Designer Alberta Ferretti announced this morning that she will step down as creative director of the eponymous brand she founded in 1981.
“On September 17, you attended my last fashion show,” the designer wrote in a letter emailed this morning. “It has been a difficult, complicated but well-thought-out decision, but today I tell you with a calm and clear mind that I have decided to leave the creative direction of the brand I founded, which bears my name and will continue to do so. Among his key collaborators are Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Franca Sozzani and Paolo Roversi).
In retrospect, the show was an homage to Ferretti’s iconic work, focusing on modern jumpsuits as well as flowing chiffon gowns, which were displayed beneath the columns of the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology.
Ferretti grew up in her family’s tailoring shop and opened her own boutique as a teenager, where she began making her own clothes to sell alongside other Italian designers. She launched her label in 1981 and has remained true to her signature sophisticated feminine silhouettes ever since. As relevant today as she ever was, Ferretti recently rose to prominence as the folklore-era outfitter for Taylor Swift’s Era Tour.
The 74-year-old designer will remain vice chairman of the family-owned Efe Group, which operates her eponymous label alongside Moschino, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Pollini. In an open letter, she thanked her brother Massimo Ferretti, the group chairman. Efe does not divvy up single brands, but after the change of Moschino brand creative director, group sales are expected to fall 9% to 319 million euros in 2023. While the changes at Ferretti could create further challenges in the short term, the designer said she would name a successor “soon.”
