Francesco Risso, former creative director at Prada and Marni, brings a unique artistic vision shaped by an adventurous childhood. He emphasizes the need for the fashion industry to slow down to rediscover love and craftsmanship in design. Risso shares insights on striking a balance between creativity and wearability while highlighting the importance of genuine collaboration. His journey reflects the essence of personal growth and transformation in fashion, underscoring the power of teamwork to push boundaries and reinvigorate creativity.
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insights INSIGHT
Slow Fashion Restores Value
Great clothes cannot be made in a single season or a click; they require time and depth.
Francesco argues the industry's relentless pace has eaten its own potential and needs to slow down.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Born On A Boat
Francesco was born on a sailing boat near Sardinia and his parents were adventurous and spontaneous.
He recalls a childhood of unexpected adventures that shaped his independent spirit.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Childhood Collages Sparked Design
As a child Francesco disrupted family wardrobes, collaging garments to make new pieces for himself.
That early hands-on making became his primary way to communicate and create beauty.
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Born in Sardinia on a sailing boat to self-described “adventurous” parents, Francesco Risso grew up in an environment that fostered independence, spontaneity and a deep need to create. After formative years at Polimoda, FIT and Central Saint Martins — where he studied under the late Louise Wilson — he joined Prada, learning firsthand how to fuse conceptual exploration with a product that resonates in everyday life.
Now at Marni, Risso continues to embrace a method he likens to an artist’s studio, championing bold experimentation and surrounding himself with collaborators who push each other to new heights of creativity.
“Creativity is … in the way we give love to the things that we make and then we give to people. I feel I don’t see so much of that love around,” says Risso. “We have to inject into products a strong and beautiful sense of making. That requires craft, it requires skills, it requires a lot of fatigue, it requires discipline.”
Risso joins BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed to explore how his unconventional childhood shaped his creative approach, why discipline and craft remain vital to fashion, and how meaningful collaboration can expand the boundaries of what’s possible.
Key Insights:
Growing up in a busy, non-traditional household, Risso learned to express himself by altering and reconstructing clothing he found in family closets. “I started to develop this need to make with my hands as a means to communicate,” he says. “I would find something in my grandmother’s closet, start to disrupt it and collage it to something from my sister’s wardrobe and we have a new piece.” This early experimentation laid the groundwork for his vision of and approach to design.
From Louise Wilson at Central Saint Martins to Miuccia Prada, Risso has absorbed the value of rigorous research, conceptual thinking and extended ideation. “You have to rely on your own strengths and your own capability to go and study, to go and research, to go and find your things,” he says. “That is key to me, to become a designer with a voice.”
Whether partnering with artists through an informal “residency” or collaborating with brands like Hoka, Risso insists that a great tie-up is never about simply sticking art on a T-shirt or rushing a gimmick. “Processes are about learning from each other … and that generates a body of work that then becomes either art or clothes.” His focus on genuine exchange expands the creative horizon for both Marni and its collaborators.
Risso’s advice to emerging designers is to appreciate the fundamentals of making in favour of more superficial aspirations. “I dare young people to be more focused on engaging with the making, rather than just projecting in the future,” he says. “A strong sense of making requires craft, it requires skills, it requires a lot of fatigue, it requires discipline.” This hands-on grounding, in his view, is essential for developing a lasting, meaningful design practice.
The Business of Fashion Podcast