DESIGNERS : With the Name <i> Mossimo,</i> He Had to Prove He’s Hip
Looking back, designer Mossimo Giannulli remembers a time when his first name caused some problems.
“As a kid, I was always getting heckled,” he says cheerfully. “But you build a lot of character with an interesting name. You learn how to handle people.”
These days, the 28-year-old fashion phenomenon regards his moniker as “fun and creative.” And he’s making the most of it. Mossimo logos decorate hip beachwear and streetwear for men and women, plus a new line of optics. The insignia range from the designer’s artistic script to the bold “M” riveted to the rear of his first design, a pair of neon-bright, three-panel volleyball shorts.
Five years after those shorts hit the beaches, customers have come to associate the name with sexy, innovative products. With specialty and department stores eager to carry the clothes, which retail for $40 to $150, sales hit $23 million in 1991.
Giannulli, a USC dropout, has graduated in style. He has gone from working out of a two-bedroom Balboa Island apartment and delivering merchandise by bicycle to an ultra-modern, 31,000-square-foot Irvine building where everything reflects his fascination with clean, bold lines.
In the beginning he was compared to Gucci, although he’s not sure why. “Maybe because we’re both Italians.” A trade publication recently dubbed him “the Armani of beachwear,” which has him wincing because, he says, “I’m nowhere near Armani.”
He has been nominated twice by the California Mart for a menswear designer award--and lost.
With typical enthusiasm, he says: “I feel I won. I was nominated.”
And next month , he goes to Paris to participate with 15 other U.S. companies in the “Expo Viva America” presented by Au Printemps department store in honor of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America.
Harry Bernard, vice president of the firm coordinating the expo, says Giannulli was chosen because, “I think he’s going to be the next Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren.”
Last year, Mossimo swimwear, made under license by Lunada Bay, was introduced and promptly featured in the Sports Illustrated special issue.
Bernard says: “The only other swimwear I’ve seen that compares (to Mossimo) is Norma Kamali, at three times the price.”
Despite kudos that include movie and television wardrobe credits, Giannulli says he hasn’t changed in spirit. Business cards come without titles.
And a tour of the building ends in a play-school-style lunchroom where the walls are lined with baby photographs of everyone, including Giannulli.
While the photo concept was inspired by his infant son, the clothing concepts come from anywhere and often arrive, the designer says, “when I’m driving in my car and no one can get to me.”
He is known for finding unusual textiles, including Supplex, a nylon fabric with a cotton feel that he used for the original volleyball short, and the distinctive textured-fleece Lycra in the women’s swimwear line.
To find out what makes Giannulli tick, he suggests a look at his early business training. Although he grew up in an affluent Southern California home, “I had to work for everything I wanted,” he says.
One year his father advanced him the money for stereo equipment, but when the loan went unpaid, “he took it away and put it in the garage. He told me, ‘This is what happens in the real world when you have a deal.’ “So I know I have to work for everything and nothing is going to be free.”
