The designer’s exit leaves the OTB-owned label searching for its next creative leader after a decade of vivid experimentation.
Marni has confirmed that creative director Francesco Risso will leave the Milan-based fashion brand, ending a ten-year run that pushed the house’s playful codes into bolder territory. The announcement, made on Wednesday, closes a chapter that began when Risso arrived from Prada’s design studio, where he had worked for eight years.
Risso inherited a brand loved for bright colour and off-beat proportion. Rather than dilute that identity, he turned up the dial: collections mixed painterly prints with outsized tailoring, sending a message that oddness could stay optimistic. In the process he helped broaden Marni’s appeal without sanding down its core eccentricity.
In a statement, the designer looked back with fondness. “Marni has been a studio, a stage, a dream. It carried color, 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 … here’s to more extraordinary journeys ahead!”
OTB Group, Marni’s parent company, has yet to name a successor. Talk inside fashion circles points to a possible return to a female creative lead, though no frontrunner has emerged. High-profile names such as Hedi Slimane, Luke and Lucie Meier, and Maria Grazia Chiuri are currently unattached to a house, keeping speculation alive. Until an appointment is confirmed, one thing is clear: Risso leaves Marni with colour firmly in its veins and an expectant industry waiting to see who will guide the next chapter.
Let’s see where the designer carousel spins next.
