MILAN — Entrepreneur Sergio Girombelli has died at age 81 in his hometown of Ancona, in Italy’s central Marche region.
He played a key role in building the success of the Byblos and Genny brands in the ’80s. Together with his sister-in-law, Donatella, he tapped Keith Varty and Alan Cleaver fresh out of London’s Royal College of Art, who turned Byblos into a fashion-forward brand at the time and put it on the map internationally.
Girombelli launched Byblos with his brother Arnaldo in 1973. Varty and Cleaver followed none other than a young Gianni Versace, who had gone on to head the Genny and Complice labels, also controlled by the Girombelli group.
Sergio Girombelli left the Genny group in 1992, in disaccord with Donatella Girombelli, and Varty and Cleaver exited the company the following year, succeeded by Richard Tyler, followed by Rebecca Moses. However, the relationship between Varty and Cleaver and the Girombellis did not fizzle. When Varty died in 2012, Sergio Girombelli had only kind words for the designer and fond memories of how he combined his “English style with the Made in Italy tradition, interpreting fashion in a young and colorful way.” Among the Byblos hits, he mentioned “the washed silk suits,” and “lace collections mixed with fun details, such as ruches.”
In 2001, Prada Group, which at the time included Jil Sander, Fendi and Helmut Lang in its stable of brands, took a controlling stake in Genny and Byblos.
At the time, Genny chairman and owner Donatella Girombelli, who inherited the company from her husband Arnaldo, said she and her son Leonardo would no longer work at the company. She added then that negotiations with Prada initially centered on the sale of Genny’s production facilities, which were built in the early ’90s when sales of the Byblos and Genny brands were roaring, and were among the most technologically advanced in Europe.
Swinger International, helmed by chief executive officer Mathias Facchini, bought the Byblos and Genny labels from Prada Group in 2002 and 2011, respectively, tapping designer Gabriele Colangelo to revamp the latter. Genny is now designed by Sara Cavazza Facchini.