This week, an in-depth have a look at a brand new luxurious model reflecting trend’s present art-focused route. Plus, what’s fueling Prada Group’s distinctive success?
It’s evident within the places of manufacturers’ advertising and marketing activations, the inspirations behind designers’ seasonal collections and the visitor curators of artwork authorities’ reveals. For trend manufacturers, relying on the play, aligning with the artwork world works to attraction to extra pursuits of prosperous customers. In fact, it additionally makes it extra possible to place their merchandise as funding items.
Launched final week, with three clutch purse types priced $5,800-$7,800, Eittem was deliberately designed to straddle the road between the 2 industries. Its items can simply as simply be worn about city or positioned on a espresso desk as ornamental objects.
“They’re practical sculptures,” Erin Saluti, the model’s founder and artistic director, instructed Shiny.
Erin Saluti comes from an artwork and design background — she studied the fields on the Victoria and Albert Museum earlier than happening to inside design faculty and dealing as an artwork curator. Her husband and co-founder, Joe Saluti, has lengthy labored with wooden as a pastime, steadily accumulating associated instruments and equipment within the couple’s house in Westchester County, New York. Ultimately, by request, Joe made Erin a walnut wooden clutch for her birthday, which led to the beginning of Eittem — a enterprise concept that extra quickly took form throughout the peak of the pandemic.
Erin’s familiarity with trend is extra as a fan or shopper, she stated. She gravitates towards sculptural, high quality and tailor-made items by the likes of Khaite, Loro Piana and The Row.
Out of the gate, Eittem sells types in refined novelty shapes, appropriately dubbed Owl, Chook and Moon. Every is created from walnut and out there in three finishes, together with uncovered wooden and totally different lacquer-look paints. The plan is to launch a brand new bag form yearly.
The idea of utilizing a novelty bag as a house accent was popularized by Judith Leiber, who launched her crystal clutch model within the Sixties — the corporate was acquired by Genuine Manufacturers Group in 2013. And, as evident throughout New York Trend Week spring 2025, novelty purses are having a second.
In March, the Salutis and their rising Eittem workers — now made up of 9 individuals, together with a five-person manufacturing group — relocated their operations to a Chelsea, NYC studio. Deliberately from a wide range of backgrounds, hires embody graduates from Pratt, Parsons and the Stamps College of Artwork and Design, in addition to woodworkers, metalsmiths and structure consultants. As well as, a communications supervisor crafts copy for the model’s social media accounts and Journal weblog.
Eittem’s manufacturing, achieved in-house, leverages a wide range of largely American-made equipment native to industries outdoors of trend and artwork. It contains dental instruments and a robo-drill utilized in aerospace to carve steel. A paint ending course of used on guitars is finished by hand and creates the luggage’ shiny end. And the included {hardware} is custom-designed and particular to every bag. The baggage’ removable chain strap is created from sterling silver coated with rhodium, and German Weinheimer leather-based, which could be wet-molded, is featured on their inside. Mud baggage made in Italy are among the many packaging elements. Like art work, every purse is numbered and comes with a card of authenticity signed by its makers. An Eittem bag at the moment takes two weeks to provide.
To additional depict the Eittem life-style, the model’s web site contains a Spotify playlist. And shortly, Eittem plans to enlist “cultural influencers” with brand-complementing type to get extra eyes on its items.
Eitttem’s goal buyer is “a contemporary collector,” Erin stated.
“That is somebody who attends artwork festivals; has their very own standpoint, by way of their private type; and isn’t reliant on logos — we would like the luggage’ shapes themselves to change into consultant of our model,” she stated. “[This consumer] is on the lookout for one thing progressive and art-adjacent. … And we hope they’ll take into account [our bags] heritage items and move them all the way down to the subsequent era.”
Eittem at the moment sells direct-to-consumer on-line and thru in-studio appointments. The founders are exploring “partnerships and branding alternatives” with artwork festivals together with TEFAF and Frieze and plan to leverage “very choose” retail companions sooner or later, Erin stated.
Simply as the luxurious trend market has been rocky, as of late, the artwork world has additionally been challenged. In line with a 2024 report by UBS and Artwork Basel, in 2023, the $65 billion artwork market was up simply 1% in comparison with pre-pandemic ranges.
Eittem has employed the model and artistic company Normal Concept, which has labored with Louis Vuitton and Lanvin. In 2023, whereas talking with Shiny, Normal Concept founder Ian Schatzberg identified the abundance of brand name “oxygen” going into producing high-priced objects as “the worldwide prosperous have gotten extra prosperous.” He additionally famous the tradition’s obsession with “discovering objects of utmost expense and craft.”
“People who find themselves buying a bag at this value level are going to proceed to buy via robust [economic] landscapes,” Erin stated. “I’m inspired that the extra craft-based, gradual luxurious manufacturers, like Hermès, proceed to do properly.”
Nonetheless, she famous, “We didn’t work towards a value level; we labored backward from discovering one of the best supplies throughout the board.”
The corporate expects to see little by means of gross sales margins in 12 months one, till it scales, Erin stated. However, by 12 months three, it plans to be worthwhile. Its income will likely be depending on the bag amount produced, which has but to be decided.
Conserving bag portions low is a method. The primary 9 SKUs will likely be retired by the top of the 12 months, and a second assortment will likely be launched in February. “We’re by no means going to be promoting 1000’s of baggage,” Erin stated. “Possibly by 12 months three, we’ll be promoting lots of. However we wish to shield them.” Eittem plans to introduce {custom} bag colours by mid-2025, and providing {custom} bag shapes is a probable step down the highway.
As for different future steps, Eittem will lengthen its transport past the U.S. to Europe and the U.Ok. in early 2025. And it’ll probably, finally, department out to different trend equipment made with walnut.
The Prada-art connection
In fact, a spotlight of the week was the discharge of Prada Group’s third-quarter earnings, on Wednesday, which confirmed an 18% annual income improve throughout manufacturers. The Prada model noticed a relatively small 2% increase, whereas Miu Miu’s gross sales rose 105% — making each manufacturers outliers in luxurious’s broadly publicized stoop.
An organization assertion pointed to the “sturdy and distinct identities” of the manufacturers, noting Prada’s “polyhedric model fairness” achieved via participation in cultural occasions just like the thirty seventh America’s Cup. In the meantime, Miu Miu’s “sharp positioning” was credited to its “cross-pollination of trend, cinema and different arts.” Its “Miu Miu Tales & Tellers” advertising and marketing activation at Artwork Basel Paris “enhanced the model’s stress to play throughout the spectrum of various inventive disciplines,” the corporate acknowledged.
The newest from Shiny
Tapestry’s Capri deal attraction faces lengthy odds, says former FTC legal professional
Estée Lauder stories double-digit drop in gross sales in Asia, withdraws 2025 outlook
With a brand new retailer, Swedish sneaker model Axel Arigato targets US progress