Luisa Via Roma

The Florence-based luxury retailer, facing unpaid bills and a steep sales decline, seeks a 120-day reprieve under Italian insolvency law as it restructures operations and scales back expansion.

The legacy Florentine retailer is betting its new sprawling outpost in New York’s trendy NoHo neighbourhood can become an indelible retail destination for the city’s discerning fashion crowd.

The family-owned Italian e-commerce retailer hired Kate Davidson Hudson to oversee its expanded content strategy and launch a magazine amid a competitive online luxury market.

Online retailers like Moda Operandi and MatchesFashion are dipping their toes into the $649 billion homeware space, betting the same customers splurging on dresses and shoes will also buy candles and chairs.

E-commerce enables local fashion boutiques to tap global markets. Or so the theory goes. What does it take to put it into practice?

BoF sat down with Luisa Via Roma chief executive Andrea Panconesi to discuss how the store grew from a small hat boutique, founded in Florence in 1930, to a global fashion e-commerce player.

From shoes to handbags to ready-to-wear, the price of designer fashion has increased precipitously over the last decade. What’s driving the rising prices? And how high can they go?