How is fashion done? How can a brand’s desirability be built? What are the steps for promoting it effectively, and how can a true long-term market success be created?
“Delivering the dream” is a new book in English language published by Bocconi University Press, that wants to answer all these questions—and more.
The book brings together the vision of two expert insiders of the industry. One author is Erica Corbellini, a tenured lecturer at Bocconi University, where she teaches Fashion and Luxury Management since 1999 and has taught in some of the most most prestigious universities of the world, including The US, Canada and Asia. She is also involved in many other courses within the prestigious Milanese university, including English Summer Schools and MAFED courses, the Master of Fashion Experience and Design Management course. Among other projects, her courses hosted over 315,000 students.
The other author is Tomaso Galli, a strategic adviser who has been working for the last 25 years in the areas of fashion communications and marketing, and corporate communication. He has been the first Gucci corporate communication manager at the time of Domenico De Sole, who wrote the introduction to the book.
Then he has worked in London, Milan, New York, and Paris with CEOs, creative directors, and CMOs in companies such as Armani, Gucci, Loro Piana, Prada, Saint Laurent, Thom Browne, Tom Ford, Versace, and Zegna. Furthermore, he co-founded several start-up companies and regularly lectures at SDA Bocconi. He now lives in Amsterdam and is a consultant for various companies in C-level roles.
Moderating the book launch was Valentina Berti, PR & communication manager of Vitale Barberis Canonico, the company that also hosted the talk in its Milanese showroom. The company from Biella, one of the oldest worldwide wool fabric manufacturers with over 360 years of history, plays its role in this context as a true bearer of Made In Italy, high quality and top-notch craftsmanship at the crossroad between tradition and innovation.
Enriched by contributions from creative directors, top managers, and industry experts, the book connects strategy and practice, showing how ideas are translated into coherent actions across fashion shows, events, stores, media, storytelling, commercial and strategic touchpoints including sustainability.
This multifaceted project also hosts 12 sections written by many experts and highly esteemed insiders of the industry, including, in addition to De Sole, Donatella Versace speaking about Versace’s reboot, and Anthony Vaccarello for Yves Saint Laurent referring to a collaboration of the brand in the movie industry.
Other not less important chapters are by Alessandro Sartori speaking about the role of the creative director, Alessio Vannetti, chief brand officer, disclosing the importance of social media and especially TikTok, along with other young opinion makers like Richard Bao, a consulting for China Luxury, explaining how, for instance, Asian markets have a digital ecosystem that is different from ours, and Diego Kress, a 17-year-old Gen Alpha student attending a teenage pre-university courses commenting on indispensable digital tools like AI.
“This book is the one I’ve always wanted to read but could never find,” commented Corbellini. “It is a manual that university students approaching fashion management are already using, but it is also a guide to entrepreneurs and insiders as it describes different business models and how fashion companies are structured according to a holistic vision. Though it’s not meant for constricting an insider’s vision into pre-established frameworks, but rather to open one’s mind and encourage anyone to ask themselves the right questions,” she points out and mentions that the book is also aimed at non-insiders willing to know more about fashion and luxury—two worlds that have so much to do with anyone’s life as they generate cultural impact, product desirability, and customer engagement.
“Though we don’t speak about theory or formulas. When I invite managers to speak to my students, I start asking them how they start their day and what their role is. We do the same in our book,” explains Corbellini.
“We don’t just want to show the results, but how brands and companies get there,” adds Tomaso Galli. “For us, talking about execution has been fundamental from the very beginning. As De Sole explains, ‘There are three fundamental steps in managing a company—execution, execution, and execution’.”
Furthermore, the book examines key industry themes, including the cross-pollination between fashion, art, and sport; the role of artificial intelligence in creative processes, the balance between global brand image and local adaptation, sustainability in practice, the value of collaborations, performance metrics along with budget allocation.
These concrete steps address essential elements in the decisions that drive a company. “We asked ourselves how the budget is determined, for example, in marketing. And once this budget has been allocated, how is it divided among the various countries and among all possible communication initiatives and many other passages,” the authors explain.
Another key topic they address is how to build storytelling—from the brand itself to the most important commercial moments of the year, as well as the theme of each individual season. Plus, underscore the difference between a testimonial and an influencer and why, after the first brand that involved Dua Lipa as brand ambassador, all the others simply offered her a brighter spot for her work, not for hyping the brand’s prestige.
“We started writing this book with the aim to publish a 150-page work. Though the more we continued, the more we understood we could not avoid including other essential topics. That’s how it grew to become a 250-page one,” continues Corbellini. More topics and contributions could be added, like an in-deep analysis of top quality ingredient branding, making us wait for a story to be continued…