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Background:
Born in Sardinia on a sailing boat to self-described “adventurous” parents, Francesco Risso grew up in an environment that fostered independence, spontaneity and a deep need to create. After formative years at Polimoda, FIT and Central Saint Martins — where he studied under the late Louise Wilson — he joined Prada, learning firsthand how to fuse conceptual exploration with a product that resonates in everyday life.
Now at Marni, Risso continues to embrace a method he likens to an artist’s studio, championing bold experimentation and surrounding himself with collaborators who push each other to new heights of creativity.
“Creativity is … in the way we give love to the things that we make and then we give to people. I feel I don’t see so much of that love around,” says Risso. “We have to inject into products a strong and beautiful sense of making. That requires craft, it requires skills, it requires a lot of fatigue, it requires discipline.”
Risso joins BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed to explore how his unconventional childhood shaped his creative approach, why discipline and craft remain vital to fashion, and how meaningful collaboration can expand the boundaries of what’s possible.
Key Insights:
- Growing up in a busy, non-traditional household, Risso learned to express himself by altering and reconstructing clothing he found in family closets. “I started to develop this need to make with my hands as a means to communicate,” he says. “I would find something in my grandmother’s closet, start to disrupt it and collage it to something from my sister’s wardrobe and we have a new piece.” This early experimentation laid the groundwork for his vision of and approach to design.
- From Louise Wilson at Central Saint Martins to Miuccia Prada, Risso has absorbed the value of rigorous research, conceptual thinking and extended ideation. “You have to rely on your own strengths and your own capability to go and study, to go and research, to go and find your things,” he says. “That is key to me, to become a designer with a voice.”
- Whether partnering with artists through an informal “residency” or collaborating with brands like Hoka, Risso insists that a great tie-up is never about simply sticking art on a T-shirt or rushing a gimmick. “Processes are about learning from each other … and that generates a body of work that then becomes either art or clothes.” His focus on genuine exchange expands the creative horizon for both Marni and its collaborators.
- Risso’s advice to emerging designers is to appreciate the fundamentals of making in favour of more superficial aspirations. “I dare young people to be more focused on engaging with the making, rather than just projecting in the future,” he says. “A strong sense of making requires craft, it requires skills, it requires a lot of fatigue, it requires discipline.” This hands-on grounding, in his view, is essential for developing a lasting, meaningful design practice.