Boggi Milano Sets U.S. Retail Rollout, Starts With NYC
Jean E. Palmieri
6 min read
Menswear retailers beware: there’s a new arrival in town. Boggi Milano, which operates more than 240 stores in 60 countries, has set its sights on the U.S.
The Milan-based menswear brand has opened two stores in New York City, with a third in the cards for next month, but that’s just the beginning. It is also planning to expand in other key markets across the country over the next five years, according to Claudio Zaccardi, president, chief executive officer and creative director of the family-owned company. Among the cities on its target list are Miami, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In a walk-through of the two-level, 5,920-square-foot Madison Avenue flagship on the corner of 54th Street on Monday, Zaccardi said opening in New York is “a dream come true. The U.S. is the most important country in the world and we believe that we are a global brand now, but you can’t really be a global brand if you’re not in the U.S. — especially for menswear.”
Claudio Zaccardi
Boggi made its first move into the market in February when it opened a single-level 1,800-square-foot store at 115 Mercer Street in SoHo. The Madison Avenue flagship opened quietly about one month ago, with the official grand opening slated for Tuesday.
A third unit will open in June at The Shops at Columbus Circle. That store will also be two levels and will measure 4,735 square feet.
Boggi is fully owned by the Zaccardi family, which has a long history in apparel and menswear. It started with Zaccardi’s grandfather, who was a childrenswear tailor and retailer in Monza, Italy, outside Milan. The store passed to his mother, who continued to focus on childrenswear until 1985 when Zaccardi and his brothers took over the business and converted it to a luxury multibrand retail store called Brian & Barry.
That business was successful and eventually grew into a chain of stores in northern Italy. The retailer still exists and operates three stores in Lombardy, but it represents only 3 percent of the company’s overall sales today.
In 2003, the Zaccardi family purchased Boggi Milano, a Milan-based brand known for its tailored menswear, for around $14.6 million. At the time of the purchase, Boggi operated 22 stores.
“We started our development all over Italy, then all over Europe and now we have partners in places like the Middle East, where we’re not able to [operate] directly,” he said. All told, 160 stores are operated by the company and 80 are franchised. In October, it opened Casa Boggi, its largest store to date in a 12-story building in Piazza San Babila in Milan that includes a showroom and offices as well as a three-story store.
In 2024, Boggi achieved sales of $360 million, an increase of 15 percent, and projections call for the company hitting $420 million in sales this year. Zaccardi said existing stores are posting sales gains of 5 to 7 percent and the online business, which represents around 18 percent of sales, is growing at 30 percent.
What has helped the company gain a foothold is its wide range of relatively affordable men’s apparel, footwear and accessories. Prices for a suit average $920, a blazer is $630, outerwear is $520, shirts $160, knitwear $200, polos $130, trousers $200 and shoes $270.
The collection is broken down into four separate offerings: Formal, Easy Formal, Casual and Active. In the Madison Avenue store, the Formal collection of tailored clothing as well as a made-to-measure room are located on the lower level.
The made-to-measure room on the lower level.
Among the offerings is the Traveler collection, which features stretch and other comfort attributes in both traditional and fashion colors and silhouettes. Merino wool sweaters, linen dress shorts, non-iron shirts, ties, belts and dress and dress-casual shoes are also part of the assortment.
Zaccardi said the Easy Formal collection of sophisticated casualwear is now the most popular with blazers among the key pieces. “We used to be very formal and classic, but after COVID-19, our most important item is a blazer.” That includes an assortment of jersey blazers as well as another created from a shirt fabric.
Some 30 percent of the collection is core product such as navy or gray suits and white shirts that are “never out of stock,” he said.
The Casual collection features jeans, T-shirts, lightweight sweaters and jackets, including a suede shirt-jacket, in a variety of colors and fabrics, while the Active collection is centered around B Tech, high-performance fabrics that are offered in everything from tech pants to shorts and hoodies.
Looks from the Boggi collection.
In addition to blazers, Zaccardi said other bestsellers include a Madison sweater-jacket for $598 and a lightweight button-down shirt in a jersey fabric that retails for $168.
Much of the offering is created from natural fibers or sustainable materials such as organic cotton, recycled wool or synthetic fibers and down alternatives.
The collection is manufactured around the world in countries including Italy, Portugal, Turkey and China, and Boggi has opened a distribution center in Pennsylvania in order to service the American stores.
Zaccardi said that stylistically, Boggi is similar to the much-higher-priced Italian brands such as Brunello Cucinelli, Zegna and Loro Piana, but prices are around one-third less. He views competitors as Suitsupply, Ralph Lauren and other menswear experts, but it’s Hugo Boss that is most similar.
“Globally, we’re most like Hugo Boss,” he said. “We often go where they are. It’s a completely different taste and style but they carry every lifestyle like we do.”
He said Boggi has a five-year plan that calls for having 20 stores in the U.S. market. “We almost have a signed deal in Miami and we want to be in all the big East Coast cities like Boston, Washington and Philadelphia,” he said. “Then Chicago, Houston and Dallas and four or five in California. And we’re going to need an outlet for every six to seven stores.”
Zaccardi said sales at the flagship are already meeting projections and he’s certain Boggi will be successful in the U.S. market. “Americans love Italian style,” he said. But he also knows that it’s going to take some time for the stores to carve out a niche. “We know it takes five years,” he said.
To introduce itself to American consumers, Boggi will commit 5 to 10 percent of its annual sales to marketing, which will consist of traditional media and online vehicles. “But retail is our best media,” he said.
In addition to its own stores, Boggi has begun wholesaling in the U.S. The company has some wholesale customers in Europe including El Corte Ingles in Spain as well as others in Germany and Sweden, but it doesn’t represent a big part of the business. Here, it just inked a deal with Bloomingdale’s, which will add the brand to the 59th Street flagship as well as five or six others, he said.
He said the company is open to exploring additional wholesale opportunities in the future.
“We’re not that big yet and we don’t want to grow that fast,” he said. “We don’t want to be the biggest company in the world.”
