Palmegiani: rediscovering the vintage style to propose something new
You could describe him as “the blue man”, the color that he defines as “the color of wide open spaces conjuring up a strong feeling of freedom”. Bruno Palmegiani, artistic director of the De Rigo Group, is an icon for eyewear creativity. The current success of the Police brand is mainly due to him, but in 1983 it was simply an intuition. An ingenious intuition as was that of the mirrored blue lenses which followed a few years later and led to sky-rocketing sales: 16 million pairs in three years.
Almost thirty years later, Bruno Palmegiani is thinking back to that time of his youth when he was part of the world of apparel, studied engineering, and had a passion for rock music. A background he brought with him when he entered the optical world, first in a small company and then with De Rigo. Some time ago, he explained to Emanuela Cavalca Altan how he began to design eyewear in the book “L’anima del vestito nuovo”: “It began by chance. The stylist Luciano Esposito left the collaboration and I took his place, following my predecessor’s innovative ideas. At that time, the market did not offer great proposals, but you could feel that there was a desire for change in the air. I have always been passionate about sunglasses, I wore them when I was a kid and played music, so I thought I would lead the company toward that sector by creating a line with a slightly American style that was in tune with the times. That’s how the Police line was born.”
It is, he said, “the Italian interpretation of the American dream. The lifestyle of urban America, firmly implanted in the imagination of the kids of that period, inspired a variety of Anglo-Saxon names. You could say that the choice of Police was accidental: a customer told me that very similar models were worn by the New York City police. It was the birth of a collection with an American style and unmistakable Italian taste.”
And then we came to blue, the color of the mirrored lenses. “After positive tests, I thought about giving the brand a stronger connotation by using a color that identified it: mirrored blue. The color of wide open spaces that conjures up a strong feeling of freedom. And without any doubt, this was the seal of approval that made Police one of the company’s most important brands in the world.”
A success that was even more significant because it came at a time when better known labels began to penetrate the optical world. A result that was not related to special strategies but to “the correct interpretation of generation icons and to the ability of filling empty spaces in the market quickly and with affordable prices.”
2011 is a nostalgic updated memory, it is “vintage time”, as Palmegiani suggests, because “in times of crisis we look for the certainties that characterized our past. In other words, it is a rediscovery of the past to propose something new. Moreover, frequently the past is totally unknown to young people but, at the same time, it is still definitely of interest to people who are now in their forties and experienced the phenomenon when they were young. That’s how it was for model 8299, which has a special profile to achieve the aesthetic effect of a ‘clip-on’ model with mirrored blue lenses.”
On this creative basis, Police continued its policy of “product recognition at a price totally in line with that of its main competitors, and a highly visible communication with a strong image”. If the market is keeping a special eye on young people and women, the biggest “consumers” of sunglasses, the Police brand has had testimonials like Bruce Willis, George Clooney, Paolo Maldini, Antonio Banderas and David Beckham, because, as Palmegiani would say, “they represent the man, the brilliant, dynamic and decisive male that many would like to be.”
