Nicola Brognano Exits Blumarine
MILAN — Nicola Brognano is exiting Blumarine. According to a statement released by the company on Thursday, the designer and brand are parting ways by mutual agreement.
Brognano was appointed at the creative direction of the brand at the end of 2019, right after Blumarine’s parent company Blufin passed under the control of Italian entrepreneur Marco Marchi’s EIH Eccellenze Italiane group.
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Tapped by Marchi to revamp the storied Italian fashion house, known for its feminine romanticism, Brognano imprinted a strong Y2K aesthetic on the brand, bringing it back into the spotlight especially among younger generations.
Marchi said in a statement he was “satisfied with the work Nicola Brognano carried out so far.”
“Nicola has been able to interpret the codes of Blumarine, reoffering them in an original and contemporary way, thus revamping the interest in the brand among fashion professionals and customers,” said Marchi, who thanked the designer “for the great professionalism demonstrated in these four years of fruitful collaboration.”
Brognano underscored that serving as creative director of the brand “has profoundly enriched my professional, creative and human experience.”
“Bringing the brand back into the spotlight was a truly unique and exciting opportunity. I thank Marco Marchi for this chance and my team for the extraordinary work achieved together,” he said.
Born in 1990, Brognano graduated in fashion design from Milan’s Istituto Marangoni, before cutting his teeth at Giambattista Valli in Paris — working with the designer on both ready-to-wear and couture — as well as at Dolce & Gabbana Alta Moda.
He launched his namesake brand in 2016, the same year he won the “Who Is On Next?” contest promoted by AltaRoma with the support of Vogue Italia. Brognano’s own brand debuted in Milan in September 2017 and in few seasons charmed with interesting volumes and a young, spontaneous take on the feminine look. As reported, a menswear counterpart was added in 2019. The label was eventually put on hold when Brognano joined Blumarine.
The designer’s freshman collection for Blumarine was fall 2020, but his full takeover was revealed with his first runway show in Milan in September 2020 when he displayed a radical change of direction in the brand with a punchy debut lineup styled by Lotta Volkova.
At first the show left some fashion operators puzzled with its Paris Hilton-like early 2000s aesthetic, but it eventually turned out that the designer was among the very first to anticipate the Y2K wave that took over many catwalks and social media trends in the past couple of years.
Often walking the fine line between tacky and glamorous, Brognano’s first collections were rich in cropped tops, low-waist cuts, chiffon wrap dresses rendered in vibrant bubblegum pink, turquoise and acid green tones that quickly attracted celebrities and influencers to the brand, amplifying its popularity among digital generations.
Throughout the following efforts, he crystallized this narrative and the sassy, low-waist, high-hemline look even when stretching in different territories every season, transitioning from his muses’ girly ways to femme-fatale seductiveness, from Gothic mermaids to Joan of Arc– and cherub-inspired collections.
Denim, jersey and knitwear were go-to elements of his tenure, with utilitarian vibes increasingly infiltrating into Blumarine’s iconography next to the signature butterfly and rose symbols that Brognano leveraged.
A designer who usually doesn’t rely on seasonal inspirations but rather takes an instinctive visual approach to collections, Brognano also pressed on accessories at Blumarine releasing handbag collections seen as pivotal in expanding the scope of the brand and further cement his vision.
Over the past year, Blumarine additionally forged ties with other brands and retailers on special capsule collections, including the likes of Heaven by Marc Jacobs, Japanese shoe brand Suicoke and, most recently, Italian luxury retailer Modes.
As reported, Marchi acquired the Gruppo Blufin and its brands Blumarine, Blugirl, Anna Molinari and Be Blumarine from the founding Tarabini family in November 2019. The deal closely followed an acquisition by Eccellenze Italiane of a 15 percent stake in Italian retailer Coin SpA.
In 2021, Marchi, who’s also the founder of contemporary label Liu Jo, decided through his own fashion company Liu Jo Group to take over the licenses of Blufin’s contemporary and childrenswear lines, named Blugirl and Miss Blumarine, respectively. Blumarine was not part of the deal and continued to be managed separately by Blufin.
The creation of the Eccellenze Italiane conglomerate aims to boost the visibility and business of small and medium-sized Italian companies on the global scene and in 2019, ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic, Marchi said the final goal for the group was an initial public offering. Marchi planned a listing of the Liu Jo company in 2018, a project that he has said was postponed because of unfavorable market conditions.
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