Fiorucci names new CEO and creative director

Storied Italian fashion brand Fiorucci is returning to its original home of Milan as part of a new chapter for the label under a new owner, chief executive, and creative director.

In a statement, Fiorucci confirmed that it has been acquired by Swiss investor, sportswoman and philanthropist Dona Bertarelli and that it will undergo a complete “creative reconstruction,” which will be unveiled during Milan Fashion Week in September.

The new chapter of the Italian brand will be led by new chief executive Alessandro Pisani, who is tasked with implementing the strategy for the brand as it looks to begin the process of "renewing Italian fashion’s greatest force for positive disruption”.

Commenting on the relaunch, Pisani said in a statement: “Fiorucci is one of the greatest protagonists in the history of Italian fashion. Its founder Elio Fiorucci ignited a positive cultural disruption that democratised style across the world and became entwined with progressive popular art forms from visual arts to music.

"Our mission now is to revive that uniquely playful attitude and reshape its disruptive heritage in order to inspire a new generation.”

Fiorucci names Francesca Murri as creative director

The creative direction of the brand will fall to Francesca Murri, a designer whose experience spans Versace, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Givenchy and Ferragamo.

Fiorucci was founded by Italian visionary designer Elio Fiorucci, who opened his first store in Milan’s Galleria Passarella in 1967 after being inspired to import the counter-cultural retail innovation of London’s Carnaby Street to his home city. After refining his model and beginning the production of his own collections, Fiorucci exported his concept to New York in 1976.

In 2015, following the death of the brand's founder, Fiorucci was sold by the Japanese trading house Itochu to British clothing retailers Stephen and Janie Schaffer. The duo relaunched the brand in 2017 and relocated it to London, and in 2019 named Daniel W Fletcher as its menswear artistic director. The London-based designer stepped down from the label last month.