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Pitti Immagine strengthens Tutorship division with new head Luca Rizzi
Having launched in January 2016, the Pitti Tutorship is evolving. After the departure of former director Riccardo Vannetti, who left for a head marketing role at Salvatore Ferragamo in July, Pitti Immagine announced on Monday that Vannetti's successor is Luca Rizzi, highlighting the organisation's wishes to develop the program, which is angled at supporting emerging design talent.
Originally from Trente (in Italy's northeast), the 34-year-old economics and management graduate with a Masters in management from the European School of Economics in Milan, started his business career in the Tomorrow showroom (at the time called Futurenet Group).
After one year at trouser label Metradamo, Rizzi in 2011 joined the advisory firm Lagente, specialised in helping fashion brands and young designers, before launching his own business and strategy consulting agency in 2014, called Creative and More, whose activities will be suspended effective immediately.
Currently, Pitti Tutorship assists some 30 designers, ranging from debutant designers to more established creative directors, with half being Italian, the other half international designers. There are three people assigned to this division, which also relies on other areas of Pitti Immagine.
Meanwhile, the Tutorship structure looks to change from the new year, with the addition of Linda Loppa, co-founder of Flanders Fashion Institute, who has served as director of the Strategy and Vision platform at Polimoda since 2016. Loppa joins the Tutorship advisory alongside the former CEO of Onward Luxury Group, Franco Penè.
The goal is to expand the Pitti Tutorship to small and medium enterprises by offering them consultant services in relation to special projects and certain strategic angles such as commercial.
"We hope to strengthen this division and the strategies developed up until now in the tutorship," said head of the Florentine tradeshow group, Raffaello Napoleone.
At the same time, Pitti Immagine announced its support for label Ice Surface Temperature, as part of its selection for the International Fashion Showcase (IFS) during London Fashion Week, to be held from February 11 to 25.
The innovative urbanwear brand is piloted by Kristian Guerra and his sister Laura. The latter, spotted in the 2011 Trieste ITS competition, is part of the Pitti Tutorship.
The news comes as Pitti Uomo no longer delves into initiatives dedicated to young emerging designers. In June, the tradeshow stopped organising the fashion design competition for emerging talent, "Who is On Next? Men".
"Prizes for designers, there are too many of them in Italy. We want to stay out this type of competition," concluded Raffaello Napoleone.
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