Marni CEO Stefano Rosso brought Meryll Rogge on as creative director during a time when the fashion industry was going through a major creative reset. It was easy for designers making their debuts to get lost in the noise, but that didn’t happen to Rogge. Her first runway collection for the 32-year-old OTB-owned label was widely praised—including by Vogue Runway—for staying true to founder Consuelo Castiglioni’s aesthetic while also marking the start of a fresh chapter for 2026 and beyond.
Earlier this month, at the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly, France, Meryll Rogge and Stefano Rosso sat down to talk about what’s next for Marni.
Vogue: Let’s start with my colleague Tiziana Cardini’s review of your debut. She wrote, “With Marni back in a woman’s hands, it karmically feels like the universe is tidying itself up.” Meryll, what do you see as the pros and cons of being a woman designer?
Meryll: That’s not an easy question to start with [laughs]. I think what’s important in our case is that the brand’s founder was a woman, and from what I understand, the brand really came from a desire to design for herself.
Stefano: For us, talent has no gender. Talent is talent, and we were looking for the best person to take Marni into its next creative chapter. We believe Meryll has everything it takes to do that. The fact that she’s a woman is probably an added bonus, because we really wanted to refocus attention on women’s ready-to-wear, which had been struggling a bit for the company in recent years. So it was a natural choice, but mainly because we saw amazing creative talent in Meryll.
Read More: “It’s Powerful to See a Woman at the Helm”: First Reactions to Meryll Rogge’s Marni, by Lucy Maguire
Vogue: Meryll, I’d like the audience to hear about your first paycheck from your first big job in fashion. You bought something that might show how this new job was meant to be. Can you tell us what it was?
Meryll: It’s true. I started my career in 2008 at Marc Jacobs in New York, and with my very first paycheck, instead of paying the rent that was due, I went straight to a store uptown and bought a pair of Marni shoes that I’d been eyeing for months. So that was my very first purchase ever with my very first paycheck.
Vogue: So it seems like this job was meant to be. I felt that too when I was in the Marni showroom with you a couple of days before your show. You had picked out key moments from Consuelo Castiglioni’s early collections, and people noticed the connections you were making between Marni then and Marni now. Looking ahead, do you see the archives playing a permanent role? How do you plan to use them?
Meryll: What we’re interested in doing is working from the spirit of Marni: what the brand means, what its values are, and how we can move the brand forward in a new context—a new world, let’s say. I think we’ll focus more on the value system than on the actual archive, even though the archive will always have a role.
Vogue: Stefano, can you talk about Marni’s values?
Stefano: Two words: modern elegance. We strongly believe in having a point of view that stands a bit outside the lines. In fact, in our brand book, we have a core phrase: “color outside the lines.” I truly believe that perfectly represents what Marni is.
When the company started, fitted dresses and dark colors were in style, but Marni interpreted modern elegance in a different way—with color-blocking and geometric shapes. We believe we need to offer customers a sophisticated elegance that can be worn at any time of day. It’s not just for special occasions; it’s really for everyday use. I think that’s the brand’s history, and it’s what we’re trying to build together with Meryll, who is great at it.
Stefano Rosso and Meryll Rogge discussed the future of Marni on stage in a firSide Chat Hosted by Nicole Phelps
Photo: Acielle / Style Du Monde
Vogue: Not long after Milan Fashion Week, you went to Asia together. I’m curious about what you took away from that trip and how those markets are shaping the overall strategy for the brand.
Stefano: For us, Asia is a very important region. Japan is by far our number one market. We really wanted to go together to see how the market is doing and understand what customers need—what they want, what they’re wearing, how they behave, and their social environment. It was a really interesting trip because we noticed a shift and a clear move toward uniqueness.
These days, customers don’t just walk into a store without a reason. There has to be a purpose, especially in China. Building strong client relationships is very important. Creating a space where clients can come and experience the brand beyond just clothing is really essential. We’ve seen the rise of these new houses—brands with their own standalone spaces, not just big mall stores like before. Why? Because these are places where customers can spend time in the brand’s world, but in a more relaxed way. This will influence how we develop our presence there. And, you know, it’s always very inspiring. When I go to Japan, I often see 10, 20, even 100 kids on the streets whose style I’d love to have—it’s so unique. The way they express themselves is really fashion-forward.
Vogue: What are the fall 2026 pieces that buyers are responding to? What are you really pushing?
Meryll: We’re all really excited about the launch of the Trunkette bag, which is a new take on the Trunk bag. The show was designed with wardrobing in mind, so we thought of looks as separate pieces. I like it when customers have the chance to build their own outfits. Knitwear will also be a big focus because it’s a category that usually does very well. And honestly, I think we have some of the best knitwear out there—beautiful textures, techniques, and really nice shapes.
Marni FW26
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Vogue: Stefano, anything you’d like to add?
Stefano: In this market, it’s very important to speed up our leather goods business—shoes and bags. At OTB, we’ve always been strong in ready-to-wear, and we’ve also had great success with shoes and leather goods. But compared to other competitors, I think there’s still a lot of room to grow. I’m generally optimistic that, together with Meryll, we’ll make good progress—starting with the Trunkette, but we have more coming.
Meryll: Especially jewelry. We’ve seen a huge increase in jewelry sales, and I’m proudly wearing some today. That’s an important pillar for Marni, both historically and now.
Vogue: Meryll, your appointment came during a big reshuffling of creative directors. I think there were about 18 new designers in new roles this season and the one before. How has this time of change helped you? Or does it make your job more challenging?
Meryll: I feel like we’ve witnessed a kind of historic shift—a generational change that doesn’t happen often. Of course, my appointment came a season later, so I had the luxury of watching it all unfold. On the other hand, I can’t really say it affected how I approached this job. Every brand has its own story and its own unique chance to connect with a new creative director. In my case, what’s special and very rare is that I discovered Marni at the same time I discovered fashion—as a teenager, it really shaped how I see fashion—and I was also a customer. That’s pretty unusual, I think, in the middle of all this reshuffling. So it’s a great privilege for me to work with a brand I’ve always loved and still love.
Vogue: The OTB brands—besides Marni, there’s Margiela…Brands like Marni, Jil Sander, and Diesel are different from LVMH or Kering brands, which date back to the early 1900s—or, in Louis Vuitton’s case, the 1800s. OTB brands are newer, born in the ’80s and ’90s, and I wonder if their relative youth affects how they handle heritage and legacy.
Stefano: That’s an interesting question. In our case, we really grew out of opportunity. It all started with Diesel, and its lifestyle was shaped by my father [Renzo Rosso] and the group of people he brought into the company. They wanted to reshape fashion with a bold vision of denim and casual wear.
I think it worked because it stayed true to the people behind the company and how they worked. As this talented group evolved, more opportunities came. Through buying Staff International, we got involved with Margiela, Viktor & Rolf, and later Jil Sander and Marni. What they all share is a unique edge, which is a big part of our group. OTB stands for Only the Brave—we always look at things from a different angle, and we always want to boost and support creativity. Even today, one of our strengths is that we truly put creativity at the center of everything. Honestly, we’ve often left money on the table because we wanted to back creatives, support creativity, and do things a bit differently.
Now, our main focus with Marni is to position ourselves in a new category. We call it ‘new luxury.’ It’s different from traditional heritage luxury brands because we interact with clients in a different way. Traditional luxury brands often seem distant, making people dream of reaching the top. New luxury brands, on the other hand, focus on conversation. It’s more about: let’s do something together, let’s talk. Our communication is more two-way—we build collections by listening to what clients want, involving them in the discussion, and offering them something in return.
So it’s a different approach and perspective. And I think that’s still our advantage, and it’s why we’ll keep investing in these brands with unique viewpoints.
Meryll Rogge, Nicole Phelps, and Stefano Rosso at the Vogue Business Global Summit gala dinner.
Photo: Jason Lloyd-Evans
Vogue: How do you find and recruit talent? What’s the secret to landing such a great group of designers? Not just Meryll, but also Glenn Martens at Diesel and Margiela, Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander…
Stefano: We’re never afraid to take risks. People often say we give space to young, up-and-coming talent, and I think that’s been key to our success in recent years. But we also had the courage to give someone like John Galliano a chance to return to the industry.
We don’t like to outsource scouting to agencies or middlemen. We really look at young talents—talk to them, understand their personality, and if they fit with our group’s DNA and values—then we add that extra bit of bravery, and sometimes luck.
Vogue: Let’s talk about your working relationship. Meryll, this is a new role for you. You have your own label, and being a creative director at a much larger brand is a new experience. How’s it going? What are you learning from each other?
Meryll: Our conversation started long before I actually took the position. We talked a lot beforehand about vision, what we wanted to bring, and whether we were aligned—which ties back to your earlier question about how they find talent.
I think there’s a genuine understanding of creativity at OTB that doesn’t need outside approval. If they know something is right, it’s right. That’s an amazing thing about OTB: they trust their instincts.We have a very natural way of working together, I’d say. It ranges from biweekly lunches to WhatsApp messages, and Stefano’s office being right next to mine. We have real conversations and open dialogue about things like: what matters for the brand? Where should we focus right now? What are we saving for the future? We make sure we’re aligned on priorities. I feel like we have a similar approach to collaboration. Sometimes, we even show up at the same events without telling each other.
Meryll Rogge SS26.
Photo: Courtesy of Meryll Rogge
Vogue: Stefano, you became Marni’s CEO in 2024, and Renzo said, “Stefano will have the important responsibility of speeding up Marni’s position in the luxury market.” How are you tackling that?
Stefano: The biggest challenge is probably the hardest one: how to attract new customers to the brand. We’re still a relatively small company compared to our competitors. And the toughest thing in today’s environment is really getting new people to notice the brand, helping them understand what Marni stands for, what we offer, why we have a unique take on fashion and clothing, where our creativity comes from, and what our DNA is.
I think that’s the hardest challenge right now, when the market and customers are a bit disconnected from fashion. It’s probably the most difficult, but also the most fun thing to do. And that’s what we’ve been working on with Meryll: figuring out how to bring this new wave of customers to see what Marni is today and what the next 10 years of Marni will be.
Vogue: Francis Bellin, the CEO of Mytheresa, talked today about the same thing: the importance of knowing who your customer is. Meryll, who do you think of as the Marni man and woman, and who might they be in the future?
Meryll: When I think about Marni’s longtime customers, as well as the newer ones, I think they share one thing: they’re people who are generally interested in culture as a whole. There’s something that connects them through a broad interest in aesthetics. I think the next generation of customers are younger people who are just discovering the brand and don’t know what it used to be. So they’ll come to the brand with a fresh, new perspective. And I think that’s our mission: to try to explain what it means, what the values are, and how we can move it forward.
Stefano: It’s not just our mission—I think it should be the mission of the whole industry. If we don’t realize that today’s customers don’t see the value in the luxury items we’re bringing to market, then we have a big problem. So I think we need to step back and really teach them the basics. What’s the content we’re offering? What’s the added value? Where’s the quality? Because a lot of this younger generation doesn’t understand it, doesn’t see it, and that’s actually why they don’t want to invest in luxury goods anymore. I think it’s our duty to educate them, because we take too much for granted that just because something is very expensive, it’s high quality.
It’s not as simple as it used to be. So it’s very important to bring more elements to the table, more education—that’s the only way I think this industry can survive.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here is a list of FAQs about Meryll Rogge and Stefano Rosso discussing the new direction for Marni
BeginnerLevel Questions
1 Who are Meryll Rogge and Stefano Rosso
Meryll Rogge is the new creative director of Marni Stefano Rosso is the chairman of Marnis parent company OTB Group
2 What is the new direction for Marni
It means Marni is moving away from its very colorful avantgarde style toward a more refined minimalist and wearable aesthetic while still keeping the brands artistic spirit
3 Why is Marni changing direction
The brand wants to grow its customer base and be more commercially successful while staying true to its creative roots Its a balance between art and business
4 Is Marni getting rid of its bold colorful designs
Not completely The new direction will tone down the wild patterns and focus on cleaner shapes neutral colors and subtle details but the playful experimental soul will remain
5 When will this new direction start
Meryll Rogges first collection for Marni will debut in early 2025 for the FallWinter 2025 season
AdvancedLevel Questions
6 How does Meryll Rogges background influence this new vision
Rogge worked at Dries Van Noten and was a cofounder of the label Rokh Her experience with luxurious intellectual minimalism and sharp tailoring aligns perfectly with the cleaner more sophisticated direction Marni is taking
7 What specific changes can we expect in the collections
Expect simpler silhouettes a more muted color palette less reliance on prints and a focus on fabric quality and construction Accessories and outerwear will likely become more central
8 How does Stefano Rosso view the balance between creativity and commerce
Rosso believes that for a brand to survive it must be profitable He supports Rogges artistic vision but emphasizes that the collections need to be desirable and sellable to a wider audience not just a niche group