Fiorucci to host show and exhibition in Milan in autumn

Fiorucci is continuing 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 fashion show scheduled in Milan on September 17 at the Triennale, the iconic Italian design museum that will dedicate a major retrospective to the brand's founder, Elio Fiorucci, in November.

“We don't want a show full of nostalgia. In fact, it will be the brand's first show. In the past, [Fiorucci] There have been initiatives of this kind, but they were more like performances. Our plan is to make the most of the space available at the Triennale. Being present in a temple of design art like this, where the [Fiorucci] “The fact that an exhibition is being organised is clearly an advantage for us,” Alessandro Pisani, Fiorucci’s general manager, told FashionNetwork.com.

The Fiorucci show will take place off-schedule, but will effectively open Milan Fashion Week dedicated to the women's spring/summer 2025 ready-to-wear collections. It is scheduled to take place on September 17 at 3 p.m. CET, just before the first show of the week, by Fendi. The Fiorucci show will feature around 40 looks, including 10 to 15 for men, and is designed to be “an incubator for content, where [Fiorucci] “In addition to a new aesthetic, we will develop deeper themes such as inclusion, collaborating with artists from different backgrounds. We aim to provide a real experience to our audience,” said Pisani.

Fiorucci relaunched in 2023 with a capsule collection presented in September, followed by a pre-collection and a first full collection for autumn/winter 2024-25. The collection to be presented in September will therefore be the second full collection developed by the new design team headed by Francesca Murri. From the outset, Murri decided to reinterpret the brand’s codes in a more contemporary spirit. Fiorucci was an icon of the 1970s and 1980s, founded in Milan by Elio Fiorucci in 1967, and is now undergoing a radical repositioning.

The brand has abandoned its previous retail style and opted for a contemporary positioning of affordable luxury, raising prices by an average of 30% and introducing more creative and higher-quality items. The price of some special items has even doubled. As a result, the brand's retail network has been modernised. Fiorucci has abandoned stores such as Asos and focused on mid- and high-end stores. Following this approach, the Fiorucci store in London has recently closed.

Fiorucci is currently distributed by End, Selfridges and Flannels in the UK, among others, and by Sugar and Deliberti in Italy. E-commerce now accounts for 48% of its sales, with the remainder generated through some 50 multi-brand retailers, where Fiorucci is positioned alongside names such as Acne Studios and Jacquemus, at entry-level prices for the segment. The brand employs 18 people in Italy and 15 in the UK, and generates half of its revenues in the UK and US markets. Accessories, mainly bags and jewellery, jeans and knitwear are its best-selling products.

Fiorucci does not plan to open monobrand stores before 2026, preferring instead to experiment with ephemeral formats, as it has already done with two pop-up stores opened in February and March at La Rinascente in Milan and at the flagship store on the Champs-Élysées of Galeries Lafayette in Paris. “I strongly believe in pop-up stores. Our first two initiatives allowed us to present ourselves, giving us significant visibility not only to end consumers, but also to potential partners,” says Pisani.

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

The Elio Fiorucci exhibition is scheduled to run from 6 November 2024 to 16 March 2025. Curated by Judith Clark and with scenography by Fabio Cherstich, the exhibition will attempt to portray the multi-dimensional range of creative and commercial projects of the multi-faceted designer. 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 diverse fields explored by Fiorucci’s multifaceted activities, from fashion to architecture, object design, music, art and entertainment. Elio Fiorucci pioneered the concept store approach with his first boutique in the Galleria Passarella, opened in Milan in 1967 and displaying an eclectic range of clothing, records, books and unique objects, as well as a venue for events and shows.