I will never forget the feeling when I first encountered Benetton's products in Yerevan. Years ago, concept stores like this were rare in Armenia. Fashion on Armenian social networks was still underdeveloped, and we faced several issues regarding clothing. Firstly, we were significantly behind on trends and stylish clothing, while our main stores sold us garments of unknown origin, either in faded colors or, conversely, with irrational combinations, beads, and sparkles. I was just a regular student, knowing little about fashion, yet local shops where you weren’t allowed to touch the clothes unless you were certain to buy them terrified me.

Benetton was different-everything neatly arranged, with logical combinations, offering both basic wear and color, color, color…

These memories came flooding back as I delved into the nearly 60-year success story of the Benetton brand.
 

The story of Benetton is a typical yet profoundly moving family tale. As you read it, you can’t help but picture a film about a poor but united Italian family under the sun of Treviso.

Luciano Benetton knew the value of hard work. When his father died in 1945, he was only 10 years old. To support his family, Luciano started selling newspapers on the street, all while continuing his studies and gaining experience.

In the 1960s, Luciano’s sister, Giuliana, knitted a yellow sweater for him. She did such an impeccable job that not only did her family appreciate it, but everyone who saw Luciano wearing it admired her craftsmanship. Eventually, Luciano decided that his sister’s talent should become the foundation of a family business.

The brother and sister, then twenty and eighteen, sold their accordion and bicycle and borrowed money from family and friends to buy a sewing machine with the 300,000 lire they had gathered. This was the bare minimum needed to start a small family business, with Giuliana as the seamstress and Luciano as the salesman. Their brothers, Gilberto and Carlo, soon joined them as well.

The local retail shop near the Benettons' home sold their first collection: beautiful sweaters with round or V-necks in vibrant colors, from yellow to blue and green.

Over the next four months, the Benettons sold 20 sweaters per week, and with the revenue from these sales, they were able to pay off the debts incurred to buy the sewing machine. This marked the beginning of their global success, which continues to this day.

Ultimately, the hard work of this united family led them to establish the Benetton brand in 1965, and a year later, they opened their first store in Belluno, which immediately captivated the local youth.

Today, it may seem ordinary, but at the time, most young people wore sweaters in dark or neutral colors. Benetton’s vibrant offerings couldn’t go unnoticed.

The bright colors of the brand’s products aren’t merely decorative; they convey the spirit, character, and energy of fashion, while Italian high-quality knitwear makes it all perfect. It’s no coincidence that Benetton became a pioneer in using innovative technologies for dyeing colorful garments.

Until then, colored sweaters were made from pre-dyed wool. This meant that if the color did not achieve the expected success during the season, entire boxes of unsold products would remain in stock.

After returning from a trip to Scotland, where he had studied old methods of working with wool, Luciano Benetton had an idea. He called his friend Ado Montani, a member of a family of dyers, and asked if it was possible to dye the sweaters after they were made, rather than before.

They spent months in the basement experimenting with wool and dyes. One night, the first flawless sweater finally emerged from the dye bath. From that moment on, for Benetton, producing sweaters from raw wool and then dyeing them to order became a huge commercial advantage.

This is how the "simple dye" concept originated, which would later be applied by some of the largest companies in the ready-to-wear industry over the following decades.

Benetton’s colors unite people from all corners of the world, with shoppers visiting over 5,000 stores globally. The collections are simple and accessible to everyone. In the 1980s, Princess Diana wore Benetton’s creations, and today, we endless lovers of color and fashion are shopping for this year’s trendy pink sweaters from Benetton.

And every time I walk into a Benetton store, no matter where I am in the world, the brand's color palette evokes the same feelings I experienced years ago in the Benetton store in Yerevan