Dive Brief:
- Marni creative director Francesco Risso is leaving the brand, according to a Wednesday release from parent company OTB Group.
- Risso, who OTB hired in 2016, was responsible for renewing Marni’s womenswear, expanding its menswear and developing immersive shows and experiences, per the release. A successor has not been named.
- OTB has also experienced designer shake-up at two other brands this year. In March, Simone Bellotti replaced Lucie and Luke Meier at Jil Sander, and in January, Glenn Martens succeeded John Galliano at Maison Margiela.
Dive Insight:
The fashion industry has seen a dizzying number of designer shakeups in 2025 already. A dozen changes occurred in the first quarter of the year alone. Then in May, Pierpaolo Piccioli, formerly at Valentino, moved to Balenciaga, and Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson jumped to Dior.
Risso did not announce his next move, but said in the release that he was grateful to OTB Chairman Renzo Rosso for giving him the chance to helm Marni.
“Marni has been a studio, a stage, a dream,” Risso said. “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.”
Risso studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and Central Saint Martins in London. He worked at Blumarine, Alessandro Dell’Acqua and Malo, and spent 10 years at Prada focused on womenswear. When he joined Marni, he succeeded brand founder Consuelo Castiglioni.
OTB, which also owns Diesel and Viktor&Rolf, purchased a controlling stake in Marni in 2012, and bought the remaining interest in the brand in 2015.
“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,” Renzo Rosso, OTB’s chairman, said in the release. “Francesco is a unique designer and an artist at heart, and I wish him only the best for the future.”
Stefano Rosso was named CEO of Marni last year, and in fiscal 2024, OTB posted a 5% net sales decrease to 1.7 billion euros, or about $1.78 billion at the time.
