Riccardo Tisci has a brand new job... at Italian Vogue

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Sep 8, 2017

Riccardo Tisci – long mentioned as the eventual successor of Donatella Versace - has a brand new job. But with a magazine, not at a fashion house.
 

And he kicks off his new position in public on Sept. 22 in Milan during the city’s next fashion week, as creative of “The New Beginning” a multimedia event in Ex Scalo Farini, a massive former railway depot that brands like Gucci and Diesel have used for runway shows.
 
The soirée “will officially celebrate the new course of Vogue Italia,” insisted Condé Nast Italia, owner Vogue Italia, in a press release.

“To me, Renaissance is the word that best describes Italy. So, as fil rouge of the event, I decided to work around the poem that, more than any other, represents the pride of our Country: the Divina Commedia,” explained Tisci.
 
The 43-year-old Italian, who was brought up in Como, the lakeside city 40 kilometers north of Milan, left his position as creative director of Paris-based Givenchy after 12 years at the helm in January. Since then, there has been enormous speculation about the next project of the critically admired Tisci. Though he was expected to land at another luxury brand – and not a monthly glossy magazine.
 
“Vogue Italia has always had an international vision but, today, our aim is to strongly emphasize its Italian roots and the deep changes that the country and its fashion system are experimenting. For this reason we asked Riccardo Tisci, one of the world’s most listened-to Italian voices, to contribute to the project,” said Emanuele Farneti, who was appointed editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, following the death of Franca Sozzani late last year.
 
Though Farneti has expressed a determination in his September issue to emphasize the Italianness of his title, he has also actively courted foreign creative types. Notably in his August issue, which features a 40-page plus feature shot by Hedi Slimane, the former designer of both Dior Homme and Yves Saint Laurent.
 
 “Today a designer can’t merely do his job. This is why I am overjoyed to collaborate to this project: to celebrate Italy, a reality that I am proud to represent. Vogue Italia has always been and, I know will continue to be, the expression of a mutual dream, not only in terms of style,” added Tisci.
 
The format of the evening, by invitation, “will see not only the attendance of the Italian and international fashion system, but also of a wider and mainly younger audience,” said Condé Nast Italia, without explaining very much about what one could expect of the event.