La Martina

La Martina is an Argentine clothing and lifestyle company built around the sport of polo. Lando Simonetti founded it in Buenos Aires in 1985 as a maker of equipment for professional players [2]. From saddles and boots it grew into a sportswear and leisure label that Wikipedia describes as a luxury Argentine sports and leisure clothing manufacturer.

The name also reaches the beauty shelf through a line of perfumes. Fragrances carrying the La Martina name have appeared since 2007, and a community perfume database lists 41 releases with a known year [6]. The company's own presentation, however, centres on apparel, accessories and technical polo gear. It remains active, with seasonal collections running into 2026.

Simonetti, an Argentine of Italian origin, had built a career in the fashion industry in the United States before moving back to Argentina in 1985 [4]. A keen polo player in his youth, he saw an opening in equipment made for professionals. He started with leather saddles and boots, then added shirts and caps. To underline the brand's Argentine roots, about 65 per cent of its materials were sourced locally, according to a Financial Times case study.

Accounts of who founded the company differ. The brand's own history credits Lando Simonetti alone [2]. An exhibitor profile at the Pitti Immagine Uomo trade fair names Lando Simonetti and Gachi Ferrari together [7]. On the company website, Gachi Ferrari appears among the members of the Simonetti family rather than as a co-founder. The English-language Wikipedia article is inconsistent with itself: its infobox gives Michel Pieron as founder, while its main text says La Martina was founded by Lando Simonetti [3]. Most accounts, including trade press, name Simonetti.

With a small marketing budget, Simonetti leaned on word of mouth and on events. He set up an affiliated company, the Polo Management Group, to run large polo tournaments around the world in partnership with the label.

The 1990s brought the brand's first public landmarks. According to the company, it formed a high-handicap polo team (in polo, a higher handicap marks a stronger player), opened La Casona, a flagship concept store in Buenos Aires, and became official outfitter of the Polo World Cup.

Growth followed as polo clothing moved into fashion. As of 2000 the company reported sales of $1.2 million and was already selling over the internet. WWD later wrote that the brand shot to international fame in the early 2000s. By the time of the Financial Times case study in 2012, annual sales had passed $200 million [4].

Popularity also attracted copies. In 2009 German police seized 20 tons of counterfeit clothing after buyers complained that the La Martina holograms on shirts bought through eBay washed off [3].

In 2010 La Martina signed a global licensing agreement with Guards Polo Club in the United Kingdom, the club most closely associated with the British royal family. The company credits that deal with making its Military Jacket known worldwide, and describes itself as the club's official clothing partner, with a store a few metres from the Royal Box.

The fashion boom created a dilemma. Fashion promised much faster growth, while the polo market was small: about 20,000 professional players worldwide and 30,000 casual ones, mainly in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and the US. Simonetti worried that European distribution had become too broad, especially in Italy, where local licensees were pushing the label towards pure fashion.

His answer, as described in the Financial Times case study, was to restore the focus on polo and pursue what he called "quality volume" [4]. He cut the number of European distributors, ended the agreement with his Italian partners and set up a company in Switzerland to manage European operations. Retail was refocused on flagship stores in cities such as Milan, Rome and Madrid and in summer resorts such as St Tropez, Capri and Sylt, along with branded corners in department stores including Harrods. At the time of the study, sales in Europe and Latin America were growing by more than 20 per cent a year.

The brand opened its first store in London in 2015.

A new phase began in January 2025, when La Martina named Antonella Di Pietro as its first creative director [5]. A former chief brand strategist at Tod's and creative director at Tommy Hilfiger owner PVH, she presented her first collection, for fall 2025, during Milan Men's Fashion Week. WWD described the move as part of a retooling and upscaling strategy. In 2026 the brand released a spring capsule collection with the streetwear label Supreme and the jeweller Jacob & Co.

Wikipedia lists La Martina as a private company [3]. No outside parent company or acquisition is documented. The brand presents itself as a family business, and its website quotes the family as saying they built the brand and earned respect "with what we had as a family".

Sources differ on who leads the company today. The brand's website says La Martina is now run under the leadership of Adrian Simonetti [2]. In January 2025, WWD described founder Lando Simonetti as the current chief executive officer [5].

The location of the company's headquarters is also given in two ways. Wikipedia places it in Buenos Aires, while the Financial Times case study describes a separate Swiss company set up to manage European operations, and the brand's Swiss online shop carries a Swiss VAT number. The two descriptions are not necessarily in conflict: Argentina is the brand's origin, and Switzerland hosts its European business.

Several product categories are made under licence. In the months before January 2025, La Martina signed a five-year agreement with the Swiss leather goods maker Gamat SA covering the design, production and distribution of accessories; as of January 2025 the company expected the deal to lift revenues by 15 per cent. Footwear is licensed to Giano and eyewear to Jet Set. The company that produces the La Martina fragrances is not publicly documented.

La Martina defines itself through polo rather than through fashion. "We don't use polo to promote the brand - we are polo," its German-language website says, describing a story of family, fair play and forty years of craftsmanship. Its slogan, given in German as "Spiele mit Herz, lebe mit Ehre", translates as "Play with heart, live with honour".

A short manifesto speaks of taking time for oneself, for loved ones and for the planet. It names integrity and respect for people and nature as founding values, and expresses a hope of inspiring future generations to build a cleaner and fairer world. No concrete environmental targets accompany it.

The Financial Times case study describes a four-level customer hierarchy. Products are planned first for professional polo players, then for casual players, then for polo enthusiasts, and only then for fashion customers. Simonetti is quoted there as believing that brand content is La Martina's only lasting competitive advantage, to be guarded against the temptation of fast, fashion-led growth.

Events remain central to that positioning. "We don't sponsor polo. We stage it," the company says, pointing to a calendar of polo events in London, Buenos Aires, Dubai and Milan. These are run with Polo World, a polo services agency founded in 1994 that works closely with the brand. Over the years La Martina has also partnered with names such as Cartier, Hermès, Maserati, Royal Salute, Hublot, Bentley, Piaget and Nespresso.

Technical polo equipment is still the brand's core. Its range includes saddles, helmets and protective gear, which the company says draw on ongoing research and in-house craftsmanship. The brand also offers a tailored service to polo players.

Around that equipment sits a wider clothing business for men, women and children. It spans rugby-style polo shirts, outerwear, leather jackets, bags, eyewear and espadrilles, along with capsule collections such as the Guards Capsule. The Military Jacket, tied to the Guards Polo Club licence, is the piece the company itself singles out.

The fragrance line runs alongside this as a separate thread. The first La Martina perfumes, Bayres Hombre and Bayres Mujer, date from 2007, and releases continued at roughly two a year over the following decade. The most recent documented releases are the four Colonias Intensas scents of 2021. The brand's own website does not present fragrances, and its official history does not mention them.

Coverage of La Martina comes mainly from business and fashion trade press rather than awards. Newsweek International wrote in 2008 that the brand had "changed the sport of kings by offering players more protection and comfort" [3]. A 2012 Financial Times column by Dominique Turpin of the IMD business school, later republished by IMD, used the company as a case study in resisting fast fashion. It presented La Martina as one of a growing number of companies from emerging markets to build a global brand. WWD has reported on its leadership and licensing moves, and credited it with bringing polo clothing into the mainstream.

La Martina is active. Its website was promoting an autumn/winter 2026 collection, following the spring 2026 capsule with Supreme and Jacob & Co. The company describes an established presence in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and a focused strategy for Asia. As of January 2025, WWD counted flagship stores in Milan, Saint-Tropez and Megève, franchised stores in cities including Marrakech, Casablanca, Kuwait City, Cape Town and Cairo, and about 400 wholesale partners worldwide.

The fragrance line is less clearly active. No La Martina perfumes released after 2021 are documented, and the current state of the line has not been publicly established.