Liu Jo

Liu Jo was founded in 1995 in Carpi, a town in Italy's Modena province long established as a manufacturing center for textiles and knitwear, by brothers Marco and Vannis Marchi. The brand's name is built from nicknames rather than the founders' own surname: 'Jo' was Marco Marchi's own nickname, and 'Liu' belonged to a friend from his youth, combined into a single invented brand word rather than a family name presented as a signature, unlike many Italian fashion houses of the same era. The label built its early identity around denim, positioning jeans as its core product rather than one line among many, before broadening into a fuller ready-to-wear assortment as the brand grew. Carpi's existing textile infrastructure — workshops and suppliers already set up for garment manufacturing — gave the young label a practical production base close to home rather than requiring it to build manufacturing capacity from scratch. In 2008 Liu Jo marked a specific commercial turning point, becoming the first fashion brand to run a television commercial built around a single jeans style, its 'Bottom Up' cut, designed with a silhouette-enhancing rear seam construction. That campaign is credited with pushing Liu Jo from a regional Italian label into broader international recognition, and the brand has since expanded into accessories and footwear alongside its core denim and ready-to-wear lines.