Dive Brief:

• Iconic Italian brand Fiorucci, which flourished in the 1970s and 80s in the U.K. and U.S. — and was a favorite of artist and tastemaker Andy Warhol — has relaunched, with an e-commerce site and a store in London’s SoHo district that opened Sept. 16, according to the company’s website. 

• The label was acquired two years ago by U.K. entrepreneur Janie Schaffer, who also once worked for Victoria’s Secret in the U.S., and her ex-husband Stephen Schaffer.

• The pop-inspired label was founded in Milan in 1965 by Elio Fiorucci, who innovated his super-skinny Buffalo jean in 1970 after partying in Ibiza, where women wore their jeans swimming and returned to the beach with them clinging to their skin, according to the brand’s Facebook page, though the Hollywood Reporter says he was inspired by swinging parties in London.

Dive Insight:

Fiorucci was always as much an aesthetic and an attitude as it was a fashion label, and the Schaffers appear to be determined to maintain that in their revamp.

Its latest designs and the company’s store seem to hold true to the original vibe, with bright clingy clothing and a roster of stars at its launch party. "Bright, colorful, sexy, and irreverent, Fiorucci came to define more than any other brand the fashion of the 1980s," according to a description of the brand by Rizzoli, which is publishing a book on its first 50 years. "Famous for scouring the world to bring vibrant elements of global underground culture into their designs, Fiorucci is responsible for defining the extravagant palette of the post-punk era, with neon and fluorescent tones, iridescent spandex and stretch denim, bringing the influences of pop art and pop culture to bear on fashion for the first time." 

It’s a tricky move, bringing back a label that was so particular to a specific subculture of society. But Fiorucci also did make it into the mainstream, with locations in upscale malls worldwide, and made fans of teenagers who had never heard of Warhol or i-D, the outré U.K. magazine that was closely associated with the brand.

The London store also has a café, and its opening follows, along with its website, successful pop-ups in both New York and London, at department stores Barney's and Selfridges.