Massimo Giorgetti Exits Emilio Pucci
MILAN — Emilio Pucci and Massimo Giorgetti are parting ways.
WWD was the first to report a possible exit of the creative director on April 3. Giorgetti will leave this month. It is understood his last collection for Pucci will be for resort 2018.
The contract was believed to be a three-year deal, but the two parties have mutually agreed not to renew it. Giorgetti joined the company in April 2015, succeeding Peter Dundas, and showed his first collection in September that year during Milan Fashion Week.
“This experience with Emilio Pucci, one of the most representative and historic brands in fashion, was an inspiring journey, which has also contributed to my professional growth,” Giorgetti said. “Today, my brand needs more and more of my attention and all of my energy. I would like to thank Laudomia Pucci, the LVMH Group, [chief executive officer] Mauro Grimaldi and all the Emilio Pucci’s team, for supporting me in this beautiful adventure.”
“We have decided in total agreement to end the partnership,” Grimaldi said. “I would like to thank, personally and on behalf of the company, Massimo Giorgetti for the great professionalism shown during these two years of collaboration.”
It is understood that Pucci has already interviewed a host of candidates but has yet to settle on his successor.
Emilio Pucci is controlled by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which acquired the brand in 2002 for 38 million euros, or $35.9 million at average exchange rates that year. The Italian company has experimented with a variety of designers, including Matthew Williamson and Christian Lacroix, both predecessors to Dundas.
Giorgetti is also the founder and designer of the Milan-based, independent MSGM brand, launched in 2009 and which he continues to lead. Born in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region in 1977, Giorgetti veered away from Dundas’ take on Pucci, which was focused on sexy, hyper-glamorous eveningwear, earning a model and “It” girl following including Poppy Delevingne, Gaia Repossi, Bianca Brandolini d’Adda and Natasha Poly. Giorgetti, who is known for his knack for prints and colors, steered Pucci in a younger, more playful direction, although his vision for the house at times failed to crystallize. Giorgetti has said it’s essential to strike the right balance with the past: “It would be too easy to use the archival prints, so we have to do it step by step.”
Established in 1947, Emilio Pucci is one of Italy’s storied jet-set brands of the Sixties, synonymous with dazzling prints on silk jersey, which the founder even applied to skiwear early in his career, pioneering a lifestyle approach to fashion.
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