Rinascente has strengthened its ties with Florence for the Pitti Uomo menswear show, by staging a double ‘Be Florentine’ event celebrating the new look of its recently renovated Piazza della Repubblica store in the city. The celebrations began on 13 June in the Salone dei Cinquecento, a venue that hosted 250 international guests for a private concert. They continued the following day at the Rinascente store, with a live show at the Purple Gallery, an installation covering almost the entire square overlooking the store. Each floor of the store has been restored, preserving architectural materials typical of Florence, like marble, tuff, wood and ceramic. The renovation has given the interiors a quintessentially Florentine feel, mirroring the city's aesthetic. The product range focuses on artisanal brands.
The retail area in the men's and women’s footwear floors has doubled, and the same for menswear. The jewellery section has been also boosted. Products favoured by Millennials and Gen Z consumers have been added to the assortment, bring 100 additional brands to the 800 already instore. The food section has been revamped, thanks to a partnership with Toscanino, a specialist of local products. The store is designed to appeal both to domestic customers and international tourists. From June 13, and for two weeks, the store’s windows will showcase exclusively the work of an emerging designer selected among the participants of the competition organised at Pitti Uomo by Incotex, in collaboration with Domus Academy, Naba and Istituto Marangoni.
Rinascente Florence is the department store's seventh-largest branch by retail area (around 4,000m2), but the fourth by revenue, after Milan Duomo and the group’s two Rome branches. Rinascente CEO, Pierluigi Cocchini mentioned that the retailer’s online business was also developing well and should be worth €100mn within three years. Rinascente closed the fiscal year 2022 nearly at its 2019’s level, reaching approximately €800mn, despite the pandemic’s aftermath in Q1 and the invasion of Ukraine. This year, the company should exceed the pre-Covid results and plans to reach a revenue of €1bn within the next 18 months said Pierluigi Cocchini.