A chat with Carlo Cammerucci, founder of Camerucci Srl

Carlo Cammerucci is one of the pillars of Valentina C.

A very important figure for his sons Valentina and Vittorio considering the great experience gained in the sector for decades. A man who has a great past behind him, made of great satisfactions and changes in his career. A series of anecdotes that are exposed by Mr. Carlo in an interesting interview, which traces the whole past, analyzes the present and looks to the future.

Where does this special activity originate from?

“It all started almost forty years ago. When I was young I was an orchestral, I played bass. At a certain point I realized that music would not “feed me” adequately and forever. So, in 1979, I started this business, thanks also to the support of my father. This is how Camerucci srl was born. It was necessary to find a brand immediately I decided to remove an M from my surname because I thought it was more pleasant. Our main business was the production of ties. An activity that could count on solid foundations, which allowed us to achieve numerous satisfactions. In the first year we invoiced 60 million lire then, increasing year after year we arrived, in 1992 to invoice more than 5 billion lire

What was the reason for this success?

“What mainly gave us the opportunity to expand were the innovative ideas. Above all, the revisitation of the “Regimental” ties stood out. We were the first to reinterpret this type of tie, which originally uses the typical colors of the flags of the English regiments, as the name itself says. There is talk of blue, burgundy or bottle green. I, at that time, used those lines, but I colored them by combining bright colors such as brown with pink, blue with purple, green with orange and so on. By creating products that, at the time, were nowhere to be found. A small revolution, which had brought innovative products on the market, characterized by very strong colors. All this led me to collaborate with various total looks, which entrusted me with their neckwear collections. First Brooksfield with whom I collaborated for about twenty years, followed by New England, Oliver by Valentino, CP Collection, Mauro Grifoni, lines of the GFT (Textile Financial Group) such as Martin Guy, Profilo, Dalton & Forsythe and many others “.

How did business progress afterwards?

“The peak of turnover was reached in 1992. In the following years, business began to experience a phase of continuous and gradual decline. The sector was affected by the loss of interest of the tie itself as an accessory. There was a disproportionate increase in supply on the market while demand continued to decline. Before it was very easy to see people buying several ties at the same time, now this accessory is less and less in demand. Until about ten years ago, in the 2007-2008 vintages, Camerucci experienced a constant decline, as regards turnover. Then my daughter Valentina joined the company, with whom we implemented a small revolution. If, at first, the activity focused exclusively on ties, with its entry we also focused on other products, such as scarves. Hence the idea of ​​giving life to the Camerucci Archivio brand. We went to retrieve the designs we had used for ties from our old archives. After that, we scaled them down, enlarged them considerably and re-proposed them on the scarves. It was a real turning point. We then took a second turn by starting to deal with colorful floral themes entirely painted and embroidered by hand.

And then, why the idea of leaving Camerucci srl to found Valentina C?

“The stay in Camerucci srl lasted until 2017. It has been almost forty years of hard work but rewarded by countless satisfactions. Then several differences on the development and commercial strategies with the other leaders of the company led me to get out of that reality. So, a year ago, the month of October, we created this new brand. A new activity which, despite having started in a difficult period, makes us look optimistically towards the future. This is because there have been many customers who, despite this change, have followed us and continue to guarantee us their complete trust. This is precisely the greatest of satisfactions: to see the trust of customers in our new adventure. A nice sign, in a period of clothing crisis, since we are reserved a space inside the stores.

A final question: how do you see the future of clothing?

“Honestly, I am of the opinion that we are going back to our origins. Let me explain better: in the United States we are witnessing a phenomenon that, in the future, I hope to see also in Italy. Not immediately, because it is still too early. I am referring to the fact that, at first, the arrival of e-commerce sites such as Amazon have seriously affected any sector, including and above all clothing. Lately, in the United States, the desire to go personally to their reference store to choose the clothes and accessories to wear is returning. From this point of view, I trust in the future of this sector. A brighter future especially for multibrand stores.