Fashion
Italian sportswear and lifestyle brand founded in Perugia by Leonardo Servadio, whose initials — spoken "elle" and "esse" in Italian — gave the brand its name. Starting with skiwear in the 1960s, Ellesse expanded into tennis in the 1970s, dressing champions including Björn Borg, Boris Becker, and Chris Evert, and later became a defining label within British football Casual culture in the 1980s.
The Pentland Group acquired a majority stake in 1987 and full ownership by 1994, relocating the headquarters to London. Ellesse operates today through a global licensing model.
parent company