C.P. Company Opens First Store in China on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road

CHINA BET: C.P. Company is popping on the Chinese retail scene opening its first flagship in Shanghai.

Located on the second floor of the city’s luxury department store Rèel on popular shopping thoroughfare Nanjing Road, the space features floor-to-ceiling windows and honeycomb-like ceiling. The minimalist, industrial interiors with spare metallic racks sectioning the space nod to C.P. Company’s penchant for R&D and fabric research.

The opening reflects the outerwear specialist’s ambition for the Chinese market, where it plans to bow new retail units in Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Changchun this year. The company said the retail rollout is being implemented with a local partner.

“The opening of the Shanghai flagship is a new important step in the growth and development strategy of the brand in China, but not the only one,” said Lorenzo Osti, president of C. P. Company and son of its founder Massimo Osti. “We are confident in the long-term expansion plan in China and to see the brand grow further,” he said.

The brand boasts 10 flagships globally with key units including Milan, Tokyo, Seoul and London.

Founded in 1971 by Massimo Osti, a young graphic designer from Bologna, Italy, C.P. Company was originally known as Chester Perry before being renamed in 1978.

Known for pioneering the garment-dyeing technique in the ’70s and having helped define the notion of Italian sportswear — filled with military and utilitarian references — as it’s known today, the brand was acquired in 2015 by Chinese company Tristate Holdings Ltd, which also owns Cissonne and the operation rights to Nautica and Reebok in China, following a number of ownership changes for the outerwear brand.

In 2022, C.P. Company celebrated its 50^th anniversary and earlier this year bowed a spin-off label, called Massimo Osti Studio, which debuted at January’s Paris Fashion Week building on the textile-driven and innovation-led legacy of the company’s founder, who died in 2005. Osti was also the mastermind behind the Stone Island brand, now under the Moncler Group umbrella.