{"id":11471,"date":"2026-03-12T14:07:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/?p=11471"},"modified":"2026-03-12T14:07:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T13:07:52","slug":"an-imperfect-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/blog\/an-imperfect-world\/","title":{"rendered":"An Imperfect World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I met Elizabeth at a party on a September evening in 2024 when I had uncharacteristically remembered to stick a few business cards in my wallet before leaving the house. \u201cOoooh you\u2019re BIVIO!\u201d she smiled when our mutual friend, the host, introduced us. \u201cWe should absolutely<\/em> have a chat.\u201d I looked down at her card and thought, bingo.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Elizabeth was probably ten years my junior, had moved to Milan from London less than two years prior and, according to her card, was currently a Sustainability Officer <\/strong><\/a>for the Luxury Fashion House <\/strong>whose logo I had already spotted on the buttons of her blazer and her blingy earrings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSustainability Officer? Nice!\u201d I smiled, trying to sound more impressed than skeptical. \u201cThat sounds like a fun challenge\u201d.
She laughed. \u201cYes, let\u2019s say I have my work cut out for me. But seriously though\u2026would BIVIO be interested in looking at our \u2018seconds\u2019 stock? We have warehouses full of slight defects and one of my ideas was to reach out to second hand resellers and see if we couldn\u2019t organize a steady exit stream. Is that something BIVIO might be interested in doing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne-hundred percent,\u201d I said. \u201cBIVIO would love to talk exit streams for LFB\u201d (which is what I will call this Luxury Fashion Brand).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sipping our drinks, I explained to Elizabeth that for the startup period of BIVIO, we regularly bought \u201clightly defected\u201d goods from an international online reseller specializing in multi-brand past collections until their policy changed and they set a \u20ac20k minimum order <\/strong>for B2B customers. That wasn\u2019t \u201csustainable\u201d for us in 2013, when we only had one shop and were very cautious with our cash.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the main problem we might have with LFB would be price points.\u201d I knew that the blazer she was wearing retailed for upwards of 2k. And that BIVIO would sell it for less than \u00bc of that price if it ever came through our doors in nearly perfect condition <\/strong>\u2013\u00a0 less if it were missing buttons or a care label or had discoloring on the collar.
Elizabeth reassured me that she\u2019s shopped at BIVIO and knows our pricing well and finds it “refreshingly logical\u201d. \u201cLook,\u201d she says, sipping her prosecco and lowering her voice, \u201cWe are talking about literally thousands of items just sitting <\/em>in a warehouse for years.<\/em> \u201cMy main goal here is to get the usable items out of those boxes and into the marketplace. Right now it\u2019s just a passive cost for the brand. I\u2019m sure we can find solutions that work for both of us.\u201d I urged her to send an email as soon as possible and that I could make a visit to see their inventory literally any time she wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Almost five months later, on a cold, damp, grey January morning, after having exchanged no fewer than 15 emails with Elizabeth and other LFB employees across various departments, and after two appointments getting cancelled at the last minute, Marco and I finally managed to visit the LFB warehouse to see their sub-standard inventory. The warehouse was about 40 minutes away from the center of Milan, in the direction of the Malpensa airport. If you have ever been to a Flagship office of a Luxury Fashion Brand, or if you can imagine what one might look like in a Baroque Palazzo in the Historical Center of Milan, this was the exact opposite<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We arrived at 9.30 am. \u201cDress warmly,\u201d Elizabeth had suggested in an email. \u201cThe warehouses aren\u2019t heated.\u201d Marco and I were greeted by Elizabeth and her colleagues from the Defective Department (a name I invented but it renders the idea) who were already standing in the reception area when we arrived. We were given name tags and guest passes, had to leave our IDs at the front desk and weren\u2019t allowed to pull out our phones at any time. We politely declined the offer of vending machine espresso but Marco accepted a bottle of San Pellegrino. I virtue signaled by pulling a Yeti out of my bag and taking a generous sip. \u201cThis place is like a cross between the Pentagon and a morgue,\u201d<\/strong> I whispered to Marco. \u201cCan you imagine having to come here to work every day?\u201d he whispered back. \u201cNot exactly glamorous. But they do have San Pellegrino.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We walked several through cavernous rooms stacked to the ceiling with cardboard boxes on wooden pallets, where men wearing steel-toe boots and non-branded workwear moved things around and packed and unpacked items wrapped in plastic and beeped bar codes from stickers. The LFB logo, instantly recognizable to most Europeans over the age of twelve, was stamped on the boxes and on the plastic wrapping inside the boxes. We were led into an office where there were a dozen open boxes, all filled to the brim with items meticulously sealed in more plastic.<\/strong> Marco shot me a look; he knows how I feel about plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOk, so we put aside a selection from our seconds<\/em> category, so you can get an idea of the kinds of defects we\u2019re talking about here,\u201d Elizabeth said. \u201cYou said it would be best to start with accessories and leather goods, right? I also brought out some ready-to-wear but from the more basic categories so we could also get an idea of what might sell well with your customers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who don\u2019t know, defects are a huge issue for the entire fashion industry \u2013 most specifically for the luxury sector, whose very existence relies on the impression of perfection and scarcity.<\/strong> Brands that curate runway shows with strict VIP lists must meticulously monitor every aspect of the manufacturing process in order to avoid holes, snagged threads, crooked stitching or scratches on metallic hardware or leather. Despite their best efforts and cutting-edge assembly lines, mistakes are made. And these mistakes must be hidden from a demanding client base, yet also <\/a><\/strong>not be made easily available to consumers who may not be ideally positioned<\/em> to represent the label<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this where, a Sustainability Officer would hope, a second-hand retailer like BIVIO could enter the picture. The committed thrifter operates according to a very different consumer mindset than someone willing to pay twelve hundred euros for a pair of jeans. Theoretically, a customer who shops at BIVIO is more than happy to overlook a few minor flaws in order to snatch up a good-quality item at a fraction of the retail price. <\/strong>The whole purpose of our business is to convince consumers that scuffing on the soles of shoes, a pulled thread, a missing button or even a pen mark on a leather bag doesn\u2019t mean the end of its use \u2013 which is easier to achieve if an item carries the name of a sought-after brand. Since BIVIO has a steady supply of sellers who are ready to part with past season\u2019s pieces even from high-end labels, buying a couple hundred slightly defective pieces from LFB and spreading them out across four stores wouldn\u2019t cause any suspicion among shoppers that the items had come directly from the Maison <\/em>itself. Which is exactly what both BIVIO and LFB wanted to avoid in order to preserve our (opposite) brand identities.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco and I spent the next two hours doing quality checks and putting things aside in the yes or \u201cno\u201d pile, just like we do behind the buying counter in the shops. Jeans with a rivet missing, yes. Bags missing a logo charm on the zipper, yes. Sunglasses with cracked lenses, no. Bikini tops missing a bottom, no. Logo T-shirts with a tiny hole under the arm, yes. Logo T-shirts whose heat-applied print was already flaking off, no. Silk shirts with a few barely visible pulled threads, yes. Belts with busted buckles, no. Bathrobes without belts, yes. Single earrings, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

We paused when we got to a box of giant metal Stanley Cups, each individually wrapped in plastic and entirely bedazzled with Swarovski crystals with the LFH logo in contrasting crystals. There were several colorways. All of them had missing crystals. They were so heavy, even devoid of liquid, that I didn\u2019t understand how someone could walk around with one in their hand. <\/strong>I pulled one out and showed it to Elizabeth. \u201cOh wow, okay,\u201d I said. \u201cLFB is doing Stanley Cups now? How much does one of these retail for?\u201d \u201cMmmm, I think like \u20ac700 or something,\u201d she answered. Was that irony in her voice? I tried to keep a straight face. Marco and I each picked one up. \u201cI feel like this belongs by a rooftop pool in Dubai,\u201d I thought out loud. \u201cNo offense to the Style Office but, uh, I feel like this isn\u2019t really for Milan.\u201d A couple of people from the LFB Defective Department chuckled. Marco said he thought we could find buyers but we\u2019d probably lose too many crystals on the shop floors and also there was no way to attach an anti-theft tag. We politely declined the bedazzled Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

At the end of two hours, we had selected just under two hundred items for the LFB Defective Department to review before sending us a final price list. Marco and I had been extremely clear, both in the exchange of pre-visit emails, as well as during our selection process, at how much we would be willing to pay per each category. BIVIO has been doing this for so many years that we prefer to be super transparent about expectations before showing up to view items \u2013 especially when said visit requires a 40 minute drive to an unheated warehouse in the winter. It may sound counterintuitive, but more often than not sellers who work in the Fashion Industry accept our pricing more readily than \u201cend customers\u201d do \u2013 because they\u2019re the ones who know how much each item really costs to produce and how high the markups are.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


On our drive back to Milan, we tried to guess the actual quantity of deadstock actually contained in all those warehouses. We had probably seen an infinitesimal amount in those 12 boxes. \u201cIt\u2019s just insane<\/em> if you think of the resources that are wasted,\u201d<\/strong> Marco lamented, as our BIVIOmobile inched along the autostrada in midday traffic. \u201cNot even just the merchandise, but the boxes, the labels, the software, the personnel\u2026 think of all the salaries<\/em> going to just manage unsold inventory!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThe plastic\u2026 all that packaging\u2026I feel sick,\u201d I said. \u201cWe have to tell them we don\u2019t want all that packaging. I hope they don\u2019t wrap all the stuff back in plastic. What will we do <\/em>with it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, it was a problem we never had to address. After ten days, LFB hadn\u2019t yet sent us the price list. When I wrote a follow up email after two weeks, it took them another two weeks to reply. In the month that transpired it had become a widely known-industry secret that LFB was negotiating its sale to a Luxury Holding Company. Not for the first time, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Approved Price List finally did<\/em> arrive, they were much higher than what had been discussed. While retail prices for categories like designer bags are often 10 to 15 times their production costs (and markups are higher for items like belts and wallets)<\/strong>, the prices they were requesting would have barely allowed us to sell them at our ideal 3x. And since paying upfront for hundreds of flawed items from a single brand from a single supplier was already a risky move for a business like ours, we decided to politely decline the role of exit stream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been more than a year since we visited the Pentagon\/Morgue of LBF. This past February, the EU passed a law banning the destruction (by either shredding, burning or dumping in landfill) of unsold clothing and shoes.<\/a> <\/strong>While aimed at addressing the problem of over-production by large-scale \u201cfast\u201d fashion companies, the entire textile industry \u2013 including high-end brands like LDF \u2013\u00a0 is going to be looking carefully at how they manage their excess inventory, whether it\u2019s unsold remainders from past seasons or \u201cdefective\u201d merchandise.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I imagine there will be more Sustainability Officers being hired in the near future, and if I were a young(er) person with an interest in Fashion, I would most likely focus my talents less on trying to make new stuff and more on helping brands figure out what to do with the stuff they\u2019ve already made.<\/strong> Hell, if I were looking for a career change and didn\u2019t have such a phobia of plastic and packaging, I\u2019d probably be a great candidate for Chief <\/em>Sustainability Officer myself. But as things stand, I\u2019m grateful that the problem of re-homing thirty imperfectly bedazzled Stanley Cups doesn\u2019t fall on my shoulders.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The entrepreneurial part of my brain, however, did light up when I read the news about these new EU measures: maybe compliance will encourage LFB\u2019s Defective Department to reconsider their pricing? I should shoot Elizabeth another email and see if I can\u2019t negotiate an order of single earrings for our customers.<\/strong> Mismatched earrings are a thing now anyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least for a certain kind of imperfect aesthetic.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I met Elizabeth at a party on a September evening in 2024 when I had uncharacteristically remembered to stick a few business cards in my wallet before leaving the house. \u201cOoooh you\u2019re BIVIO!\u201d she smiled when our mutual friend, the host, introduced us. \u201cWe should absolutely have a chat.\u201d I looked down at her card […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bivio-backstories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11471"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11500,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11471\/revisions\/11500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biviomilano.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}