While the Italian Police is celebrating its fortieth anniversary, it continues to proudly carry the title of “fashion icon” globally with its trendsetting collections.
De Rigo brothers…
An Italian legend, Police dates back to 1978, when the De Rigo brothers founded Charme Lunettes in Belluno, Limana. This small company started with a staff of just thirty people, initially to produce optical frames and sunglasses for other companies. Ennio and Walter soon replaced Charme Lunettes with De Rigo, which bears their surname, and continued to produce prescription glasses and sunglasses under the De Rigo brand.
Five years later, in 1983, the De Rigo brothers decided to launch their first collection of designer sunglasses. Their aim was to take ideas and trends from the fashion world and bring them to the sunglasses market in a way they had never done before. The De Rigo brothers wanted to offer the best functional designs, with a sophisticated and unique style to inspire new trends and update the market with a new collection every year.
Police is born
In line with this goal, the Police brand, which met with the world of optics and fashion, started to offer premium quality sunglasses for both men and women with a street style inspired by the American lifestyle, and the brand soon succeeded in standing out with its strong personality. Police sunglasses were designed for young people who were a bit bold, a bit rebellious and always trying to express their unconventionality, either by age or lifestyle. This feature of the Police was revolutionary because sunglasses were no longer only meant to protect the wearer’s eyes, they were also becoming a fashion accessory. Throughout the 1980s, Police sunglasses were always on the cutting edge of fashion. The Italian brand’s designs gained worldwide fame and transformed the necessity sunglasses into a true fashion statement.
Strengthened by innovative ideas
Police has always kept its close ties with the fashion world up to date. It has chosen to be open to new ideas in the fashion industry. To this end, Police organized a sunglasses congress called “Sun-Day” in Venice in 1993, bringing together the worlds of optics and fashion. Police was the first sunglasses brand to use this unusual and creative format, which was a major innovation. The Italy-based brand still organizes this congress every year in various countries around the world.
Police expanded its operations in Germany and Austria in 1988 and in France in 1992 in order to respond to market demand worldwide and especially in Europe. In the next few years, the brand made significant progress with its collections and collaborations that brought together optics and fashion. The 1995 collaboration with the International Football Federation (FIFA) is an ideal example of how the brand strengthened its global position.
Police perfumes, watches…
Setting out with the aim of inspiring and shaping new trends, Police continued to respond to the demands and requests of the sunglasses market with its modern, vibrant, dynamic and metropolitan eyewear collections. In 1997, Police decided to expand its service area by adding perfumes to its product range. The brand launched its first perfume, Police Original, in the same year. Police’s entry into the perfume market coincides with the millennium trend of world-famous stars launching their own perfumes. For this reason, Police was able to become extremely popular in a short period of time with its first perfume for the young and ever-youthful consumers.
While continuing to shape optical trends with its eyewear and launching new perfumes one after the other, Police added watches to its product range in 2003, which would make a huge impact on the market. The brand developed its watch collections to promote a cosmopolitan lifestyle for fashion-conscious, non-conformist individuals who decide to keep their own time. Compared to other watches on the market, Police watches have an original and unique style and have quickly gained great acclaim thanks to their wide range of styles and individuality. From sophisticated designs to bold punk style, Police watch collections have quickly gained worldwide attention.
Close relations with Hollywood…
Police has also appeared in important Hollywood movies with its watches. The brand expanded its popularity as the official watch supplier of the world-famous action movie series such as Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genysis with watches with names like “Beast Watch” and “Commander”. The fact that Police is the official timepiece supplier of a high-end action movie like Terminator is not surprising as it reflects the brand’s positioning over the years and its dynamic and youthful spirit. Police has once again succeeded in pleasing its action-loving young audience with watches that are compatible with the character of the famous movie series. In this way, the brand’s movie connections continued to multiply in the following years. Police collaborated with world-renowned action filmmakers for movies such as 2016’s Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2017’s Justice League, Men In Black, International and Batman. Through the stories of iconic superheroes for whom limited edition collections were designed, Police has brought its values, style and vision to fans around the world.
Police becomes a lifestyle…
Since 2008, Police’s retail strategy has focused mainly on the Middle East and the Chinese market, in addition to opening new shop-in-shops in the most important department stores. These stores reflect the essence of the Police lifestyle and serve to reinforce the brand image as a whole and the metropolitan attitude of the brand. In the 2000s, Police further strengthened its identity and recognition, adding jewelry to its product lines in 2005 and small leather goods and apparel collections in 2011. Police has always managed to be one of the rising brands because it always offers collections that are in line with its founding vision and core values, and each new product it adds to its collections aims to influence trends. For this reason, Police takes great care to ensure that its accessories for its users are of excellent quality to help them emphasize their unique style and personality. It is precisely thanks to this idealistic approach that the Police brand has maintained its popularity among world-renowned names and fashion icons.
Brand faces…
Police has an original, unique and stylish identity, and over the years many famous Italians from around the world have lined up to become the face of the brand. The license agreement that Police signed with FIFA in 1995 represented only the beginning of the world the brand would become part of. In 1998, the year of the World Cup in France, Police chose AC Milan and Italy’s world-class defender Paolo Maldini as the face of its advertising campaign. Wearing a stylish pair of Police sunglasses in the campaign, Maldini was a surprisingly popular name for an Italian fashion brand’s advertising campaign. Unfortunately, Italy failed to take home the World Cup that year, losing to France on penalties in the quarterfinals. Although Italy did not take home the World Cup with its national team, it won the optical fashion trophy with Police.
The following year, Police teamed up with action star Bruce Willis, who starred in that year’s blockbuster movie The Sixth Sense. The world-famous Hollywood actor Bruce Willis continued to be the face of the brand until 2002. In 2002, George Clooney became the new ambassador of the brand, thanks to his fame, which was strengthened by the world-famous TV series ER and the movie Oceans Eleven. In 2004, David Beckham became the face of Police. David Beckham was one of Real Madrid’s Galacticos at the time, and although he was often mentioned alongside superstars such as Zinedine Zidane and Brazilian Ronaldo, he was certainly the most famous face of the team. David Beckham is also a fashion icon, appearing in ads for Police until 2007.
After Antonio Banderas, another famous Hollywood actor, became the face of Police in 2007 and Atsushi became the Japanese brand ambassador, Police decided to look for a different flavor in their next ambassador. In 2010, Police launched the Be Younique campaign to find the new face of the brand, looking for someone unique and original to tell their story. After reviewing thousands of applications, Andrea Garbolino, an unknown Italian from Settimo Torinese, was chosen as the new face of Police. Police attaches great importance to collaborations with the football world and in 2013, when the World Cup was held in Brazil, the brand chose Brazilian striker Neymar Jr. as the new face of the brand. In 2019, Police signed a cooperation agreement with another world-famous athlete, British F1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton, making Hamilton the brand ambassador.
Police’s Spirit..
Born in the 80s, a period when music, style and attitude defined who you were, Police argues that your accessories play as big a role in revealing your personality as what you listen to and what you wear. Being an ambassador of modern life with its timeless style and originality reflects Police’s core values. Blending innovative designs with classics in its collections, Police continues to go beyond fashion without compromising its personality. Police recognizes that functionality alone is no longer enough and that people are in search of boldness, style and character, and aims to offer its users products that represent them. Inspired by freedom, courage and strong personalities, Police collections ideally fulfill people’s need to express themselves in their own unique style. Police creates collections for real and authentic individuals who refuse to live according to labels, traditions and rules. From the very beginning, Police has positioned itself in the mid to high market segment, effortlessly making a place for itself everywhere in the world with its free, sincere, entrepreneurial, rebellious yet emotional character. Police’s uniquely developed street style is captivating not only young people but also those who prefer to stay young in the international arena.
Police is 40 years old!
From the first year it was founded until 2023, when it celebrates its fortieth anniversary, the brand is known as a “fashion icon” not only among its users but also in the world of fashion and celebrities. The fact that the sunglasses with blue mirrored lenses launched in the nineties quickly became a global trend is just one example of why the brand deserves the title “fashion icon”. The eagle logo, the symbol of freedom, on the sunglasses with blue mirrored lenses still represents the unique spirit of the brand today.
While the brand continues to grow successfully with its sunglasses, optical and children’s collections in eyewear, it also makes millions of people talk about its wide range of fashion accessories that represent lifestyle such as perfumes, watches, jewelry and leather goods. Police products, which shape trends, reach their followers in all major cities in different countries around the world. Police appeals to those who are young and always young, modern, fashionable, full of personality, full of life, dynamic and metropolitan lifestyle. Today, Police exports the concept of style and daring to 100 countries around the world, creating exclusive collections that speak the language of their communities, wherever they are. From Asia to Europe, from Central America to Africa, Police sets borders aside and spreads its legend to the masses.
April 2023
