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Walter Chiapponi, former creative director of Tod’s, takes the helm of Blumarine. The 45-year-old Milanese designer had said goodbye to the Marche group’s brand with the collection presented last September during Milan fashion week. And now he is ready to become the creative guide of the most important brand in the fashion district of Carpi (Modena), born in 1977 from the creativity of Anna Molinari and until 2019 part of Blufin, the holding company of the founding family. That year, in fact, Blufin (with its brands, in addition to Blumarine also Blugirl and Anna Molinari), was taken over by Marco Marchi, president and founder of Liu Jo, who had simultaneously created the Eccellenze Italiane Holding hub and is curating a ambitious relaunch plan, which aims for his project to reach a total turnover of 500 million by the end of this year.
Returning to Chiapponi, he will present his first Blumarine collection during the Milan fashion week, in February 2024. «I am pleased to have been appointed creative director of an iconic Italian brand that has outlined over time a concept of femininity characterized by of lightness and creativity – commented the designer -. Being able to contribute to the construction of a new phase of Blumarine is for me the opportunity to embrace new, exciting and significant horizons, expand my vision and restore meaning to artistic expressiveness.” «I am proud to be able to write a new and significant chapter together with Walter – underlined CEO Marchi -. I am sure that Walter Chiapponi, with his internationally recognized talent and the profound stylistic sensitivity that distinguishes him, will be able to give new energy to Blumarine, while at the same time showing respect for the extraordinary heritage of the brand.”
The challenge is important, and the worlds are very distant: Chiapponi, who took over the creative leadership of Tod’s in October 2019, leaves a group that closed the first half of 2023 with over 569 million euros in revenues, an increase of 21.7 % year on year, a result to which the eponymous brand contributed with 283.3 million (+21.3%). Blumarine, as anticipated, is at the center of an important relaunch plan: when Marchi took over Blufin, therefore in 2019, the group’s revenues stood at around 22-23 million. Tod’s, for its part, has not yet named Chiapponi’s successor.