MILAN – Guido Campello has a mission: to buy heritage innerwear brands that are made in Italy and to restore their reputation and business around the world.

As co-chief executive officer of Journelle with his wife, dermatologist Sapna Palep, he has made the first such acquisition, buying the storied Valery company, based in Sommariva Bosco, near Cuneo, in Italy’s northern Piedmont region. The deal will be revealed this weekend at Immagine Italia, the international lingerie trade show running in Florence Feb. 14-16.

“My mother’s name happens to be Valeria, so it was something I always looked at,” Campello said in an interview. “When Valery became available, it was an opportunity to tell a story that’s almost 50 years old.”

He did not disclose financial details but said Valery was impacted by a lack of generational handover.

“Valery has a very strong reputation in the industry and people believe that it’s still available everywhere, although it paused two seasons ago. We have the sketches, all the history, and we’re picking up some of their bestsellers, and we’re going to evolve it and build it back up and wake it up from its sleep mode,” said Campello.

“Our idea is to produce [other dormant] brands that we can bring in as part of Journelle. We want to revitalize the Italian history of brands.”

He observed that, in Italy, “lingerie and swimwear are synonymous, while they are differentiated in the U.S. so the opportunity with Valery was to include both swimwear and lingerie,” explained the entrepreneur.

Campello is no stranger to this industry as his parents Valeria and Ugo Campello founded the luxury innerwear brand Cosabella in 1983 in Miami with production of the collections in Italy. “My parents made a very strong point to preserve the Made in Italy production and, even with the arrival of the euro, even with all the changes that happened over the years, we were able to preserve it,” he said.

In 2019, Campello acquired the lingerie company Journelle, and leveraged the production company based in Carpi, Italy called Collezioni, which also produced for Cosabella. Campello led Cosabella until the sale to Calida Group in 2022.

Journelle, which was founded by Claire Chambers in 2007, has three stores in New York and a boutique in Chicago. Headquartered in New York, Journelle’s private label business was up 44 percent last year.  

“We have been carrying more than 100 brands of luxury lingerie. I thought it would be great to be able to have retail as well as production, as well as a brand. But what I also noticed is there were no other Italian brands besides Cosabella. It was the only Italian brand. La Perla was going through changes. So I made it a mission to buy heritage lingerie brands in Italy and have them produced in our manufacturing plant in Italy,” he said. He cited Diego Della Valle as an inspiration for buying and reviving heritage fashion brand Schiaparelli.

Campello was speaking via Zoom from a laboratory he opened on Jan. 26 that used to work for La Perla and that “is now part of our Made in Mediterraneo project,” which will involve the employment of several innerwear manufacturers in Italy. “Yesterday I visited five more laboratories, all former La Perla laboratories. So you have the know-how, the artisans, the machines, and all the elements that you need to create a product that’s exceptional.”

He lamented the arrival of fast fashion innerwear brands that have curbed the expansion of storied Italian specialists. “Also, many lace factories in Busto Arsizio [around 24 miles outside of Milan], have moved on to produce for luxury fashion brands, bringing that know-how to the world of ready-to-wear. We have the greatest resources, but we’re still missing the lingerie brands.”

Speaking of the issue of U.S. tariffs, Campello praised Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for having “done a significant job in balancing relationships and protecting Made in Italy,” contending that “Italy has an advantage in Europe. I think it’s a great time to see a renaissance of Italian intimates, and it’s an opportunity for Italy because we see  some of the European brands produce in North Africa, in Madagascar, and they produce in other countries where the tariffs are worse. The easiest way to sell a product, in the U.S., I think, is to say it’s made in Italy. And I think it’s sad that we don’t do it more, right? We don’t build it. So that’s our goal. That’s what we’re doing. And Valery, I think, will allow us to do so.”