Some people buy Gucci bags so they can tell people they buy Gucci bags. But Italic, a luxury goods startup, is betting that some consumers are more interested in the bag than the brand name.
Yesterday, Italic launched a factory-to-consumer high-fashion marketplace. But while “brandless” businesses have succeeded elsewhere, Italic is challenging an industry where brand is everything.
Usually, retailers buy products from factories and sell them at a markup. Instead, Italic simply gives the factories a platform to create and sell its products, and then takes a cut of sales.
Italic partners with 15 factories that manufacture products for Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and other bougie brands
For a $10 monthly fee, Italic members can buy 2 luxury items per month, such as a designer handbag for $150 (Celine’s version sells for $3,300) or a leather jacket for $425 (or get one from J Brand for $990).
In China, a company called Yanxuan pioneered the brandless biz and expects to bring in $3B this year, and in the US, Brandless has raised more than $292.5m in 2 years to sell unbranded food and home-good products (Italic has raised $13m of that).
But consumers don’t buy Lay’s potato chips for their social capital in the way that many luxury consumers want to pay a premium for brand labels.
Plus, bashing the world’s biggest luxury brands on your website is a bold move for an 8-month-old company.