Dive Brief:
- Moschino has appointed Adrian Appiolaza as its new creative director, according to a Tuesday press release from parent company Aeffe SpA.
- He will oversee the women’s, men’s, and accessories collections and report to Massimo Ferretti, Aeffe’s executive chairman, according to the release. Appiolaza’s first collection for the house will be a fall-winter 2024 women’s show scheduled for Feb. 22 at the Museo della Permanente during Milan Fashion Week, the company stated.
- Appiolaza fills a role that had been open since the November 2023 death of Davide Renne, who was appointed the month before but died nine days after his start date. Prior to Renne, the role had been vacant since the March 2023 departure ofI fee Jeremy Scott, who was with the house for ten years.
Dive Insight:
Appiolaza is only the fifth creative director to helm Moschino since Franco Moschino founded the label in 1983.
Appiolaza said he was ready to learn more about the label’s history and oversee its next chapter while maintaining its signiature theatrical style.
"The jackets with 3-D postcards, the dress with a skirt made with twenty bras, the countless trompe-l'oeil: as a creative and a collector, the list of creations by Franco Moschino that have entered the history of fashion is almost endless,” Appiolaza said in the release. “The essence of his talent, for me, is to inhabit his time — a mission he carried out with enviable lightness, opening a window for all of us to imagine, in our own way, the future.”
Prior to his appointment, Appiolaza spent 10 years as women’s ready-to-wear design director at Loewe, working with the house’s creative director J.W. Anderson, and before that Appiolaza was women’s ready-to-wear design director at Chloé, working with Clare Waight Keller, per the release.
“We are happy and honored to welcome Adrian to the Aeffe family," Ferretti said in the release. "With his arrival at Moschino, Adrian brings with him a unique wealth of experience, creativity and knowledge of the history of fashion that will be instrumental to write a wonderful new chapter in the adventure of the brand founded by Franco Moschino. I was immediately struck by the explosive creativity of Adrian, a personality full of energy and enthusiasm, elements that have always distinguished the history of the Moschino brand. I wish Adrian all the best to build a great success story with us.”
Aeffe acquired a 70% stake in Moschino in 1999, and bought the remaining 30% in 2021 for more than 66.5 million euros.
The company, which also owns Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy and Pollini, reported a fiscal 2023 consolidated revenue decline of 9.5% to 319 million euros, or about $346 million at current exchange, in its earnings last week. Ferretti said the slowdown was due to decline in the European and American markets, which dropped 16.3% and 21.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, Aeffe’s retail segment revenue was up 7.2%.
