In the group for the past two decades, covering various tasks, for the past few years she has been assigned the role of manager fashion cooperations. Working between offices in Veneto and Tuscany, as well as around the world
During the week with English students in Montebello Vicentino, we met Marika Peretti. She has been working within the group for more than 20 years, covering various tasks, while for the past few years she has been assigned the role of fashion cooperations manager. “In TFL together with the fashion team,” Marika points out, “I manage the organization of fashion collections, which are presented twice a year, and relations with brands and designers. Being close to our clients is very important to us, it inspires us to generate new ideas, we listen carefully to their needs and develop products that often exceed their expectations. The deep knowledge of our application technology engineers enables us to develop the right solution for their needs. In order to provide optimal on-site service, TFL has application laboratories in most of its business units, located around the world. All centers are equipped with state- of-the-art technology, and Italy is the main hub for customized training courses and presentations for clients.”
The touring presentations of the collection last a few months …
“That’s right, in fact it started as early as three to four weeks ago, seeing that Roberto Borgia has been off-site since the beginning of May. We started from Castelfranco di Sotto, for clients in Tuscany, then always from this location we planned the “live week,” with presentations via Zoom for foreign clients farther away, such as India, Mexico, some states in the Far East and South America, although this year we had to give up Brazil because of the environmental problems that characterized the month of May. At the same time the collection was taken to Turkey, to the district of Campania in Solofra, and after this week in Montebello, it will go in order to Portugal, Spain, Germany and Holland.”
How is this seamless presentation schedule structured?
“We have two collections that travel, generally one comes and one goes every other week, having the technical time of a few days to ship them from one country to another-we are in contact with the heads of several countries at the same time, precisely to ensure a pressing schedule, with no dead periods. The work requires great coordination, especially we need to be ready to arrange the accessories made from the skins in the collection. At the same time we prepare booklets destined for our main fashion and footwear clients and larger booklets that we leave as a reference, in formats where it is possible to touch and view the leathers, to business unit of the group. Our collections will also be featured in the two major fairs, ACLE in Shanghai and IILF 2024 in Chennai.”
You are known and appreciated all over for being probably the first in the world for early collections?
“It is our added value, even if it requires significant investment, brought forward over time but bearing significant fruit. For example, here, before the summer of 2024, we are presenting the fall-winter 2025/2026 collections: let’s say that a year earlier is the general standard, but we are an additional six months ahead, none of our competitors start that far ahead. In addition, during the presentations, we already proceed with the kick-off, starting the design of the next collection, to ensure that we have the technical time we need, starting with colors and trends, to anticipate the major international fairs by 5-6 months. This way our clients can go to the fairs having already seen from us how much they can develop and in turn propose to their clients. No one is so far ahead in this regard.”
How are you able to start with kick-offs so quickly?
“By purchasing the material early, we are already able to produce the first leathers. We start with the wet phase and do the finishing through pantone colors, with the trends already indicated by the designer. The type of items to be produced is decided by also taking into consideration the feedback we receive from clients. When the first skins are ready, a few months later, we start making all the accessories. These will be photographed and our editor, following the layout of the headquarters, will produce the booklets. All this is done before the start of the presentations in May, to send these catalogs to our main clients and some brands we have relationships with. There are also many brand-owned tanneries that we have relationships with, for example, the tanneries of Gucci and Channel, who are loyal to this round of presentations.”
How do you manage to carry out such intensive work?
“With a lot of organization and effort, having a good network of local colleagues supporting us. The designer and Roberto Borgia, who is in charge of the technical aspect of the collection, are assisted by our own team of local technicians. The wide variety of materials and products that we produce allows us to have a collection with a large sampling of articles, which can be sourced anywhere in the world. Ideally, based on this, we build up our own targeted collection, work that some local organizations in the TFL group develop from the cues of the global collection, transferring them to materials and issues typical of their market. With all this research work, the timeframe gets longer, which is why the team is always early with the work, being to date already at work on the next collection: in fact, six months earlier than the fashion presentations and two years earlier than the season.”
Were new technologies, particularly streaming links, launched during Covid?
“Actually it was a system that had been used before, undoubtedly the pandemic and with it the difficulty of moving around the world, which for a few months was in fact an almost absolute ban, certainly accelerated these kinds of proposals. At TFL, we intensified our research and development work during the lockdowns, while in terms of relationships with brands, distributors and clients we took advantage of digital technologies to stay in touch, organizing numerous connections with the Zoom platform.”
What specifically did you organize?
“We set up live presentations from our Global Fashion Center in Tuscany with 18 countries from all continents reaching almost 300 brands, clients and distributors in three weeks. With our designer from the Fashion Center in Castelfranco di Sotto, we made numerous live connections, both with slots dedicated to the individual brand or client and to diverse groups. We used the support of simultaneous interpreters while our colleagues around the world had gathered in the most important TFL application centers, equipped with big screens, their most important clients and partners for the footwear and leather goods sector.”
What advantages do new technologies guarantee?
“Results that were unthinkable until a few years ago. For example, thanks to the work of a professional videomaker, we presented our mood boards with equipment that allowed close-ups on the hides. Interested clients and technicians could also really touch the leathers because, before the presentation, we had sent our physical book with the collection to our offices around the world. In addition, we made and uploaded a video of the presentation to Youtube, as well as sent the participants a personalized recording so that everyone could watch it again when needed.”
What are the benefits of this system?
“Those who participate with us in these “meetings” can receive complete documentation that remains with them in the archives, with the possibility of spreading it to internal style offices. In this way it is possible to create a “data bank,” concerning the various collections, useful for the work of the company but especially for future projects. The client can keep it and use it as a bibliographic reference that is supplemented from year to year by new research and steps forward in all aspects.”
Marika Peretti