Bally is a Swiss luxury fashion house, established in 1851 by Carl Franz Bally and his brother Fritz in

Schönenwerd Schönenwerd is a municipality in the district of Olten in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. History Schönenwerd is first mentioned in 778 as ''Werith''. Geography Schönenwerd has an area, , of . Of this area, or 10.5% is used for ...

Solothurn Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; rm, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the Capital (political), capital of the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. It is located in the n ...

, as Bally & Co. Historically known for its shoes, the house also specializes in bags, accessories, and ready-to-wear.

History

Bally was founded as a shoe making business in 1851 by Carl Franz Bally and his brother Fritz in the basement of their family home in

, Switzerland. Carl Franz Bally had joined the family business, a silk ribbon manufacturer, when he was 17, but decided to go into shoe manufacturing after a stay in Paris. After Carl's death in 1899, the company continued under the management of Carl's sons, Eduard and Arthur and continued to manufacture about two million pairs of shoes a year, employing 3,200 people.

Modern era

In 2008, TPG Capital sold Bally International AG to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

-based

Labelux Group JAB Holding Company ("JAB" or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, forestry, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast foo ...

, a luxury goods holding firm which previously owned

Jimmy Choo Ltd Jimmy Choo is a British high-end luxury fashion house specialising in shoes, handbags, accessories and fragrances. The company, J. Choo Limited, was founded in 1996 by Malaysian Chinese couture shoe designer Jimmy Choo and British ''Vogue'' ac ...

, and was founded by the German billionaire Reimann family as part of the family’s investment arm Joh A. Benckiser. Headquartered in

Caslano Caslano is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the Swiss canton of Ticino, near to the Italian border. History The center of the village is built within a Roman era fortification. While no trace of the actual fortification still exists, ...

Ticino Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...

, Switzerland, the company announced Frédéric de Narp, a former executive at

Harry Winston Harry Winston (March 1, 1896December 8, 1978) was an American jeweler. He donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade. He also traded the Portuguese Diamond to the Smithsonian in 1963 in exchan ...

, would become its chief executive officer in November 2013. In February 2018, owner

JAB Holding Company JAB Holding Company ("JAB" or Joh. A. Benckiser) is a German conglomerate, headquartered in Luxembourg, that includes investments in companies operating in the areas of consumer goods, forestry, coffee, luxury fashion, animal health, and fast foo ...

agreed to sell a majority controlling stake to Chinese materials conglomerate

Shandong Ruyi Shandong Ruyi Technology Group Co., Ltd is a Chinese textiles and clothing company. Founded in 1972 in Jining, China, it is a subsidiary of Jining Ruyi Investment Co., Ltd. As of 2017, Ruyi Group was the largest textile manufacturer in China. I ...

. In May 2019, Bally appointed its COO Nicolas Girotto, who joined the company in October 2015 and sat on the brand's board of directors and executive committee, as new CEO. In January 2022, Rhuigi Villaseñor was appointed as creative director. Rhuigi was previously founder, CEO, and creative director of the luxury streetwear brand Rhude.

Boutiques

As of January 2020, Bally's retail network includes 311 boutiques, with 500 multi-brand points of sale spanning 66 countries.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Shoe brands High fashion brands Luxury brands Swiss brands Manufacturing companies of Switzerland Manufacturing companies established in 1851 Retail companies established in 1873 Swiss companies established in 1851 Companies based in the canton of Solothurn