Francesco Risso’s departure from Marni marks the end of a chapter defined by radical reinvention
After nearly a decade at the helm of Marni, Francesco Risso is departing the Italian fashion house. The announcement came this morning, marking the end of a singular chapter in the label’s history.
Risso took the reins of Marni in 2016, following the departure of Marni’s founder Consuelo Castiglioni. Less a continuation than a reinvention, he transformed the brand’s spirit into a a kaleidoscopic world of eclecticism. “I like to think of Marni as a mystery box,” he once told Olivia Singer in AnOther Magazine, “a temple of playfulness where many different things can happen.”
And many things did. Under his direction, Marni’s womenswear was revitalised and menswear expanded, as the designer traded in minimalism for multiplicity. Risso trafficked in the unexpected: hand-painted latex, mohair brushed into hallucinatory swirls, garments fashioned from rubber, silk, carpet, and metal. Spring/Summer 2023, for instance, treated clothing as a canvas. In Autumn/Winter 2020, he worked almost entirely with upcycled and deadstock fabrics, constructing jackets from repurposed denim and sweaters from misaligned knits, all held together with crude stitching. Risso’s work attracted an eccentric, devoted audience and, crucially, steered Marni into renewed cultural relevance.
Born on a boat moored in Sardinia in 1982, the youngest of five children from his parents’ blended families, Risso spent his early years afloat. “There were a lot of characters ... they’re all very loud,” he told Alexander Fury in the Autumn/Winter 2020 issue of AnOther Magazine. “And I wasn’t so communicative with words, so I was cutting up my sister’s clothes.” The impulse would become a vocation. He left home at 17 to study fashion, first at Polimoda in Florence, then FIT in New York, and finally Central Saint Martins in London. Early stints at Blumarine and Prada followed, before Renzo Rosso, the chairman of OTB (Marni’s parent company), tapped him to lead Marni.
“Francesco has embraced the spirit and the values of the house, and together with the team brought them to new grounds, building the foundations for a new and exciting chapter of Marni,” Rosso said in a statement. “Francesco is a unique designer and an artist at heart, and I wish him only the best for the future.”
Risso, in turn, expressed gratitude. “I will always be grateful to Renzo for believing in me, for giving me the front seat on a journey that became more than I could have imagined,” he said. “Marni has been a studio, a stage, a dream. It carried colour, instinct, care, and gave space for people to be themselves. It taught me how to build with feeling, and how powerful true collaboration can be. Thank you to the whole Marni team, and to all the friends who joined along the way, and here’s to more extraordinary journeys ahead.”
A successor has yet to be named.
Read Francesco Risso's thoughts on vintage teddy bears, for AnOther Thing I Wanted to Tell You here.
