta, who accounts with multiple licenses (crockery, eye wear, jewellery and a second fashion line, menswear, women’s wear, children’s wear and swim wear), distributed in 11 countries.
It can take years to resole and win back again the trust in your brand, says Torretta, for this reason “industry, design and brand” must go hand in hand, adds Verino, at the same time indicating that to “surprise, excite and seduce” is a challenge.
A careful attention to the final product, sales volume, but above all the distribution, form part of the comprehensive control exercised by the designers when they cede their name, usually resorting to expert lawyers in the field.
