Meryll Rogge and Stefano Rosso on Marni’s New Era
The creative director and CEO spoke to Nicole Phelps at the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly about “new luxury”, the role of the archives, and who the Marni man and woman are today.
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.
Stefano Rosso and Meryll Rogge discussed the future of Marni on stage in a fireside chat hosted by Nicole Phelps.
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.
