Marni CEO Stefano Rosso installed Meryll Rogge as creative director in the midst of an industry-wide creative reset. It was easy for designers making their debuts to get lost in the noise. That did not happen to Rogge. Her first runway collection for the 32-year-old OTB-owned label was critically lauded, including by Vogue Runway, for being true to founder Consuelo Castiglioni’s aesthetic, while marking the start of a fresh chapter for 2026 and beyond.

At the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly, France, earlier this month, Meryll Rogge and Stefano Rosso discussed Marni’s next era.

Vogue: Let’s start with my colleague Tiziana Cardini’s review of your debut. She wrote that, “with Marni back in a woman’s hands, it karmically feels like the universe is tidying itself up.” Meryll, what are the pluses and minuses of being a woman designer as you see them?

Meryll: Starting with not an easy question [laughs]. I think what’s important in our case is that the founder of the brand was a woman, and, from what I understood, the brand really originated from a sense of wanting to design for herself.

Stefano: For us, talent has no gender. A talent is a talent, and we were looking for the best talent to take Marni to its next creative chapter, and we believe that Meryll has all it takes to do it. The fact that she’s a woman, it’s probably added value, because we really wanted to focus this new period of bringing back the attention and the focus on women’s ready-to-wear, which had been struggling a little for the company in the last few years. So it was a natural choice, but mainly because we recognized in Meryll an amazing creative talent.

Vogue: Meryll, I want the audience to hear about your first paycheck from your first big job in fashion. You bought something that maybe shows how this new job was kismet. Will 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 a few months. So that was my very first purchase ever with the very first paycheck.

Vogue: So, it seems like this job was meant to be, and I had that feeling too when I was in the Marni showroom with you a couple of days before your show. You had chosen key moments in Consuelo Castiglioni’s early collections and people noted the connections you were making between Marni then and Marni now. Talking about the road forward, do you see the archives playing an important role permanently? 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 the values of the brand are, and how we can bring the brand forward in a new context, a new world, let’s say. I think really what we will be focusing on is the value system, even more than the actual archive, even though the archive will always play a role.

Vogue: Stefano, can you talk about the Marni values?

Stefano: Two words: modern elegance. We believe a lot in having a point of view that stands a bit outside the lines. As a matter of fact, in our brand book, we have an essence phrase that is, “color outside the lines,” and I truly believe it represents perfectly what Marni is.

When the company started, there was a moment of fitted dresses and all dark colors, and Marni was interpreting modern elegance in a different way with color-blocking and geometric shapes. We believe that we need to bring to customers a sophisticated elegance that can be worn at every moment of the day. It’s not just for occasions, it’s really for everyday use. I think this was the history of the brand, and it’s what we’re trying to build together with Meryll, who is great at it.

Vogue: Not long after Milan Fashion Week, you went to Asia together. I’m curious about your takeaways from that trip and how those markets are shaping the overall strategy at the brand.

Stefano: For us, Asia is a very important region; Japan is our number one country by far. We really wanted to go together to see how the market is, and understand together what the customers need: what they want, what they’re wearing, the way they behave, their social environment. And it was quite an interesting trip, because we realized there’s a shift and a clear movement toward uniqueness.

Clients today don’t instinctively walk inside a store. There needs to be a reason to go, especially in China. Clienteling is very important. Developing an environment where clients can come and experience the brands beyond simply clothing — it’s really fundamental. We’ve seen the rise of these new houses, the maisons beyond the big shopping mall stores that we used to see. Why? Because these are environments where a customer can come and spend some time within the brand environment, but in a more relaxed way. It’s something that will impact the way we are developing our presence there. And, you know, it’s always very inspiring. When I go to Japan, I always see 10, 20, 100 kids walking on the streets, who I would really like to have their style because it’s so unique. The way they express themselves, it’s really fashion-forward.

Vogue: What are the fall 2026 pieces that buyers are responding to? What are you putting a big push behind?

Meryll: We’re all really excited about the launch of the Trunkette bag, which is a reinterpretation of the Trunk bag. The show was designed with the idea of wardrobing in mind, so we really thought about looks as separates. I like it when the consumer has the opportunity to build their own look. And knitwear obviously will be a big thing as well, because it’s a category that generally does really well. And I think we have some of the best of it, to be honest. Beautiful textures and techniques, and just really nice shapes.

Vogue: Stefano, anything you’d like to add?

Stefano: In this market, what’s very important is to accelerate in the leather goods business, so shoes and bags. With OTB, we’ve always been great in ready-to-wear, and we have great successes as well with shoes and leather goods. But versus other competitors, I believe there is still a lot of space to grow, and I’m generally positive that, together with Meryll, we will make some good steps ahead — starting with the Trunkette, but we have more things coming.

Meryll: Especially jewelry. We’ve seen an enormous increase in the jewelry, which I’m proudly wearing today. That’s an important pillar for Marni, both historically and today.

Vogue: Meryll, your appointment came amid a great reshuffling of creative directors. There were a dozen and a half, I think, new designers in new jobs this season and the one before. How do you feel this time of change has helped you? Or how does it make your job more challenging?

Meryll: I feel like we witnessed kind of a historical shift, a generational shift, which doesn’t happen often. Of course, my appointment came a season after, so I had the luxury to observe it all. On the other hand, I cannot really say that it affected my way of going into this job. Each brand has its own story, has its own unique opportunity to connect with a new creative director. In my particular case, what’s unique and very rare is that not only did I discover Marni at the time that I discovered fashion — as a teenager, it really shaped my vision of fashion — but I was also a client. This is a very rare thing, I think, amid this whole reshuffle. So it’s a great privilege for me to be able to do this within a brand that I generally have loved and still love.

Vogue: The OTB brands — in addition to Marni, there’s Margiela, Jil Sander and Diesel, for starters — are unlike LVMH or Kering brands, which go back to the early 20th century, or in the case of Louis Vuitton, the 19th century. OTB brands were born more recently, in the ’80s and ’90s, and I wonder if their relative newness affects how heritage and legacy are handled?

Stefano: It’s an interesting question. In our specific case, we really grew out of, if you want, opportunity. Everything started with Diesel, and the lifestyle of Diesel was the lifestyle of my father [Renzo Rosso] and the bunch of people that he brought into the company who really wanted to reshape the fashion environment through this great vision of denim and casual wear.

I believe it was very successful because it stuck honestly to the people who made the company and the way they were working. And with the evolution of this solid group of talented people, things came. Thanks to the acquisition of Staff International, we approached Margiela, Viktor & Rolf, and then Jil Sander and Marni. What they have in common is their unique edginess that’s a big part of our group. OTB means Only the Brave — we always look at things with a different perspective; we always want to enhance and empower creativity. And still today, I think one of the advantages that we have is that we really put creativity at the center of what we do. A lot of time, trust me, we left a lot of money on the table because we wanted to support creatives, creativity, and do things a bit outside the box.

Now, I think the big focus for us with Marni is really to put ourselves into a new specific cluster. We call it ‘new luxury’. It’s different from the standard heritage luxury brands, because I think the way we interact with clients is different. Standard luxury brands tend to be high up in the sky and look down, making people dream about possibly reaching the peak of the mountain. Meanwhile, new luxury brands tend to have a conversation. It’s more about: let’s do something together, let’s have a conversation. The way we do communication, it’s more two ways — we build collections by looking at what clients want, involving them in the conversation, and bringing something to them.

So it’s a different approach and a different perspective. And that, I think, is still our edge and it’s going to make us keep investing in these brands that have a unique perspective.

Vogue: Talk about identifying and recruiting talent. What is the secret sauce that has landed you this great pool of designers? Not just Meryll, but Glenn Martens at Diesel and Margiela, Simone Bellotti at Jil Sander…

Stefano: We are never scared of taking chances. We’re always portrayed as trying to give space to young, upcoming talents, and that was, I think, the key to our success in the last few years. But we also had the courage to give the opportunity to a talent like John Galliano to come back into the industry.

We don’t like to outsource scouting to agencies or brokers. We really look at young talents — have a conversation with them, understand their personality, and if they fit within the group DNA and values — then we add that salt and pepper of braveness and sometimes also luck.

Vogue: Let’s hear about your working relationship. Meryll, you are in a new position for yourself. 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 way before I actually began the position. There was a lot of communication beforehand in terms of vision, what we wanted to bring, if we were aligned, which brings us to the previous question: how do they find the talent?

I think there’s a genuine understanding of creativity that doesn’t need any external validation. If they know it’s right, it’s right. That’s an amazing thing about OTB: that genuine understanding. How we work together is very natural, I would say. It goes from biweekly lunches to Whatsapp to Stefano’s office being very close to mine, and to really having conversations and open dialogue and communication about: what’s important for the brand? Where do we want to focus now? What’s in reserve for the future? And to really be aligned on what are the priorities. I feel like we have a very similar approach to collaboration. Sometimes, we even go to events without telling each other, and find each other there.

Vogue: Stefano, you were appointed Marni CEO in 2024, and Renzo said, “Stefano will have the important responsibility of fast-tracking Marni’s positioning in the luxury market.” How would you say you’re tackling that assignment?

Stefano: The big challenge is probably the most difficult one: how to bring new clients to the brand, because we’re still a relatively small company, if we look at our competitors. And the most difficult thing in this environment today is really to bring new eyeballs to the brand, making them understand what Marni stands for, what we have to offer, why we have a unique perspective on fashion, on clothing, where our creativity’s coming from, what our DNA is.

I think that’s the hardest challenge in a moment when the market and the clients are a bit disengaged with fashion. I think it’s probably the most difficult, but as a matter of fact, also the most fun thing to do. And it’s what we’ve been working with Meryll on: to really understand how we can bring this new wave of clients 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 this very thing: the value of knowing who your client is. Meryll, who do you think of as the Marni man and woman, and who are the potential Marni man and woman of the future?

Meryll: When I think about Marni’s historical client, but also the more recent client, I think they have one thing in common: they are people who are generally interested in culture at large. There’s something that connects them in an interest in aesthetics at large. I think the next generation of clients are the younger generation, who’s just only discovering the brand and don’t have the knowledge of what it used to be. So they are going to go into the brand with a new and fresh perspective. And I think that’s our mission: to try to explain to them what it means, what the values are, and how we can bring it forward.

Stefano: It’s not only our mission, I think it should be the mission of the industry. If we don’t understand that today’s customers don’t get the value of the luxury items that we’re taking to the market, then we have a big problem. So I think we need to step back and really teach and tell them the basic things. What’s the content that we are proposing? What’s the added value that we are proposing? Where is the quality? Because a lot of this young generation don’t understand it, don’t see it, and as a matter of fact, that’s the reason why they don’t want to invest in luxury goods anymore. I think it’s our duty to teach them, because I think we take too much for granted the fact that if simply 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 to the table more components, more education — that’s the only way I think this industry can survive.