DESA 1972
Building international fashion legitimacy through access, positioning and sustained editorial validation.
Italy & International · 2014–2016
From Turkish leather manufacturing to the international fashion system. TACTICA worked with DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO to build relevance, access and credibility across Milan and Rome, connecting the brand with fashion institutions, leading editors, buyers and influential figures.
ENTERING THE SYSTEM
The challenge was not simply visibility. It was legitimacy.
DESA needed to move beyond being perceived as a leather manufacturer and enter the international fashion conversation as a credible brand. That required more than communications. It required access to the right environments, relationships and moments where fashion authority is created and validated.
2014 · Entering Italy’s Fashion System
Milan and Rome became the first stages of that positioning strategy.
Through Milan Fashion Week and AltaRoma, DESA entered environments where designers, editors, buyers, institutions and influential figures converged. The objective was not simply attendance or exposure, but to place the brand inside the conversations and relationships that shape fashion credibility.
For Fall/Winter 2014–15, DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO presented at Degli Effetti during AltaRoma, entering a distinctly Italian fashion context rather than appearing simply as an extension of a leather manufacturer.
The event brought together a wider circle of fashion, media and Roman society, including Franca Sozzani, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Italia, actresses Claudia Gerini, Valeria Solarino and Anna Falchi, members of the Fendi family, and other guests from Italy’s cultural and fashion worlds.
AltaRoma, Rome, 2014. Building the right context around DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO: Burak Celet with Franca Sozzani Editor-in-chief VOGUE Italia and Natasha De Santis of TACTICA; Claudia Gerini with Burak Celet; and Valeria Solarino with Yossi Cohen.
MILAN FASHION WEEK · Building Continuity
The positioning continued in Milan, where DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO used Fashion Week not simply as a presentation moment, but as a platform to deepen relationships with the international fashion community.
Editors, buyers and industry figures were brought into direct contact with the brand, extending the work from visibility into familiarity and sustained recognition.
Among those encounters was Suzy Menkes, whose engagement with Burak Çelet became particularly significant. Her interest represented something more valuable than reach: editorial validation from one of fashion’s most respected international voices.
Benedetta Bevilacqua, owner of Imarika, a multi-brand retailer, viewing the DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO collection at Palazzo Bovara during Milan Fashion Week, 2014.
In September 2014, DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO presented its Spring/Summer 2015 collection at Palazzo Bovara as part of Milano Moda Donna, placing the brand within the official Milan Fashion Week framework.
TACTICA conceived the presentation as an open-door destination throughout the day, allowing editors, buyers, institutions and industry figures to visit around an intense Fashion Week schedule. The objective was to make encountering the brand as easy and natural as possible for the people who mattered.
At Palazzo Bovara, the objective was not simply to present a collection. It was to place DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO in front of the editors, buyers, industry figures and opinion leaders who helped shape fashion legitimacy in Italy.
Palazzo Bovara, Milan Fashion Week 2014. DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO presented the collection in a historic Milanese setting, creating a deliberate contrast between the architecture of the palazzo and the contemporary geometry of the bags.
Who was in the room mattered.
Palazzo Bovara brought together the different layers of the Italian fashion system around the collection: international editors, fashion institutions, buyers, industry leaders and cultural figures. Among them were Suzy Menkes, Mario Boselli and Jane Reeve of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Antonella Antonelli of Marie Claire Italia, Danda Santini of ELLE Italia and representatives of LINEAPELLE and the Italian buying community.
For TACTICA, the objective was not simply to fill a room. It was to create repeated, meaningful encounters between DESA, its product and the people capable of influencing how the brand would be understood internationally.
Suzy Menkes discussing DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO and the collection at Palazzo Bovara during Milan Fashion Week, 2014.
Editorial validation followed.
Days after the Palazzo Bovara presentation, Suzy Menkes featured DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO in her Vogue International column, placing the brand within the same editorial conversation as established international names.
The impact extended beyond a single editorial voice.
Bovara generated coverage across Italian fashion, trade and business media, reinforcing DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO’s presence within the Milan fashion system.
The first season created attention. The second proved continuity.
On 1 March 2015, DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO returned to Milano Moda Donna with a new FW 15–16 presentation at Palazzo Serbelloni.
Palazzo Serbelloni, Milano Moda Donna, 1 March 2015. DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO returned to Milan for its FW 15–16 presentation.
By then, the objective had evolved. Palazzo Bovara had established the brand inside the Milan fashion conversation. Serbelloni was about sustaining that position: a new collection, another significant setting and another opportunity to deepen the relationships already being built around the brand.
In fashion, relevance begins when the right people return.
Gianluca Cantaro, then Editor-in-Chief of L’Officiel Italia, photographing the DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO collection at Palazzo Serbelloni, March 2015.
Creating the room was part of the strategy.
TACTICA was not simply introducing DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO to the Italian fashion system. We were building and operating the context in which those relationships could happen.
For Serbelloni, that meant managing the presentation end to end: guest strategy, invitations and RSVP, media relations, catering, on-site coordination, follow-up, clipping and reporting. The objective was not to fill a room. It was to bring the right people into direct contact with the brand, the collection and the people behind it.
The result was a room that connected DESA with editorial leadership, fashion institutions, international buyers and some of the industry’s most influential voices.
Editorial adjacency became positioning.
Vogue Italia · DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO · Milan Fashion Week F/W 2015/1
By March 2015, DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO was appearing in Women’s Wear Daily WWD’s seasonal accessories edit alongside established international names including Furla and Dior.
By then, DESA was no longer being introduced to the market. It was beginning to be recognised within it.
The relationships continued across seasons.
By September 2015, DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO was presenting its S/S 2016 collection in Milan to editors who were already following the brand, while opening new conversations with international fashion media.
Suzy Menkes returned to see the collection. Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Director and Fashion Critic of The New York Times, was there too. The significance was no longer the scale of the presentation itself. It was the continuity of access, attention and editorial interest around the brand.
2016 · From visibility to continuous presence
By 2016, the objective had evolved. DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO was no longer simply entering the Milan fashion conversation. The challenge was to turn recognition into continuity.
During Milan Fashion Week, DESA’s showroom became a working platform throughout the week, extending the brand’s presence beyond a single presentation or event.
TACTICA used the showroom strategically to create further encounters with editors and buyers, giving them time to engage with the collection and the brand in a more direct, sustained environment.
The network kept expanding.
By early 2016, DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO was again part of the official Milano Moda Donna calendar. Around the F/W 16-17 presentation, TACTICA continued to build on the relationships developed over previous seasons, bringing together editors and industry figures from Vogue, W, WWD, Monocle, Marie Claire and Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.
From guest strategy and media relations to showroom management and post-event coverage, TACTICA helped DESA turn Milan Fashion Week into a platform for positioning, legitimacy and continuity.
Editorial attention had become a relationship.
In March 2016, Suzy Menkes featured DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO again in Vogue International with “Bags: Do-it-yourself decoration”. Nearly two years after her first article on the brand, the significance was no longer simply the coverage itself. It was the continuity of editorial interest across seasons, collections and a changing creative direction.
From manufacturing credibility to fashion legitimacy.
Over the course of the collaboration, TACTICA helped DESA NINETEENSEVENTYTWO translate its leather manufacturing expertise into recognition and credibility within the international fashion system.
The work went far beyond visibility. It combined positioning, access, editorial relationships, institutional credibility and execution, creating the conditions for DESA to be seen alongside established international names and followed by some of fashion’s most influential voices.
The objective had never been a single moment of visibility. It was to build enough credibility for DESA to remain part of the conversation.