The Business of Fashion

Designer update | Bontoni breaks out

Bontoni, the men's luxury shoe brand featured on the Business of Fashion during September's New York Fashion Week, is breaking out.

Lewis Cutillo tells us that the brand has been making great strides, albeit quietly, in the past few months. "We continue to take a quiet and discreet approach to marketing our shoes," says Lewis. "Despite that, or maybe because of it, we are finding a growing number of clients among hedge fund managers, top CEOs, and well known professional athletes and entertainers."

The Robb Report recently posted a piece on the budding brand on its New and Noteworthy blog, and several major media outlets have been making inquiries of late, as the word-of-mouth on Bontoni has picked up.

New York Fashion Week: Innovative brand building

Emerging brands usually don't have the marketing budget and editorial muscle to build big brands and it can therefore be extremely difficult to get above all the noise and stand out from the crowd. Yesterday, I was thrilled to see two young brands partner with major retailers in innovative ways to build brand awareness.

My favourite guerilla marketers from Rodnik launched their "We are not a rock brand" tour at Barney's New York. They played to an appreciative crowd of lucky customers and industry insiders, with their sidekick Peaches Geldof supporting Phil on vocals. The guys were understandably excited about the tour which rocks up at one retailer after another, from Colette in Paris to Comme des Garcons in Tokyo to Corso Como in Milan, over the next couple of months. 

For people who had never heard of Rodnik, it's not likely a performance they will soon forget, what with that 80's throwback and all that energy. Here's a sneak preview video of their opening tour song, the surprisingly catchy "How to be Lovely":