The Italian employer’s association launches Storytalia to export the "dolce vita"

By

Dominique Muret

Published
Oct 31, 2014

Storytalia is taking flight. Launched in 2010, the project promoted by the Italian employer’s association Confindustria to export the excellence of Made in Italy is finally seeing the light. Not in the form of a point of sales, as was originally announced, but via an e-commerce platform.

Stoytalia.com is active in English and Italian, for now in four markets: Italy, United Kingdom, France and Germany. It will be extended across Europe starting in 2016 with the aim of then launching into the United States, the Emirates and Russia.

Stil Novo Managment, chaired by Paolo Zegna, was created last year. The project benefits from the external support of institutional partners like the Ministry of Economic Development and the ICE, The Italian Institute for Foreign Trade. But the road was long and complex since numerous representatives had to be in agreement.

Indeed, among the list of shareholders figure the main Made in Italy employers' associations, such as Sistema Moda Italia (SMI) for, Assocalzaturifici for footwear, Associazione Nazionale Fabbricanti Articoli Ottici for eyewear, and Cosmetica Italia for the cosmetics sector.

Also on the list: UniCredit and Simest, the public company that supports the internationalization of Italian companies and small private investors. Management of the site and all the logistics for orders and deliveries was entrusted to Postecom, a subsidiary of the Italian postal system specialised in the digital branch.

"After having managed to sign all the agreements, we looked for distributors but we quickly became disillusioned. The situation did not help us and there were few who believed in this project, which turned out to be more difficult than we thought to put in place. So we decided to start by launching a virtual store, even if that meant developing physical stores afterwards," Paolo Zegna explained to FashionMag.com.

The idea is to go off the beaten track and the usual clichés to present a “different, little known, even a little mysterious” Italy by selecting products from small transalpine companies, but also a few artisanal operations, "with a story to tell" in the following sectors: textiles, fashion, accessories, design, leather goods, eyewear, objects for the home, and a few examples of particular gastronomy.

"Our selection criteria, beyond product quality, is the story which the company has to tell, which has to be able to spark a consumer’s interest with a medium to high-end positioning, without going into the very high-end," says Paolo Zegna, who doesn’t wish to disclose the amount of the investment.

"This will be an international showcase for our companies and the first real offer coming from the entire Made in Italy system," concludes the entrepreneur. A magazine section with editorial content will be offered along with the e-commerce, in keeping with the idea of rousing curiosity for an Italy that is never mundane.

During the pre-launch stage, Storytalia presented short films with diverse celebrities, which were seen by more than 20,000 people.