MILAN — Fiorucci is returning to Milan with a recent owner, a recent management and a recent creative direction.

The brand, founded by Italian visionary designer Elio Fiorucci after he opened the mother of all retail concepts in the town’s central San Babila in 1967, has unveiled a comprehensive plan for a relaunch.

On Wednesday the brand revealed that last 12 months Swiss investor Dona Bertarelli took full control of the corporate, which can once more be headquartered in Milan. Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed but Bertarelli already had a minority stake within the firm.

As reported, in 2015, after the brand’s founder died at age 80, Fiorucci was sold by the Japanese trading house Itochu to the veteran British clothing retailers Stephen and Janie Schaffer. The duo relaunched Fiorucci in 2017, setting the brand’s headquarters in London and opening a store in the town’s Soho. 

As a part of the brand new course, Alessandro Pisani has been appointed chief executive officer of Fiorucci, tasked with implementing the strategy for the brand. 

Pisani is an industry veteran who most recently spent eight years at OTB Group. He joined the corporate in 2014 as general manager of the Diesel Black Gold line, later becoming brand director of Diesel. Previous experiences ranged from industrial roles at Valentino and Ballantyne to merchandising ones at Italian fashion manufacturer Sinv SpA for the Love Moschino and See by Chloé brands.

“I made a decision to tackle this challenge at the tip of last 12 months and mainly because this brand is magic,” Pisani told WWD. “Truthfully, I didn’t know much of its recent story prior to my arrival, but I knew thoroughly the brand’s legacy and what it has represented for Italy, all of the values that made it a label so loved by everyone.

“So I used to be intrigued by how we could work on inclusivity, creativity and authenticity today, to make this project interesting for a recent audience,” continued the manager, underscoring that the mission is to reignite the “playful attitude and reshape its disruptive heritage to be able to encourage a recent generation.”

Pisani spoke in regards to the perfect alignment of values between Fiorucci and the brand new ownership, underscoring that Bertarelli is a philanthropist and a powerful advocate for environmental conservation, animal welfare and inclusivity, which were all causes near the founder’s heart.

Business-wise, the brand new CEO’s relaunch strategy hinges on three foremost pillars: a recent creative direction, the relocation of the brand from London to Milan and its overall repositioning. 

As reported, last month Daniel W. Fletcher left as menswear artistic director, after being a part of the business for 3 years. Fletcher’s most up-to-date collection for Fiorucci, pre-fall 2023, was presented in May and took the brand in a recent, more upmarket direction. 

Francesca Murri has been appointed creative director, overseeing all categories with the goal of repositioning the brand within the accessible luxury segment. The designer comes from Ferragamo but through the years had stints at Versace, Giorgio Armani, Gucci alongside Alessandro Michele and Givenchy under Riccardo Tisci’s tenure. 

“She has a powerful background in luxury brands, next to essential creative minds but additionally at corporations which can be very solid and structured. Beyond the creative vision, I feel these elements are essential for the complexities required by this project,” noted Pisani. 

Murri’s first designs will probably be unveiled during Milan Fashion Week, with a presentation a part of the official calendar. The label will officially kick off its recent chapter by presenting 15 looks on Sept. 21. Yet Pisani said the primary full-fledged range will probably be presented in November with Murri’s first pre-collection, and confirmed that the thought going forward is to proceed to develop 4 collections a 12 months.

“The return to Italy is one other key element, by way of heritage and the brand’s history. We wish to maintain this a world brand but with an eccentric, Italian viewpoint,” said Pisani, adding that the homecoming move is not going to only encourage the creativity of the collections but inform their Made in Italy quality and a focus to sustainability, too. 

“Accessible luxury is a recent positioning for us, which can require us to work in another way to precise contents which can be respectful of the Fiorucci legacy, done in a highly skilled way,” said the CEO. 

“What is significant for us on this recent chapter is to define a language that’s immediate, authentic and positive, because it is a positive brand. We’ll try this with iconic pillars from the archives, through a certain approach to paint and graphics, but all more elevated and in a more rigorous way in creating the gathering. For me the elevation of the brand doesn’t mean becoming serious or austere, because that will distort the DNA of the brand, however the elevation of contents each in product and communication,” continued Pisani.

“It would be a gender-bending project, we are going to keep pushing on inclusivity and can attempt to do our greatest by way of sustainability with the resources we have now. These are all elements within the brand’s DNA,” he added.

The corporate will begin to work on all categories instantly, as Pisani pointed to a key give attention to accessories, specifically bags. As for Fiorucci’s democratic side, it is going to be maintained with collaborations with other brands — mostly operating in specific product categories — and with artists. 

“Once we reasoned on essentially the most iconic Fiorucci items, the immediate connection was with posters and stickers, even before fashion products got here to mind. So on products, I feel we have now an enormous opportunity with this higher positioning, while the democratization might be expressed with a balanced brand extension push,” said Pisani. 

The plan is to physically merge the brand’s offices, design department and showroom into an open-space hub “Casa Fiorucci,” which could also change into a gathering point for artists and a hot spot in Milan.

“But researching real estate just isn’t easy today,” said Pisani with a smile.

He looks to search out a venue sized between 6,500 and 10,800 square feet, preferably a former industrial space or one which retains a meaning for the town and is positioned in an area of cultural buzz. Yet he pragmatically acknowledged the perfect space must be not removed from the middle to be easily reachable by buyers. 

Pisani said the corporate will maintain a link between Milan and London, one which is embedded within the brand’s history. The visionary Milanese emporium opened after the founder took a journey to London, was awed by the energy surrounding Barbara Hulanicki’s Biba store in Kensington and desired to import to Italy the identical spirit of freedom in a time when terrorism and political tensions loomed over the country.

For the moment, Pisani doesn’t eye retail openings, as he emphasized that the foremost focus “for the subsequent two years is to create contents, in order that the brand can really engage with consumers with a precise vision and aesthetic.”

Distribution-wise, all efforts will converge on enhancing the e-commerce platform to take care of a direct conversation with end consumers, in addition to boost the wholesale presence. Pisani goals to achieve 350 wholesale doors in the subsequent three years.

The corporate will start the distribution expansion from Europe — including the U.K. — and the U.S., which Pisani said is the second natural home of the brand, again for its historic ties. In 1976, the founder opened a flagship in Manhattan that sealed Fiorucci’s international success. Commonly described as a “daytime Studio 54,” it became a thriving cultural hub around which key personalities gravitated, including Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Madonna, Marc Jacobs, Robert Mapplethorpe and Jean-Paul Goude, to call a number of.

By way of markets to achieve in the longer term, Pisani also pointed to Japan. “And I feel that after this primary stage we can even have the eye from countries like China and South Korea, where there’s a desire for very creative and qualitative projects and are super interesting markets,” he said. 

“We all the time ask ourselves what Elio Fiorucci would have done today and I feel that [expansion in these countries] and to achieve essentially the most effervescent markets to intercept recent cultural developments to bring into the Fiorucci world would have been one [effort],” said Pisani.

The feedback from each buyers and consumers will probably be instrumental in understanding methods to construct a future presence within the retail channel, too. Pisani candidly admitted that although the present store in London is performing well, there are not any plans to maintain the unit open long-term, on account of “the overall economic conditions that modified post-Brexit and that caused a more onerous management of brick-and-mortar stores” in addition to “because by way of brand positioning, I don’t consider that location will align with the brand new journey of Fiorucci.”

“ face retail has a significant importance for me, after all business-wise since it’s an area that requires big investments but additionally because we inherit a heavy, heavy legacy from the past. The chance of getting a nasty copy of the format in Galleria Passarella [Milan emporium] is high,” said Pisani, who teased that industrial activities could possibly be folded into the Milanese hub in a primary phase of the strategic plan.