Italian designer Alberta Ferretti announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as creative director of the eponymous brand she founded over four decades ago.
“On Sept. 17th, you attended my last fashion show,” Ferretti revealed in a heartfelt email.
“Yes, it’s time for me to make room for a new chapter for my brand, a new narrative. It was a difficult, complicated, but a very thoughtful choice,” she continued.
Ferretti, now 74, assured that the brand will continue to carry her name. She also mentioned that an announcement regarding her successor will be made soon.
Fashion group Aeffe, which owns the Alberta Ferretti brand as well as Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, Moschino, and Pollini, stated that Ferretti will maintain her position as vice president of the group.
Ferretti’s final show, held during Milan Fashion Week, showcased her summery designs in the courtyard of a former cloister, now repurposed as a science museum. The setting, with its elegant dome, highlighted the artisanal heritage intrinsic to her collection.
“They are real summer clothes, because the world in the summer is very warm. I know a show is supposed to be a show but reality is important,’’ she explained backstage, offering no indication at the time of her impending departure.
Ferretti’s journey in fashion began in her family’s dressmaking shop. As a teenager, she opened her own boutique and has maintained her signature gentle feminine silhouettes since launching her brand in 1981.
“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,” she reflected in her letter.
