BACK IN FASHION: Alessandra Facchinetti, the former Tod’s creative director of womenswear, could be making a comeback by launching her own fashion brand.
“I’m working on a project and for sure ‘Italiannes’ and Italian craft will be at the center of it,” she said, talking at the 2023 edition of the Milano Fashion Global Summit. “It’s not going to be solely dedicated to fashion, but potentially more [categories],” she added.
The designer stayed mum on additional details, including the brand’s name and launch date, but said she’s busy with prep work.
“[Embracing] Made in Italy for me was a life decision, a way to think and see things,” the designer said. “Today with all that’s going on I think Made in Italy can provide valuable answers… it’s about bringing quality, know-how and artisanship back at the center of the [fashion] conversation,” she said.
Facchinetti exited Tod’s in 2016 after joining the luxury brand three years earlier, an eventful tenure that saw the brand make a ready-to-wear push and start holding runway shows during Milan Fashion Week. Before that, the former Gucci and Valentino head designer had worked with Pinko to launch the Uniqueness brand in 2011. In the 2006-07 period, she was creative director of the Moncler Gamme Rouge collection. Earlier in her career she worked at the Prada Group for the Miu Miu brand.
After parting ways with Tod’s, the designer moved to New York before kicking off a consulting career in the Far East, starting from China.
“I was looking for a challenge, to reset my [career] path and start again from scratch and I was asked to collaborate with a Chinese company tasked with teaching them a working method,” she said. “That was an incredible challenge at a time when China was proving a relevant market [for the luxury sector].”
In 2020 Facchinetti set up her own Atelier-01 consulting studio and joined Harlan + Holden, a South Korean ready-to-wear men’s and women’s start-up brand. She has worked with Weiden + Kennedy Agency on the rebranding and international communication and with David Chipperfield Architects on a new store concept.
Last year she partnered with Editions Milano, which produces and distributes high-end furniture, lighting and accessories, designing “Circle,” the company’s first foray into the world of porcelain ceramics. She has also designed costumes for an opera production with music by her father Roby Facchinetti, musician, singer and keyboardist of the band Pooh, dedicated to Parsifal, staged at the Arcimboldi theater last March.
“When I decided to reopen my studio, I wanted to express and channel my creativity and vision in different fields, not necessarily only fashion,” she said at the summit, adding she’s now consulting with companies in the Philippines and Indonesia.