Fiorucci to stage show, exhibition in Milan in autumn

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jul 30, 2024

Fiorucci continues its accelerated relaunch effort, after being acquired by Swiss businesswoman Dona Bertarelli, through her family office, in October 2022. The next step will be a first runway show scheduled in Milan on September 17 at the Triennale, the iconic museum of Italian design that will dedicate a major retrospective to the label's founder Elio Fiorucci in November.

“We don’t want a nostalgia-filled show. It will actually be the label’s first runway show. In the past, [Fiorucci] did stage initiatives of this kind, but they were more like performances. Our plan is to make the best of the space available at the Triennale. Having a presence in such a temple of art of design, where the [Fiorucci] exhibition will be staged, is clearly a bonus for us,” said Alessandro Pisani, Fiorucci’s managing director, speaking to FashionNetwork.com.

The Fiorucci show will be held off-calendar, but will to all intents and purposes open the Milan fashion week dedicated to the Spring/Summer 2025 women's ready-to-wear collections. It is scheduled on September 17 at 3 pm CET, just before the week’s first show, by Fendi. The Fiorucci show will feature some 40 looks, including 10-15 for men, and is designed to be “a content incubator, where [Fiorucci] will develop, besides a new aesthetic, more profound themes like inclusivity, collaborating with artists from different backgrounds. We intend to provide a real experience for our audience,” said Pisani.

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Fiorucci was relaunched in 2023 with a capsule collection unveiled in September, followed by a pre-collection and a fully fledged first collection for Fall/Winter 2024-25. The collection that will be presented in September will therefore be the second full collection developed by the new design team spearheaded by Francesca Murri. From the outset, Murri decided to reinterpret the label's codes in a more contemporary spirit. Fiorucci was a 1970-80s icon, having been founded in Milan by Elio Fiorucci in 1967, and is now undergoing a radical repositioning.

The label has jettisoned its previous commercial flavour, opting for a contemporary affordable-luxury positioning, raising prices by 30% on average and introducing more creative, higher-quality items. The price of some special items has even doubled. As a result, the label’s retail network has been upgraded. Fiorucci has dropped out of retailers like Asos, switching to mid-to high-end ones. Following this approach, the Fiorucci store in London was recently closed.

Fiorucci is currently distributed, among others, by End, Selfridges and Flannels in the UK, and by Sugar and Deliberti in Italy. E-tail now accounts for 48% of its sales, and the rest is generated via some 50 multibrand retailers, where Fiorucci is positioned alongside names like Acne Studios and Jacquemus, at entry-level prices for the segment. The label employs 18 people in Italy and 15 in the UK, and generates half of its revenue on the UK and US markets. Accessories, chiefly handbags and jewellery, jeans and knitwear are its best-sellers.

Fiorucci isn’t planning to open monobrand stores before 2026. It prefers instead to experiment with pop-up formats, as it did with two temporary stores opened in February and March at La Rinascente in Milan and the Galeries Lafayette’s Champs-Elysées flagship in Paris. “I strongly believe in pop-up stores. Our first two initiatives allowed us to present ourselves, giving us significant visibility not just with end-consumers but potential partners too,” said Pisani.

Another major project in November will be the inauguration of Casa Fiorucci in Milan, home to the label’s offices, design studio and showroom, as well as a creative hub where talented artists will be invited to express themselves through Fiorucci. For the Triennale retrospective, the label has put its archives at the museum’s disposal, and is looking for other ways to collaborate with the Milanese institution.

The Elio Fiorucci exhibition is scheduled from November 6 2024 to March 16 2025. Curated by Judith Clark with set design by Fabio Cherstich, the exhibition will attempt to portray the jack-of-all-trades designer’s multi-dimensional range of creative and business ventures. Elio Fiorucci died in 2015, and was described by art critic Gillo Dorfles as “the Maurice Duchamp of Italian fashion.”

The exhibition will cover the broader cultural context and the various domains explored by Fiorucci’s multi-faceted activities, from fashion to architecture, object design, music, art and entertainment. Elio Fiorucci pioneered the concept store approach with his first boutique in Galleria Passarella, opened in Milan in 1967 and showcasing an eclectic range of clothes, records, books and unique objects, and also a venue for events and performances.