No. 21 leaves Gilmar and joins Style Capital. The crisis in the Rimini district is worsening
Gilmar held a 30 per cent stake in the brand and has applied for crisis negotiation proceedings, a situation also faced by other long-established companies such as Aeffe and Fuzzi
The N°21 brand, founded by Alessandro Dell’Acqua in 2010, has finalised a deal with Gilmar, the company that had acquired a minority stake in it in 2015, and joins the portfolio of Style Capital, the private equity fund led by Roberta Benaglia. The designer will remain creative director of his brand, which he named after the number of his date of birth.
“I am delighted that N°21 is embarking on this new phase with Style Capital and Roberta Benaglia, an entrepreneur who has a deep understanding of the fashion industry and shares my belief in the importance of combining creative vision with business development,” Dell’Acqua said in a statement. “I believe this move represents a significant opportunity for N°21’s growth, whilst preserving its character and strengthening its future prospects,” he added.
“N°21 represents one of the most authentic and recognisable expressions of contemporary Italian creativity,” says Roberta Benaglia, founder and managing partner of Style Capital, in a separate statement. “ Over time, Alessandro Dell’Acqua has succeeded in developing a distinctive, coherent and deeply personal stylistic language, creating a brand with a strong identity and significant untapped potential. Our aim is to support Alessandro in this new phase, preserving his creative autonomy whilst providing N°21 with the strategic, managerial and industrial expertise needed to underpin its international development. We believe that successful brands are born from an authentic creative vision and flourish when this vision is combined with solid entrepreneurial skills.”
Whilst a new chapter is beginning for N° 21 – which did not take part in the last Milan Fashion Week in September – the future looks bleaker for Gilmar, the company based in San Giovanni in Marignano, near Rimini, founded in 1992 and run by the Gerani family, which, as a partner, supported the history and success of many brands throughout the 1990s and 2000s. With 256 direct employees, as well as a network of 160 workshops and small businesses, and a factory covering more than 35,000 square metres, Gilmar has been experiencing an increasingly severe and deepening crisis since 2020, coinciding with the pandemic, which, according to the company, led to a halving of turnover. The termination of the Missoni and Siviglia licences is also said to have resulted in a loss of around 25 million in revenue per year. In 2019, Gilmar had recorded a turnover of around 95 million euros.
Consequently, in early October, Gilmar Divisione Industria (which manufactures and distributes the Iceberg, N°21 and Paolo Pecora brands) filed an application with the Court of Rimini for a negotiated settlement of its financial difficulties, stating total liabilities of €37.2 million as at 31 July 2026, which prevents it from settling its debts to over 800 business partners in Italia and abroad. The hearing is scheduled for 24 November.
