Monobi, performance clothing for urban jungle

“A high-performance casualwear, to live the city with the same performance that is sought for outdoor sports activities. This is the hallmark of Monobi, a brand that was born three years ago in the heart of Beste, and at its fifth collection. Therefore, Monobi represents the final expression of an integrated company that produces from fabric to finished garment. In Cantagallo, Prato knitwear district, Beste, the parent company, chooses to produce cotton fabric using the maximum possible engineering and mechanical technology and mixing it with other components and materials able to guarantee sports performance, such as Goretex. The company is owned by Giovanni Santi, the first generation, who has led the company to a turnover of about 35 million euros serving the most important brands, from Jil Sander to Lanvin from Hermès to Burberry, just to name a few. A necessary premise to explain the very nature of Monobi, as brand’s projecy manager Matteo Villa, likes to say , is that on only 650 meters it can source the yarn and fire the finished garment. Why Monobi? “A tribute to Japan, where MONO means “thing” in Japanese and BI stands for Beste Italia”. After all, the Japanese market is the main market for the brand. A destination that not all fashion brands can afford to face. The consumer there has a deep knowledge of Made in Italy and is very demanding for both the finished product and its production and corporate peculiarities.

Monobi is ready for the dimensional and international leap. In addition to Italy and Japan, which are two important reference markets, the foreign market now sees the landing in the United States, thanks to an agreement with Stylistico, New York showroom founded by Marcello Abrate and Guglielmo Melegari. Korea and Germany the other destinations with a premium positioning in stores.

“Ours is a slow fashion product, of great care and attention to quality. The fortune of being vertically integrated – underlines Villa – gives us the possibility to be competitive, since we buy the fabric from the ‘mother company’ and we enjoy all its important know-how of research and technological innovation. We are also able to trace the entire supply chain for each garment, starting from the yarn. Clear traceability, which concerns every single element produced by Beste. “From this point of view we feel hyper-attachable,” Villa says. “Our product is of clear technical inspiration, for a consumer who has important ambitions of movement, who spends his free time in the mountains walking, doing physical activities. A customer who is accustomed to using high-performance garments where they are needed and who appreciates the fact that they can be found even in an urban context. We work on this: we like to make garments that make sense”.