Bruno Schiavi.jpg Schiavi in 2005 |
Bruno Schiavi (born 10 July 1972) is an Australian Entrepreneur.
Schiavi was born on 10 July 1972 in Sydney's Inner West. [1] His father worked for Italian embassies; the family moved several times before eventually settling in Australia. [2] He attended Rosebank College in the Inner Western Sydney suburb of Five Dock, graduating in 1990.
Schiavi's university studies were in business and marketing. [3] He worked at Target for eight years, starting in the 1980s. In 1995 he and his mother launched their first brand "Anabella" a line women's underwear over the internet. [2]
In 1998 Schiavi invented a sock with a zippered pocket and sold it through Gowings. [3] This sock fuelled the growth of his company, which in 2004 had sales of AUD 3 million, mostly from Schiavi-designed underwear.
In 2003 Schiavi began working with celebrities when he had Big Brother contestants promote underwear designed by him. He has since collaborated with Priscilla Presley, [2] Brett Lee, Janet Jackson, [4] and the Kardashians as well as MISSONI, Magic Johnson, Jane Fonda and Heidi Klum. In the mid-2000s Schiavi's company expanded to Los Angeles. [2]
Many of his products, including the Kardashian Kollection, are sold globally. By 2013 his company had an estimated turnover of well over $75 million, 60 percent of that from outside Australia. [2]
On 12 August 2013 Schiavi launched One Dress a Day, an online store that sells a new Schiavi-designed dress every day. [5]
In 2015 Schiavi expanded into children's clothing, developing a Kardashian Kids line for his Kardashian Kollection brand when the Kardashians had children. The new brand was a commercial success, with 86 percent of the stock sold within 72 hours of the launch in stores and online via Babies R Us. Following Schiavi's usual business model of mass market sales, the Kardashian Kids was sold internationally and at Woolworths Big W stores in Australia from August 2015. [6]