Missoni, change at the creative summit to develop the lifestyle offer

After Celine, among the brands involved in these days in rapid changes at the creative top management is also Missoni: after two years Filippo Grazioli leaves the creative direction of the historic brand, which passes to Alberto Caliri. Grazioli had taken on that role in 2022 and presented his latest collection for S/S 2025 at the Milan fashion week that had just closed and in which he had relaunched Missoni's iconic zigzag motif.

In an interview with Wwd, CEO Livio Proli, at Missoni from 2020, states that Caliri's experience with knitwear and fabrics will be the key to the brand's next development, and illustrates that for the future "we are thinking of a lifestyle collection that includes a men's collection (also relaunched with an unprecedented presence at Pitti Uomo last June, ed.), a women's and home collection and not three individual lines". Caliri, who joined Missoni in 1998, had in fact already been its creative director in 2021, after Angela Missoni, whose right-hand man he had been for a long time, left the role and before Grazioli joined. In the last two years, he had overseen the Missoni Home Collection and Missoni Sport collections.

Grazioli, for his part, entrusted his thoughts to a post on Instagram: 'Today I leave the position of creative director of Missoni. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Missoni for this incredible experience. Thank you to everyone who supported my vision and allowed me to express my creativity. I am grateful to everyone who has been involved in this journey. My deepest appreciation goes to my amazing team: you were truly exceptional! Thank you for all the success we have achieved together. You will always be a part of me!".

The brand founded in Gallarate in 1953 by Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, and then developed by their children Vittorio (who died prematurely in 2013), Luca and Angela, has been looking for a reorganisation and a real relaunch in recent years: its ownership is now divided between the hands of the founding family and, with a 41.2% share, of Fsi - Fondo Strategico Italiano, which entered the company in 2018 with a transaction worth around 70 million. In 2023, Missoni recorded 126 million in revenues, up 10% on the previous year, also improving ebitda for the second year in a row.

Also in the interview with Wwd, the ceo says he wants to focus on the Middle Eastern market (where a partnership has been signed with retailer Al Tayer), Europe and in the future also the United States, with an ambitious plan of shop openings, such as the next ones in Palm Beach and Honolulu. The development of the lifestyle aspect of Missoni has also been revealed by the recent project that saw the brand's motifs dress the beach club of the Verdura resort in Agrigento and the opening of shops in tourist locations such as Forte dei Marmi, Capri, Positano, Porto Cervo, Cannes, Saint-Tropez and the Greek islands of Mykonos, Santorini and Thessaloniki. In recent years Missoni has also enriched its portfolio of real estate collaborations, with the Moonstone residential project on the island of Al Marjan in Dubai and another in Marbella. And an agreement has just been signed with Amexon Development Corporation for the construction of a residential tower called Missoni Sky in Toronto.