Style Spotlight Francesco Risso For Marni

When Francesco Risso joined Marni at the end of 2016, he had huge (wooden-wedge) shoes to fill. Over the previous 20 years, founder Consuelo Castiglioni had built the label into a brand revered the world over for an artistic, off-kilter aesthetic.

- Jess Wood

Castiglioni’s clashing prints, roomy silhouettes and air of frayed femininity made it the go-to for women interested in looking stylish but never overtly sexy (shudder). For a young man stepping into his first creative director role, taking the reins of a house so personally crafted in Castiglioni’s image was a big deal. But 36-year-old Risso’s background prepared him well for interesting gender role reversals – his aristocratic father was a bohemian free spirit, while his mother was a brass-tack businesswoman. Risso spent the first four years of his life living on a boat in Sardinia, before his entire extended family all moved to a sprawling house in Genoa, where his grandmother was a well-known local tailor. A certain yearning for routine led him to study in New York and then in London at Central Saint Martins, where the legendary Professor Louise Wilson taught him many things – including how to lose his ‘horrible’ Italian/American accent. He went on to work at Alessandro Dell’Acqua and then Prada. Here, we get to know the man finding Marni’s new mojo…

How did the Marni job come about?

I happened to meet Renzo [Rosso, who bought the company in 2015] through a mutual friend. We shared my vision of the brand, how I would interpret it, and kept meeting. After six months of talking, Renzo, who is an incredible man, offered me the job. I was so flattered, excited and happy.

Was it a label you had always dreamed of being part of?