Advancing the co-existence of boundless creativity, purpose-driven responsibility and sustainable growth
Origin
Founded in 2020, Vanguards was brought to life by Péter Baldaszti (co-owner of Nanushka) and investment firm GB & Partners. At Vanguards, we are committed to nurturing founder-led creative vision by developing tailored strategies that boldly scale commercial ambition. It is what drives our pursuit of connecting with the new luxury market, and the audience who navigate in it.
With headquarters across Milan, London and Budapest, Vanguards is led by an influential roster of international industry veterans who combine extensive experience from having scaled some of the world’s most reputable luxury brands, with the agile entrepreneurial background of founders. To date, our work has led to three exciting fashion houses joining the Group. Started with Nanushka, Vanguards has gone on to invest in Budapest-based womenswear label AERON in early 2020, followed by a majority stake acquisition of experimental Milanese men’s and womenswear brand SUNNEI in December of that year.
In the rapidly-evolving fashion and lifestyle space, Vanguards continues to identify and invest in brands whose universes have no limits, push the industry into new territories, and forward as a whole.
Mission
By advancing the co-existence of boundless creativity, purpose-driven responsibility and sustainable growth, Vanguards pioneers where luxury goes next
At Vanguards, we build from the ground up. The brands within our portfolio understand that to be culturally credible in the direct future, collaboration needs to be at our core. We believe that the future of fashion investment should operate in this new luxury space where the conventional makeup of luxury is ever evolving. Here, luxury is democratized, is unapologetically inclusive, has a community-first approach, and puts responsibility at the forefront.
We also understand the importance of cross-pollinating content and commerce, of operating global but still local, looking outside of our own market segment, and always having a finger on the pulse of culture. It’s a vision which unites those within our brand portfolio.
By providing best-in-class commercial, financial and strategic guidance to brands who operate across the fashion, beauty and lifestyle spaces, our relentless pursuit of building out the iconic brands of tomorrow has never changed.
Getting there means combining the expertise of big fashion groups with the agility of industry-leading experts, backed by the foundational support of institutional investors — always with the utmost respect for creative autonomy.
By advancing the co-existence of boundless creativity, purpose-driven responsibility and sustainable growth, Vanguards pioneers where luxury goes next.
Values
a. Deliver Best-in-Class Value
Uniting our brands across the board is a shared belief that quality reigns supreme, every time. To engage with today’s new luxury audience, we strongly believe that product needs to be best-in-class, our service uncompromised, and the experience we convey always reflects our community.
b. Empower the Entrepreneur
At Vanguards, we merge the worlds of creative entrepreneurs, institutional investors and industry experts. As experienced luxury executives, we have a strong understanding of the challenges and opportunities that come with building new ventures. What drives us is a deep-rooted ambition to overcome the barriers that block our brands’ creative vision. It’s been our mindset from the very beginning.
c. Champion Innovation
It is our conviction that the creative core of a brand is its most important asset and should therefore always be protected, nurtured, and built upon sustainably. To harness this creativity for the future means putting an equal emphasis on cultural literacy and the adoption of the newest innovations across design, production, technology, content, and retail. Expanding a brand’s universe in a way it was always meant to grow.
d. Build Future-Proof Responsible Solutions
We believe that for our industry to make a genuine positive impact, sustainable solutions are open-sourced. Therefore the expertise and practices, and the responsibility policies and commitments — to both environment and people — of our individual brands are leveraged cross-group. This includes sustainable supplier sources, regulatory compliance and innovation practices.
How we build
At Vanguards, we believe that the future of fashion investment includes bridging the expertise of established fashion groups with the agility of in-the-know-experts, backed by the foundational support of institutional investors.
Unique Model
We build out brands by providing them with a horizontal and vertical framework that with the guidance of high-level experts empowers the creative vision of brand founders. We operate Vanguards as a plug-and-grow platform that caters to each brands’ individual needs and build capabilities to succeed independently. We believe in long-term thinking and encourage brands to grow responsibly.
Entrepreneurial Experience
We offer in-depth knowledge and unique experience around the ambitions and ever-changing challenges brands face in their important growth phase. To profitably accelerate brands to global success at their own pace, we offer best-in-class categoric strategy from industry leading experts.
Target Scope
We target leading fashion and lifestyle brands in the untapped €1-20 million annual revenue space, with the strong potential of scaling the businesses to a €50 million plus range. We operate in the sweet spot where brands are considered too big for smaller investors, and too small for the big funds.