Xavier Rougeaux, CEO of Valextra, explains the subtle allure of the Milan leather goods brand famous for its whispered, understated luxury and quietly loyal fan base
Before quiet luxury was a thing, the house was already making thoughtful quality pieces such as the Iside bag, which – like Valextra’s home city – marries beauty with functionality
If you were to come up with a list of brands that cater to discreet connoisseurs, Italian leather goods house Valextra would be right up there.
Founded in Milan in 1937, the house has a loyal following among worldly and cultured luxury lovers who usually discover the brand by chancing upon its Milan store, which has become a destination unto itself for visitors to the city.
Wanting to set the brand apart from the much bandied-about “quiet luxury” that everyone has been talking about for the last couple of years, Rougeaux refers to Valextra’s approach as “whispered luxury”.
With no recognisable logo, signature pieces that are unmistakable but not in an obvious way, no celebrity endorsements and a very controlled distribution, Valextra is the antithesis to the ubiquity and overexpansion that the luxury industry has undergone lately, much to the detriment of its long-term prospects, as recent results from the top luxury groups have shown.
An industrial city with a high-end manufacturing base and thriving design and fashion scenes, Milan is not a place you fall in love with right away: it hides its beauty and doesn’t flaunt it like other Italian spots such as Florence, Venice and Rome.
“The brand is very much grounded in Milan and the legacy is very strong there,” he says. “That’s something that as a foreign person you notice when you are in Milan; there is a tension that I feel is very interesting. The city looks quite sober, I would even say austere. The architecture is very monumental, and then you enter a courtyard or the inside of a palazzo, and it’s very, very warm, and the tension that creates is very exciting.