Adolfo Dominguez S.A. - Expanding the Family Store in the 1970s

Expanding the Family Store in the 1970s

Adolfo Dominguez, Sr., opened a tailor's shop in Orense, Spain in the early 1950s, and remained a small, family-owned affair into the 1970s. By then, the elder Dominguez established a strong reputation in the Orense region for the quality of his men's suits.

Yet, the death of Adolfo Dominguez, Sr., in the mid-1970s placed the family-owned business at a crossroads. Dominquez's eldest son Adolfo Dominguez Fernandes had until then exhibited more interest for cinema and literature than for clothing, and had gone on to study filmmaking, and spent time in London. Yet, after his father's death, Dominguez returned to Orense and took over the business. As Dominguez told the Daily News Record: "I didn't have a special vocation to be a designer. I loved literature, art and cinema, but I realized that you had to do something in order to live, so I decided to become an entrepreneur."

Dominguez decided to extend the company's business beyond just tailoring. In 1976, Dominguez established a new clothing business, Adolfo Dominguez, specializing in high-end, although somewhat classically styled, men's clothing designs. Dominguez, then just 25, was joined by wife Elena, who became an important part of the young company's design team.

Dominguez's production at first targeted Spain's multi-brand retailers. The company sold its clothing through third-party commercial agents who brought its designs to the country's stores, and its shoppers. Into the 1980s, the company began to acquire a name for itself among Spanish consumers, and its reputation for the high quality of its clothing grew.

At the time, the designer brand trend had not yet taken hold in Spain. Dominguez became an industry pioneer, especially in his willingness to use advertising to establish the brand. In 1982, the company launched a highly successful advertising campaign, proclaiming that "wrinkles are beautiful." As a result, the Dominguez name became one of the most recognized names in high-end fashion in Spain.

The campaign coincided with Dominguez's launch into the retail sector. In 1982, Dominguez opened its first store in Madrid—becoming one of the first Spanish design houses to place its name on its own shop. The success of that opening, backed by the enthusiastic response to the company's advertising campaign, encouraged the company to open a second store in Barcelona by the end of that year.

Into the mid-1980s, Dominguez continued to play the role of Spanish fashion pioneer. Not content with its expanding sales in Spain, the company became determined to launch itself as an international design label. For this, the company turned toward the fashion capitals of London, Paris, and New York, opening designer showrooms in each market. The Paris store was the first to open, in 1985, followed soon after by the others. The company also began promoting its label to other retailers. In Italy, for example, the company placed its designs in more than 100 stores. The United States proved much more difficult to crack, however, and by the end of the decade, the company decided to shut its New York store.

If Dominguez's designs failed to inspire the Americans, the company had much more luck with the Japanese. In 1986, the company signed a two-year licensing agreement with Japan's Taka-Q to import the Dominguez label into that country. The agreement with Taka-Q turned into a full-scale partnership, as Taka-Q began opening the first franchised stores in Japan. In 1988, the two companies renewed their agreement, and Taka-Q added some 16 Adolfo Dominguez stores to its network.