Meryll Rogge and Stefano Rosso on Marni’s New Era

Reported by Vogue.

The fashion industry spent the better part of two years playing musical chairs with creative directors, and most of the noise was exactly that — noise. Meryll Rogge's debut at Marni was the exception. Appointed by CEO Stefano Rosso to lead the 32-year-old OTB-owned label into its next chapter, Rogge landed her first runway collection with the kind of critical reception designers spend entire careers chasing: reverent toward founder Consuelo Castiglioni's DNA while making a clear, confident claim on the future. According to Vogue, the two sat down at the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly, France to unpack what exactly that future looks like.

The symmetry of a woman succeeding Castiglioni at Marni wasn't lost on anyone in the room — or, apparently, in the universe. But Rogge resists making gender the headline. What matters to her is that Marni was built by a woman designing for herself, and that founding instinct is the thread she's pulling. Rosso is equally pragmatic: "Talent has no gender," he said flatly, adding that refocusing on women's ready-to-wear — a category that had been underperforming — made Rogge's appointment feel as strategic as it was creative. The kismet angle, though, is hard to argue with. Rogge's very first paycheck, earned at Marc Jacobs in 2008, didn't go toward rent. It went straight to a pair of Marni shoes she'd been coveting for months.

What "Coloring Outside the Lines" Actually Means in 2026

Rosso distills Marni's brand essence into two words — modern elegance — and a single directive baked into the brand book: "color outside the lines." The label was born as a counterpoint to an industry obsessed with fitted silhouettes and all-black everything, offering color-blocking and geometric shapes as its rebuttal. That contrarian spirit is the inheritance Rogge is working with, not the literal archive. She's more interested in Marni's value system than in reproducing its catalog — though the archive will always have a seat at the table. For Fall 2026, the focus lands on the Trunkette bag (a reimagined version of the iconic Trunk), considered separates, strong knitwear, and jewelry, a category Rogge says has seen enormous growth and one she wore proudly on stage.

Globally, Asia — and Japan in particular, Marni's number-one market — is shaping how the brand thinks about physical retail. Rosso noted a decisive consumer shift toward uniqueness and experience during a post-Milan trip through the region. Foot traffic doesn't happen on autopilot anymore; clients need a reason to walk in, particularly in China, where boutique "maisons" offering immersive brand environments are replacing the standard mall-store model. Meanwhile, Rosso sees real runway in leather goods and footwear — categories where OTB has historically punched slightly below its weight compared to competitors, and where he believes Rogge gives them the creative firepower to close the gap.

When you love a brand before you work for it — when it shaped your teenage understanding of what fashion could be — you don't need an archive to tell you what it stands for.

Read the original at Vogue.