The California Brand Outfitting Euro Summer

The brand that wardrobes Euro-summer started with a Gwyneth Paltrow movie. But no, not that one. “ I was sick in bed one day watching Great Expectations, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, these DKNY costumes are so insane. I wish I could wear things like that today,’" says designer Lucy Akin. “At the time, the industry had really gravitated towards street wear, and I just felt like we were missing that feminine, effortless opportunity.”

Enter Ciao Lucia, the secret power behind summer dressing. “I designed six pieces of samples — we're talking like no labels, no care labels, very sample-y,” says Akin, then owner of Shop Super Street boutique in LA when the Paltrow-inspo struck in 2017. “And they sold out. A friend at Vogue called being like, ‘What is this?’ And I was like, ‘Okay, give me six months, and I can make them a real thing.’ And then it took off from there.”

Nearly a decade in, the momentum has yet to slow down. Following the success of best-selling dress styles the Gabriela and Gianluca, the brand has been worn by everyone from Hailey Bieber and Olivia Rodrigo to Paltrow herself; collaborated with the likes of K.Jacques, Rixo, and, as of this week, éliou; and even made a few appearances on The White Lotus.

Here, Akin shares how she built the brand of the summer, and what’s still to come.

When you look back on your six original designs for Ciao, how do they compare to what we know as the brand now?

Honestly, what's crazy is we still look back at that first six piece collection and we still try to remake that magic. There was a long sleeve silk top with just a single button at the bust, and then you had this great slit wrap skirt that would be paired back to it. That was our best-selling look. And then we had a ‘90s slip that did really well, and it was those three pieces were what people wanted at the time, and still want.

With that collection, when did you have your moment of "This is a real thing, and we are making a brand?”

I started building out the collection more. I would put those pieces in the boutique, and it got to the point where it started to take away from the sales of my other brands I was stocked with, and so I was losing lots of money on that. And so I was like, "Oh god, I really need to be taking Ciao Lucia seriously now. I really need to go into this full time." Buyers from different areas were coming in specifically for Ciao, just to see it in person and buy it. And then later, when we did a pop-up in New York in 2021, and the first day there was a three-block line to get in, that's when I was like, “Holy shit.” That was awesome.

So many years in now, what are the core tenets of the brand that we continue to see with each collection?

I am such a movie girl. I'm a film person. There's these films that I constantly watch for that 1960s nostalgia, and it just kind of usually will get my creative juices going; Rosemary's Baby, To Catch a Thief, The Graduate. The women in these movies are not super done, but they just have that “you want to be them” quality. That's what we're always just trying to get after and reach for.

Then you also have the best-sellers that you have season after season.

The Gabriela came out in 2019, so we're five years later and we still love her. When I first designed Ciao, what I knew what I really wanted it to be was just something that could fit multiple body types. So that's kind of why the Gianluca and the Gabriela work so well because it's super adjustable. It's elastic at the waist, so it expands and contracts for whatever body it's on, and it looks cute on a female body. It's easy.

It’s so easy, which is why I think so many people really associate the brand with summer and aspirational summer goals of vacationing in Europe, even if you’re really just at home.

I've grown up in California, I never did real winters, so I'm not the most qualified person to design a winter collection. That's really what ended up happening. And then, of course, when you're creatively thinking, you're just taking yourself to the most beautiful places in your head.

What are your thoughts on this idea of “Euro-summer” becoming such a trend?

It kind of worries me. I'm like, “Are we going to burn out on this trend?” But that's kind of what Instagram is for. It's like voyeurism to another place. During COVID, we tripled our business because while no one could travel, you could just kind of get a taste of it by buying Ciao.

For you, who is the Ciao girl? Who's your main shopper and how does she style the dresses?

I'm always trying to design for everyone, which means not dumbing it down, but making it more commercial. And then I always get surprised by our customer. Because she's very forward-thinking and fashionable. We've got this dress for summer that is a drop waist, A-line, little slip dress, and I think that's kind of probably a more forward-thinking trend right now. And it's one of our bestsellers. Our customer really is a very cool New York girl for the most part. And I think they style it in the best way possible where they just keep it simple and pair it back to a really great pair of sandals and call it a day.

What have been some of your favorite moments of women of influence wearing the collection?

Hailey was definitely the big one. I was really, really excited about that. Other than that, Kaia Gerber wears it a lot, andI just love that we have a celebrity who wants it all the time rather than just that singular moment that happens. Obviously The White Lotus was insane.

Did you know that Piper [Sarah Catherine Hook] would be wearing Ciao?

Alex the stylist for the show reached out ahead of season three and was like, “Can we get some pieces in Thailand?” I sent her 12 samples from our spring collection of last year because this is so far back. And at the end of filming, she reached out and said, "We used some pieces." She obviously couldn't tell me what because of privacy on the show, so I had no idea that it was going to be three dresses across multiple episodes and kind of a main focus point of the episodes.

Were you watching live?

I wasn't because I have children. But the first dress that really hit was the yacht episode, and it was insane because my phone just started dinging, dinging, dinging, and I was like, "Uh, what's going on?” It was insane. I was texting my production manager telling them to put more of the dress for sale. And by the end of the night we were just like, “Holy shit, what just happened doesn't happen ever.”

Did you see an immediate bump?

We restocked the dress twice that night. I've never seen this type of conversion with any celebrity placement, PR placement. This type of press, I've never seen it in my life. Most of the time when you get a placement, it's never going to be checking all the boxes of the perfect placement. But in this case, it was like she's on a boat, she's in Thailand. And it's like an adorable actress that looks great in the dress. 45 minutes of airtime in the dress. It was insane.

Do you yourself have any fun summer plans, Euro or otherwise?

I'm going to a dude ranch in Wyoming in August. So maybe that will be the new Ciao vibe.