Alberta Ferretti Embracing Handover, Planning Succession

MILAN – The generational handover can be challenging, but Alberta Ferretti is embracing it in style.

Revealing in a letter sent on Tuesday morning that she is stepping down from the creative role of her namesake brand, first launched in 1981, Ferretti admitted it was “a difficult, complicated, but a very thoughtful choice.” However, she believes “it’s time for me to make room for a new chapter for my brand, a new narrative.” The decision, she wrote, “was made with serenity and awareness.”

Her last show was staged on Sept. 17 in Milan, and Ferretti wrote that she will “soon announce the name of the person we have chosen to continue writing the history of the Alberta Ferretti brand, who will always find in me support and sustainment.”  

The rumor mill about the potential successor is sure to start spreading, and Ferretti’s decision comes at a time of creative upheaval in the industry amid a backdrop of slowing luxury consumption worldwide, especially in mainland China and the United States.  Several major brands are expecting the arrival of new creative directors, from Chanel and Dries Van Noten to Y/Project, and others will see new designers taking the lead, from Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford Fashion to Peter Copping at Lanvin.

Market sources believe more changes could be in the pipeline for Ferretti’s parent company, Aeffe. To be sure, the company issued a statement saying that, following Ferretti’s decision, Aeffe “will proceed with a careful and in-depth analysis of the roles and functions of the various departments with the aim of internally reorganizing its human resources in order to guarantee even greater efficiency.”

As part of this restructuring, one source wondered if Lorenzo Serafini, who has been leading the Philosophy brand since 2014, could succeed Ferretti. As it is, Serafini employed featherweight jersey, frothy lace and other airy fabrics for a very feminine and romantic collection for spring, very much in sync with Ferretti’s signature brand.

Sources in Milan believe this exit could be linked to a potential sale of Aeffe. Executive chairman and Alberta’s brother Massimo Ferretti is said to be seeking a financial investor. Last summer, the siblings split their personal properties and shares in the company, a total of almost 62 percent, channeling them into their own respective holdings. Aeffe said at the time this would not impact the governance of the company, but, the source said, a sale would be easier if Massimo Ferretti decided to team with a potential buyer.

On Tuesday, Aeffe shares rose 3.71 percent to 72 cents by mid-afternoon but closed up 1.43 percent at 71 cents on the Milan Bourse. In addition to Alberta Ferretti, Aeffe controls the Moschino, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Pollini brands. The group has been hit by the current economic scenario and in the first half, consolidated revenues fell 14.9 percent to 138.6 million euros, and net loss widened to 20.4 million euros compared with 11.7 million euros in the first half last year.

Alberta Ferretti has carved a very specific image, catering to a feminine customer who at the same time is independent and confident, a working woman who needs to feel at ease and comfortable in her skin, she has often remarked. At the same time, the designer has been dubbed the queen of chiffon, for her talent in creating romantic, dreamy evening gowns and slipdresses in that material. In fact, Ferretti’s gowns became a staple on the red carpet since 2000, when Uma Thurman wore the designer’s crimson dress at the Academy Awards that made headlines. Ferretti’s dresses have been spotted on Sandra Bullock, Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Amal Clooney, Regina King, Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria, Kate Winslet and more stars.

“I like it when my clothes become part of a woman’s wardrobe and stay there, becoming part of her life,” Ferretti told WWD last year, unveiling her resort 2024 collection in Rimini, Italy. “And just like watching a movie again and again can lead you to find new meanings, the same happens with the clothes, extensions of your personality.”  

A longtime supporter of young designers, Ferretti made a similar, forward-looking move in October 2012, when she passed the baton to Natalie Ratabesi as creative director of the younger Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti line. That was the first time Ferretti entirely delegated the direction of the Philosophy brand, launched in 1984, to another designer, explaining that she believed the label needed to be further developed “in an independent way and differentiating it even more from the signature brand,” she said at the time. Ratabesi exited in 2014, succeeded by Serafini.

Ferretti was also one of the first designers to approach the sustainability issue, teaming in 2011 with British actress Emma Watson on the “Pure threads” collection produced with environmentally friendly materials and techniques, and further pursuing this avenue with her brand over the years.

In her letter, Ferretti  recalled how she launched the brand in 1981, “when a young woman with many dreams and passions brought her collection to the catwalk for the first time. I remember those moments as if they were yesterday. The Alberta of that day is in many ways still the Alberta of today, even if in the meantime a small family business has become a company with 1,500 employees.”

Ferretti, born in Gradara, in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, opened a boutique, Jolly Shop, in nearby Cattolica in the ‘70s, selling brands from Krizia to Genny and her own designs, labeled Gido, drawn from the name of her seamstress mother Isidora, or Dorina, Giusini.

“I realized the importance of service through the boutique,” she said in a WWD interview in 2015.

When she decided to sell her own line beyond the confines of the boutique, she approached designer Enrico Coveri, offering to produce and distribute his collections, creating Aeffe with her brother in 1980.

Over the years, she launched a limited-edition line and the Forever bridal line.

“I had the incredible privilege of shaping my dreams, making them come true. And on this journey, to meet and collaborate with legends, with professionals who also became friends and who helped me grow… Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Franca Sozzani, Paolo Roversi… without you, my world would never have been the same,” she writes in the letter.

“How many things I have learned, how much energy I have invested in this job and how many achievements I have been lucky enough to reach. From Cattolica to China, from Hollywood to Japan…fantastic places on a journey that seemed unimaginable, but which came true.”

She concluded by thanking her brother, “a constant presence in my professional and personal life, and to all those who have contributed to making in recent years the Alberta Ferretti brand great in the world.”

Ferretti will continue to hold the role of vice president of parent group Aeffe, while dedicating her time to her “great passions,” including art. “Someone will think that now I will dedicate myself to rest… that someone doesn’t know me well enough.”

In 1994, Alberta and Massimo Ferretti invested in the recovery of the medieval village of Montegridolfo, which led to an honorary degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage from Bologna University. Among other recognitions, she was named Knight of Labor from Italy’s president in 1998.

In September 2021, she was invited by Venice to celebrate the 1,600 years since the city was founded with a special show at Ca’ Rezzonico, and received the WiCa — Women in Cinema Award — during the Venice Film Festival.