Guess Inc.’s Nicolai Marciano on Balancing Heritage and Sustainability
Nicolai Marciano is a blue jeans kind-of-guy who has a very strong interest in sustainability and is also an expert at marketing to Gen Z consumers.
That combination, and as chief new business development officer for Guess Inc., makes him the perfect leader to oversee the roll-out of the company’s new men’s and women’s denim business Guess Jeans. It’s a role that also takes Marciano back to the company’s historical denim roots.
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The son of Guess co-founder Paul Marciano, Nicolai is juggling multiple tasks from oversight of the build-out of wholesale accounts to opening brand-dedicated concept stores to ensuring the brand line incorporates vintage Guess elements from the 1980s. He is also checking off the boxes connected to sustainable elements in every feature of the jeans line.
“Sustainability and performance will play a large part in the dialogue,” Nicolai said about Guess Jeans.
Here, Nicolai shares his vision for Guess Jeans, the impact of Guess Airwash technology, and what’s coming up for the new denim brand.
Rivet: Guess Jeans utilizes Guess Airwash technology. How does Guess Airwash work?
Nicolai Marciano: What makes Guess Airwash technology, developed in collaboration with our longtime partners Jeanologia, unique compared to eco-finishing processes of the past is the special way we are using the combination of our machines—e-flow, ozone, and laser—to give an authentic vintage looking product that Guess has become famous for. We accomplish the stonewash look without any stones, up to 80 percent less water consumption, less manual processes for our workers, along with many other advantages we see in our actual production.
Every piece of denim in the Guess Jeans collection is processed with this technology. We are also introducing some other sustainable finishing and dye processes for other categories in our future collections which we are extremely excited about. We are committed to having every element from trims, labels to packaging carry some form of sustainability from using recycled materials, organic and regenerative fibers and toxic free inks.
Rivet: How differently does Guess Jeans think about sustainability compared with other products in the Guess Inc. assortment?
NM: Guess is committed to sustainability in a big way. For Guess Eco collection we have certain rules for the products to qualify, but with Guess Jeans we have taken the efforts much further down into every detail of the collection.