OPEN ERA focuses on transforming the fashion industry through innovation and sustainability, with representative Max highlighting their goal to inspire change beyond mere clothing production.
Transparency is key, as they educate consumers about the sustainable journey of each garment. Max concludes that OPEN ERA is more than a clothing brand; it represents a movement toward responsible fashion that invites community involvement.
A word of warning: anyone who claims to be 100% sustainable is probably greenwashing.
During PITTI Uomo we had the opportunity to interview Max who shared with us the company philosophy and the brand’s Vision.
Let’s start with the interview
1.What are the main inspirations that influenced your col- lection this season? How would you describe your brand’s identity in the contemporary fashion landscape?
We have continued the road that we took for our 2024 and SS25 col- lections: instead of limiting ourselves to the world of tennis, we have broadened our collection under the umbrella term of “country club styles”, featuring new-heritage designs.
Meaning: rugby, cricket, golf, some varsity styles and of course also tennis. Starting with the FW25 collection, we will split each of our collections in two subcollections:
One of these sub-collections, the posh “off-court-part”, will focus mainly on knitwear, wovens and coats. It includes styles suitable for a fancy dinner in the country club restaurant.
It keeps a sportive nu- ance to it, but you will feel right at home in an environment of wood paneling and crystal chandeliers.
The other subcollection revolves around „on-court-fashion“ or pre- mium leisurewear. It will include high quality circular knits like jerseys, piqués, terry cloth and more.
Creating these two worlds will not only allow us to unleash even more of our creativity, our partners and the OPEN ERA brand will also be- nefit from reaching bigger target groups, without losing relevance by being too broad.
2.Have you used innovative materials or production tech- niques in this collection?
During the last season, we started to work on an innovative KPI sys- tem, to come closer to the actual impact a garment has on the en- vironment. At the moment, I do not want to go too much into detail though.
From the product perspective, we have developed a lean adjustment for the waist opening to minimize the size range without limiting the fit to a specific amount of people. By this, we also hope to minimize waste and leftover stock.
We always try to go for something unique, like 100% organic cotton interlocks, that resemble the haptic and shiny appearance of polyes- ter fabrics. For FW25, we have focused again on mixing knit patterns or different fabric qualities.
3.How does your brand address sustainability challenges in the fashion industry?
Despite all our products being made in Europe, we implemented an extensive testing procedure with thresholds defined that are even more sensitive than the ones prescribed by the legislatives in most of our active markets.
Sustainability is one of many topics that aren’t as easy as I thought when starting the OPEN ERA brand.
I imagined it to be more “black or white”. To be honest: I am still not sure, if our train of thought is going in the right direction. Let me give you a deeper insight in the considerations and the conclusions we drew:
Synthetical fibres are considered to be harmful in every way. Yet, we concluded that there is a point in a garments lifecycle, when the negative impact is outweighed by it’s durability.
We are wondering, wether the use of synthetic fibers might be bet- ter in some cases, for instance due to the increased longevity when working with jacquards.
Also, in order to assess the impact of recycled fibers, one would need to know: where was it recycled, which energy mix / chemi- cals were used?
Which filters were in place to minimize pollution of the recycling process? What was it before, was it upcycling or downcycling? Which emissions were caused during the trans- port?
When we do not know this, we have to assess a recycled fiber as having a “neutral” impact – or like Schroedinger would say it can be anything in-between very good and very bad.
The decisive point for us to not work with recycled fibers for now is it’s lower durability: because in the process, the fibers are shredded and will never achieve the same stability in the spinning process, that can be achieved with “new” fibers.
As you can see, one thing that is very centered in our efforts to be as sustainable as possible is quality – because we believe: the most sustainable garment is the one that lasts an eternity.
The system I mentioned in question 2 will help us to assess and validate or discard the assumptions made.
4.Which emerging markets do you intend to explore more in the coming years?
As a relatively young start-up, we want to focus on growing in our existing markets first.
What started as a hobby grew very quickly: in the meanwhile, we are active in 27 markets and our main priority is to grow our team and use synergies from existing partnerships that allow us to grow quicker than we would if we’d start all-over in a new market.
The brand is commercially managed by the company Fashion 62, with Mattia D’Arcangelo taking care of product placement.
With a dedicated team that works tirelessly to ensure that each collection reflects the latest trends, Fashion 62 strives to maintain a balance between innovation and tradition.
Thanks to the creative vision of Mattia D’Arcangelo, product placement is transformed into an art, integrating garments in contexts that enhance their elegance and versatility.
This strategic approach not only increases the brand’s visibility, but also strengthens its emotional connection with customers, creating a unique narrative that accompanies each collection.
