Updated Nov. 10 2:38 p.m. EST
MILAN — The Milan fashion scene was shaken Friday by the news that Davide Renne, newly named creative director of Moschino, has died of undisclosed causes at 46.
“There are no words to describe the pain we are experiencing at this dramatic time. Davide joined us only a few days ago, when a sudden illness took him from us too soon. We still can’t believe what happened,” said Massimo Ferretti, chairman of Moschino’s parent company Aeffe SpA. “With Davide, we were working on an ambitious project in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and optimism for the future. Even though he was only with us for a very short time, Davide was able to immediately make himself loved and respected. Today we are left with the responsibility of carrying on what his imagination and creativity had only envisioned. Our deepest sympathies go to his family and friends.”
Hailing from Gucci, Renne started working at Moschino on Nov. 1, and his first collection was to debut for fall 2024 in February during Milan Fashion Week. He succeeded Jeremy Scott, who exited the brand last March after a 10-year tenure.
Ferretti told WWD at the time of the appointment that “the meeting with Davide was immediately enlightening. Already in our first talks I appreciated his aesthetic sensibility and the ability to see the different levels of interpretation that Franco Moschino always inserted within his creations.”
In addition, Ferretti said Renne has “immediately shown an approach that is extremely polite and respectful, which reflects our company culture where the values connected to the family and the sense of belonging are still the foundations of our daily life.”
Renne designed women’s collections for two decades at Gucci, eventually becoming head designer of womenswear, and at Moschino, he was due to oversee women’s, men’s and accessories collections.
“My sweet friend, inseparable brother, great love. What an extraordinary and unforgettable journey we took together,” wrote Gucci’s former creative director Alessandro Michele in a touching post on his Instagram account. “How many laughs and unbridled joy. How many irrational dreams we followed. And how we tightly embraced one another, our hearts racing. Because you were not only one of the most talented creatives I ever met. You were especially an irreplaceable part of a small rickety family. Ours, the one we chose to build with all the love in the world. Today, I can’t not cry for you desperately. In this rainy day in which I miss you as I would miss breathing, I wish so much I could embrace you and tell you, once again, that everything will be alright.”
Upon his appointment at Moschino, Renne penned a letter praising Michele, with whom he worked for eight years, and who “taught me to dream bigger and pushed me further ahead, and helped me to make my dreams come true. Fashion, like life, is about discovering ourselves. I dislike fashion that dictates answers — I’m more inclined to find the right question, then the answers come in the designer’s dialogue with our audience: fashion is inherently bespoke.”
His first steps in fashion were at Alessandro Dell’Acqua, whom Renne described as his “first teacher and mentor in fashion,” before moving on to Gucci.
“The premature death of Davide really shook me up. He was a kind man, in addition to being an excellent creative talent with proven experience, and he left us too soon,” Dell’Acqua said on Friday. “I can’t find other words and I can only express my sincere closeness to his loved ones.”
“We are never ready when death comes by and even more so when it takes with it a man that is still young with a strong yet sweet character at the same time,” said Patrizio di Marco, former president and CEO of Gucci, now chairman and shareholder of End and Autry, as well as a shareholder in Golden Goose. “He was a really lovely young man of great talent who would have done great things for a prestigious brand such as Moschino.”
“Dear Davide, life, people, made us drift apart but you know that since that first day many years ago I believed in you and we helped each other to ‘grow’ together. I will never forget the ‘Smurfette’ dresses you designed for me and the laughs we shared,” said Frida Giannini, who worked with Renne as a former Gucci creative director. “You were a good soul, I always missed you and now even more. And I will never forget those endless steps we took when you were the only gentleman who accompanied me in tears to the car in my last day together….You will always be in my heart. Yours, Frida.”
At the time of his appointment, Renne said “Franco Moschino had a nickname for his design studio: la sala giochi — the playroom. This resonates deeply with me: what fashion — Italian fashion especially, and the house of Moschino most of all — can achieve with its enormous power should be accomplished with a sense of play, of joy. A sense of discovery and experimentation.”
In his letter, Renne shed some light on his life, which had taken him “through a journey of discovery: after all, I was born in 1977 in Follonica, Tuscany, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, a magical body of water, according to Greek mythology, the cliffs above the Tyrrhenian housed the four winds kept by Aeolus.”
While in high school, “for some mysterious reason I kept drawing women’s clothes,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, I figured I’d go on to study architecture, but enrolling at Polimoda in Florence endowed me with a sense of absolute freedom, paving the way for a journey of creativity that, I soon discovered, became my life.”