Domenico Vacca Introduces Luxury Label to L.A., Europe
When Domenico Vacca visited his new Rodeo Drive boutique, the corporate lawyer–turned–luxury vendor talked about the vagaries of international law one moment and expertly wrapped a shirt for a customer the next.
No task is too inconsequential for Vacca, who has the job of building new Italian luxury clothing brand and boutique line Domenico Vacca. Vacca said he believes his new angle on luxury could reintroduce something that has been out of wide circulation for some time: handcrafted clothes.
Vacca runs an apparel factory outside of Naples, Italy, where 80 tailors and 250 seamstresses handcraft shirts and suits for men and women. The clothes, mostly constructed out of Egyptian and Sea Island cotton, typically run no more than 30 pieces.
Price points range from $340 to $490 for a shirt and from $3,600 to $4,600 for a jacket. Vacca earned retail sales of $20 million in 2004, just a few years after he started his company in 2001.
He said his company grew 80 percent in the first year after he built his first store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. He has a total of six boutiques in the United States: three in New York, two in Florida and the Rodeo Drive store. Vacca said he will focus on building a store in Milan next year.
With the Italian retail division, Vacca will be returning to his roots. He grew up in Bari, Italy, where his grandmother worked as a tailor. His first career was as a corporate lawyer representing Italian labels such as Hugo Boss in the New York offices of international law firm Baker & McKenzie.
He quit law to publish Italia magazine, a U.S. publication reporting on Italian luxury products, where he got to know some of the players in Italian manufacturing. He sold Italia to Southern Publishing Inc. in 1998 and jumped into retail. He served as president of Borrelli USA, introducing the Luigi Borrelli brand to America.
While he is still a partner in that company, he now spends most of his time either managing his factories in Italy or touring his U.S. stores. That’s plenty of activity to occupy his restless mind.
“I enjoy every season,” he said. “You always have to start from scratch.” —Andrew Asch
