MondeVita’s AI-Powered Gambit to Build a New Italian Luxury Empire

MILAN, ITALY – August 05, 2026 – In a move that signals a tectonic shift in the architecture of luxury, MondeVita has acquired a majority stake in Underscore District, the Milan-based accelerator behind some of Italy’s most exciting new fashion voices, including the LVMH Prize-winning label Magliano. The deal is more than a simple acquisition; it is the second, and arguably most critical, piece in a meticulously constructed puzzle. MondeVita is building a new type of Italian luxury platform, one that weds the nation’s storied craftsmanship with the formidable power of proprietary artificial intelligence.

This transaction follows the group's earlier acquisition of Raffaele Caruso S.p.A., a legacy menswear manufacturer. Where the Caruso deal secured the industrial “hardware”—the artisanal hands and production lines—this latest move provides the essential “software”: brand development, cultural currency, and a direct line to the consumer. By bringing Underscore’s portfolio, which includes technical workwear label GR10K and the influential retailer WOK Store, under its roof, MondeVita is assembling a vertically integrated ecosystem designed not just to compete, but to redefine the rules of the game.

The Blueprint for a Hybrid Giant

For decades, the luxury landscape has been dominated by towering conglomerates that grew by acquiring established heritage brands. MondeVita, the luxury arm of Abu Dhabi’s Mondevo Group, is pursuing a different, more granular strategy. It is building its foundation from the ground up, combining the pillars of modern luxury—manufacturing, brand creation, retail, and technology—into a single, cohesive structure.

The acquisition of Caruso in late 2024 gave the group an industrial anchor in Soragna, Italy, with nearly 500 artisans and a history of producing for some of the biggest names in fashion. It was a statement of intent, grounding the ambitious venture in the tangible reality of Italian tailoring. But manufacturing prowess alone does not create a global brand. That requires a deep understanding of culture, merchandising, and the subtle art of storytelling.

This is where Underscore District, founded just four years ago by the entrepreneurial Edoardo Di Luzio, becomes the lynchpin. In a short time, Di Luzio has created a formidable engine for nurturing nascent talent. The crown jewel is Magliano, a brand that has captured the industry’s imagination with its soulful, deconstructed take on Italian masculinity. By securing Underscore, MondeVita isn't just buying a portfolio with over €7 million in 2025 sales; it's acquiring an entire methodology for identifying and scaling the next generation of creative businesses. As part of the deal, Di Luzio will not only continue as CEO of Underscore but will also take on a strategic role at MondeVita, ensuring his brand-building DNA is infused into the parent company’s future investments.

“This transaction adds capabilities that money alone cannot build quickly: brand development, retail and a direct line to the culture that shapes fashion,” said Fabio Brambilla, chairman of MondeVita. The group now controls the entire value chain, from the workshops of Caruso to the curated retail floors of WOK Store, creating a closed-loop system that offers immense strategic advantages in a volatile market.

The AI Edge in a Game of Giants

What truly sets MondeVita’s strategy apart from its competitors is its invisible, yet all-powerful, third pillar: technology. Operating out of Singapore, the group’s technology arm, Mondevo Tech, runs a proprietary AI platform named “Ittikar,” staffed by 50 engineers and 120 AI coding agents. This is not the outsourced, off-the-shelf AI that many corporations bolt onto their operations; it is a foundational, in-house capability that permeates every facet of the business.

The most immediate impact, as highlighted by Mondevo Group chairman Hussam Otaibi, is speed. “Because our agentic AI, Ittikar, lets us analyse and complete due diligence on a deal in days rather than weeks or months, we can move on the right opportunities faster than anyone in this market,” he stated. In the fast-paced world of M&A, this agility provides a profound competitive advantage, allowing MondeVita to act decisively while others are still mired in analysis.

But the platform’s potential extends far beyond deal-making. An “AI-native” luxury group can deploy intelligent systems across the entire value chain. This could mean using AI to analyze market trends and inform design directions for Magliano, optimizing production runs at Caruso to minimize waste, personalizing the client experience at WOK Store’s e-commerce site, or forecasting global demand with unprecedented accuracy. By owning its technology stack, MondeVita can create efficiencies and unlock insights that remain inaccessible to rivals reliant on third-party solutions. It represents a fundamental rewiring of the luxury operating model, treating data and algorithms as assets as valuable as leather and silk.

Nurturing Creativity in a Consolidating World

Amidst the strategic maneuvers and technological ambitions, the central question remains: what does this mean for the creative spark at the heart of these brands? The history of luxury is littered with cautionary tales of promising young labels being acquired and subsequently diluted by corporate imperatives. MondeVita appears keenly aware of this risk.

“Italy keeps producing the most original creative voices in fashion. We are building the platform that lets them grow at home, with the resources to compete globally,” Otaibi explained. The vision is not one of assimilation, but of empowerment. For a designer like Luca Magliano, the partnership promises access to Caruso's world-class manufacturing base, liberating him from the production constraints that often hamstring independent brands. It offers the capital and infrastructure needed for international expansion while, in theory, preserving the creative autonomy that made the brand successful in the first place.

Edoardo Di Luzio echoed this sentiment, emphasizing that the partnership allows his team “to bring that model to a different scale while preserving the identity and independence of the businesses we work with.” The success of this new conglomerate will hinge on its ability to navigate this delicate balance—to provide the structural support of a major group without imposing a rigid, creativity-stifling bureaucracy. It's a model that could become a compelling alternative for independent founders navigating a landscape marked by a sector-wide slowdown and increasing pressure to join larger entities.

MondeVita’s acquisition of Underscore District is a calculated bet made during a period of market uncertainty, a moment the group views as a “rare opportunity” to assemble complementary assets for the future. By weaving together Italian craftsmanship, entrepreneurial brand-building, and advanced AI, it is drafting a new blueprint for a 21st-century luxury powerhouse. This is not merely another deal in the ongoing consolidation of Italian fashion; it is the beginning of a fascinating experiment to see if a company can be both a titan of industry and a true patron of creativity.