Walter Chiapponi steps down as creative director

Fashion never stands still. Especially when it comes to the game of musical chairs that creative directors love to play, given the strategic importance the role has in the industry. The latest turnover happened at Blumarine, where Walter Chiapponi is stepping down after only one season in charge of style. The Italian designer, who was appointed in November 2023, after leaving Tod’s, managed to design only one collection at Milan Fashion Week, staging a co-ed show in February 2024. He bids the Italian womenswear label farewell only one month after the presentation of the first (and now only) media campaign he masterminded, and after the unveiling of the new logo he developed for Blumarine.

In a brief press release, Chiapponi said that the collection he designed for Blumarine was “a kind of return to the future, to which I dedicated all my love and creative passion,” adding that “following this journey, I would like to thank above all Marco Marchi, who made it possible, as well as all those without whom I would never have been able to express myself the way I did. I am referring to the people I have loved and are no longer with us, but who continue to instil powerful emotions in me, and to inspire my feelings and my journey. I would now like to focus on new initiatives and projects with a social and humanitarian content and, when the time is right, I will return to the runways.”
 
In the press release, Marchi, the CEO of holding company Eccellenze Italiane, spoke highly of Chiapponi, thanking him for his vision and commitment. “It was an experience that will remain unique, at a special time in Blumarine’s history. I am grateful to Walter Chiapponi for having put so much of himself in this collection, it was an extraordinary adventure and I wish him the best for the continuation of his career,” said Marchi.

Blumarine also defined Chiapponi’s collection as a “flash-back to his career’s early days, through which he has left […] a personal mark with a collection that, while being faithful to the design codes that characterised Blumarine’s clothes in the past, managed to reinterpret the brand in contemporary fashion.”
 
Chiapponi was born in Milan in 1978. He graduated from Istituto Europeo di Design, and debuted in fashion in the late 90s with Alessandro Dell’Acqua. He later collaborated with top-notch labels like Givenchy, Valentino, Gucci, Miu Miu, and Bottega Veneta, where he worked with Tomas Maier. In 2019, he embraced the challenge of designing Tod’s menswear and womenswear. It was the start of a highly successful period, for himself and for the label owned by Diego Della Valle. Chiapponi helped Tod’s to critical and popular success, also in terms of revenue and brand awareness, introducing the label within Italy’s fashion elite.

See catwalk

The success of Carpi-based womenswear label Blumarine was formerly linked to the design flair of Anna Molinari. In 2019, Marchi’s Eccellenze Italiane acquired the label. In 2020, Marchi hired Nicola Brognano as creative director, and Blumarine then launched into jewellery, and relaunched its childrenswear line for girls.
 
By appointing Chiapponi, Blumarine sought to orient its style in a more clearly defined direction. Several critics thought that, during Brognano’s nevertheless positive tenure, Blumarine was unable to infuse sufficient depth and innovation in its creations. Chiapponi was tasked with transforming the label into a fully fledged fashion house. Not an easy mission, which will now be taken on by his successor.