Our story
ABOUT XCONCEPT COMPANY
XCONCEPT is an avant grade clothing label founded in 2007 in Tuscany. Founder and designer Gabriele Bensi, has a long experience in fashion: he was inspired to create XCONCEPT from his many travels, especially in Bali, equatorial island capable of enhancing the development of a strong creative impulse. In Bali for the first time Gabriele conceived “the x concept”, an idea of life and style that will be the reason to all the future collections.
The DNA of the brand is based on recurring themes such as travel beyond the borders, freedom without constraints, asian inspirations and a different originality: designer mixes a contemporary asian mood with urban western life, paying special attention to those who stand out of the crowd and do not need to follow the current fashion, because they have a personality and clear identity.
OUR FOUNDERS' TEAM
Our team - made of 4 partners and more than 10 collaborators and trusted suppliers - is not only based here in Firenze, where we are writing from. Everything started in 2007 years ago, in Greece.
This website is in fact the result of 10 years spent into fashion system of 4 people - Gabriele Bensi, Giacomo Cerbai, Lilit Boninsegni, Jutatip Sornsiri - in different fields, from clothing production, to design, to physical retail, participating to international fashion weeks, working through independent showrooms.
Let's start from the beginning!
XCONCEPT BRAND FOUNDATION IN GREECE
In 2007 Gabriele Bensi, creator and founder of the very first XCONCEPT brand company, launched his fashion brand distribution in Greece. Gabriele, a long experience in fashion, as head of Armani company in Greece, and director of Prada Store in Via Condotti, Rome, decided to create the new avant-garde fashion collection due to his many travels, and inspired from the Island of Bali, where production of the collection was started. The collection was soon adopted by many high end fashion stores in Greece, and the founder, decided to launch a mono-brand boutique in Bali.
Giacomo Cerbai Associates with XCONCEPT Founder and launches Italian International distribution
The project was interesting and promising, and Giacomo Cerbai joined him in 2010, creating first of all a physical store in Piombino (Livorno, Tuscany) in order to test the product. After this first experience Giacomo and Gabriele were convinced that the fashion brand had a chance to survive in a wider international high end market, and Giacomo started selling the fashion collections into Italian stores, door to door, while Gabriele - now based in Thailand, and working also in Bali - was crafting, designing, and producing the collections. After a short time the brand was established in a cool network of emerging avant garde fashion stores in Italy, and Giacomo founded our first fashion showroom in Florence.
International expansion.
The distribution was grown in Italy and then internationally, and stores helped building the brand image. In fact, in a few years, xconcept started participating to Milan and Paris fashion weeks, usually through independent designers showrooms, to sell the brand to international high end shops all over the world.In 2015 it was a success, xconcept got the distribution in Japan, Russia, China, northern Europe and in many high end Italian stores.
Giacomo and Lilit, from company offices in Italy, Florence, are in charge of international distribution, brand image creation.
XCONCEPT goes direct to consumer in Bangkok
Meanwhile Gabriele, in Bali and Bangkok, together with his wife and partner Jutatip, continued working on the design and production of the collections, and proceeded in the expansion in physical retail, launching two more flagship stores: one in Siam Square, and the other one in Asok, Terminal 21.
XCONCEPT IS RECOGNIZED AS A NICHE AVANT-GARDE BRAND
XCONCEPT company, thanks to the efforts of the whole team, was featured on international offline and online publications, was granted a reputation into the avantgarde fashion niche market, and was distributed in over 50 stores.