Benetton in India

Undercolors, brand of United colors of Benetton will open soon a new store. The strategy of the brand is concentrated on markets like: India, Eastern Europe and Northern Europe.

United Colors of Benetton Press Release:

New store openings and new markets for the Undercolors brand. Over 30 new stores in 2007 and 50 more in 2008, with the elegance and inviting warmth of the new Gloss store concept.

Ponzano, 9th November 2007 - h. 12:30 p.m. CET. Undercolors – the Benetton Group’s underwear, beachwear and nightwear brand – expands across the world with a glamorous store concept, new openings in Italy and Europe and rapid growth in new markets like India.

Gloss, Undercolors’ brand-new store concept, uses colours, forms and fittings to highlight the brand’s more sophisticated, feminine identity and seduces customers with an inviting environment and a warmer, more personalized atmosphere.

With this new store layout Undercolors’ two lines are instantly distinguishable. Fun, the ironic line designed for those who prefer colourful, light-hearted underwear, looks its best against a glossy white background. Charme, the Clean Sensuality line for women who seek simple seductiveness, stands out against glossy grey walls.

The shop windows have modular-panels making it simple to adapt product to space, showing off both to best effect. Luminous bands around the perimeter walls effectively highlight the different themes in the collections. The whole concept is characterized by high-gloss surfaces and mannequins.

The programme of new Gloss-Undercolors store openings, which began in Barcelona in August, has quickly developed to include 15 new shops in major Italian and European cities including Florence, Venice, Rome, Warsaw and Athens. Fifteen more stores, including Madrid and Lisbon, will open in 2007.

New markets where Undercolors is concentrating future expansion are India, Eastern Europe and Northern Europe. In particular, the brand debuted in India in October this year and around 15 new stores are planned to open there in 2008.

Undercolors currently has 870 stores and sells 10 million garments around the world. Its international expansion will continue with 50 more new stores in 2008.

Source: United Colors of Benetton

Benetton's Shanghai exhibition

Betwen October 19, 2007 and November 11, 2007 The Centre Pompidou’s Fabrica presents an exhibition at Shanghai Art Museum. The exhibition porpuse is to show to entire world the panorama of research made by Fabrica, Benetton Group’s communication research centre.

United Colors of Benetton Press Release:

The Centre Pompidou’s Fabrica: les yeux ouverts exhibition goes to China following an invitation by the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation. The exhibition will be open from 19 October to 11 November at the Shanghai Art Museum as part of the Shanghai eArts Festival. It thus continues on its journey which started in Paris in October 2006 and went on to the Milan Triennale in summer 2007.

“The Centre Pompidou was honoured to accept the Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation’s invitation. The exhibition has already received many visitors in its previous locations. Visitors have appreciated the interactive universe, which invites them to participate in a sensorial experience allowing them to see through Fabrica’s eyes, which are always focused on the rest of the world”, says Marie-Laure Jousset, Head of the Centre Pompidou’s Design Department and curator of the exhibition Fabrica: les yeux ouverts.

Housed in the rooms of the Shanghai Art Museum, dating back to the Twenties, the exhibition presents a panorama of the work done over the years by Fabrica, the Benetton Group’s communication research centre. Visitors will see both documentary projects (Colors magazine and photo reportages) and experimental work (videos, visual communication, interactive installations where visitors can take an active part in the exhibition, thereby giving a personal contribution).

Fabrica is a centre for experimentation and innovation set up in 1994 by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani with the aim of combining “culture” and “industry” in an unprecedented experiment, exploiting the experience of a group which operates in over one hundred nations around the world. Based near Venice in Italy, in a historical architectural complex restored and enlarged by Tadao Ando, Fabrica offers one-year grants to young creative artists from all over the world so they can develop their projects – in fields such as graphics, films, industrial design, publishing, new media or photography – under the guidance of an international team of experts.
The Fabrica: les yeux ouverts exhibition’s Far East tour continues in January when the Milan Triennale will host it in the area devoted to Italian design in Tokyo’s Shiodomeitalia Creative Center.

Source: United Colors of Benetton