MILAN — After a four-year absence, denimwear specialist Gas is making a big comeback at Pitti Uomo, where it will mark its 40th anniversary.
The Italian brand will be housed in a minimalistic concretebooth at the center of the Padiglione delle Ghiaie area at Florence’s Fortezza da Basso, as it seeks to make a statement about its new course.
Following a stint in bankruptcy, Gas was purchased in 2022 for 17.5 million euros by a pool of white knight investors including Milano 1984, Alpha Square, DEA Capital Duke and Bordin Holding.
In the two years since the company changed hands, the Chiuppano, Italy-based Gas has worked to restructure its operations, made key hires, including former Diesel, Marni and OTB executive Stefano Tosin as general manager, and revamped its image with help from Gregoria Carmagnini, a former Guess head designer, who was onboarded as creative director soon after the acquisition deal was inked.
“At the time, our focus was on relaunching the brand with a strong effort poured into design. Products sit at the core of any fashion brand, and they of course should be in line with communication, consumer target and distribution,” said Rino Castiglione, president and chief executive officer.
In 2023, the company has managed to inch closer to breakeven, with sales of 30 million euros. Now the brand is leveraging the international appeal and attendance of Pitti Uomo to further expand and make a stronger global push.
A preview look at the Gas spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection.
Courtesy of Gas
Since the acquisition, Gas has reconnected with its historically relevant regions including Spain, Switzerland, Hungary and the Benelux area. Germany and the United Arab Emirates are next on the company’s agenda and deals with local partners are being negotiated.
Gas already boasts a joint venture with Reliance Brands in India, which operates flagship stores in the country, with five new openings slated by the end of 2024. The brand currently counts 55 retail doors globally.
Castiglione pointed to retail as a strong avenue for future growth now that the product mix includes non-denim apparel and offers a full wardrobe.
The denim company currently generates 85 percent of its business through wholesale, with the remainder split between brick-and-mortar and e-commerce sales. The latter has been a focus for the new management which revamped the site last fall. In the first four months of this year, e-commerce had already generated half the sales achieved in 2023, Castiglione said.
“The challenge for our design team is to start engaging with different, younger consumers,” Castiglione said. As such, the spring 2025 collection, titled “We Are Rainbow Makers,” Carmagnini said in a preview, hinges on the graphic rainbow part of Gas’ original logo, which is viewed as an emblem of self-expression.
“We want our pieces to be tools for self-expression and personal interpretation, for different attitudes and styles. I think denim is the embodiment of this, it makes one feel confident and free at the same time,” she noted. “I feel very lucky to be working in denimwear. It’s an iconic material and product which has marked social revolutions. I think it’s the best fabric to be doing unconventional and out-of-the-box things.”
Adding a workwear spin to essentials, the offering includes overshirts and trucker jackets, as well as cargo denim pants and jeans in a variety of washes, from light indigo to pastels.
To mark the 40th anniversary, the lineup includes the capsule collection “We Are Denim Lovers,” which Carmagnini described as “the icing on the cake.” Created in collaboration with Italian laundry Elleti, the capsule features six Made in Italy jeans inspired by washes and fits that harken back to the brand’s history in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
“I’ve witnessed the evolution of Gas throughout the years from the outside, but upon joining the brand I’ve dived deep into the archives…and retrieved concepts and iconic pieces to jumpstart an aesthetics revamp without violating the historical journey of the brand,” Carmagnini said.
“I wanted to put an international spin to the collection and tear down the conventional approach to jeanswear,” to reflect the evolution of the category, she added.
A preview look at the Gas spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection.
Courtesy of Gas
She highlighted, for example, the ambition to expand the Gas universe to a total look as well as a stronger alignment of the women’s and men’s collections, with the debut of Gas One, a curation of genderless garments.
Strengthening the footprint in the women’s category is among the strategic priorities for the brand’s owner. The category currently accounts for 20 prevent of the business, up from 15 percent two years ago.
The brand also recently introduced Gas Sport, a new sportswear line dedicated to collaborations and capsule collections. It reflects the brand’s historical link with the MotoGP, which was reprised after a four-year hiatus via a tie-in with the Ducati Prima Pramac Racing team.
A look from the Gas Sport collection.
Courtesy of Gas
“Pitti Uomo is an extremely important step…it’s a testbed, Gas will be out and about showing itself to buyers and fashion professionals,” Castiglione said. “We started over harnessing our DNA and retooling it for modern times because the [fashion] sector changes so quickly.”