A Progressive Romance: Lorenzo Serafini Shares His Vision for Alberta Ferretti
By Luke Leitch
February 24, 2025
“Many poets have said it much better than I can. And nearly all of us have felt it, or long to feel it. What I’m talking about is that feeling when your world lurches beautifully: when an existence that had seemed fixed and predictable suddenly moves, becomes almost a little blurred, and it makes your heart beat faster and your stomach flip.”
As he gesticulates from a banquette in Milan’s Sant Ambroeus, Lorenzo Serafini is discussing the galvanizing emotional earthquake of romance. He adds: “What seems strange to me is that today when romance comes up in fashion it is mostly a nostalgic value, almost like a period piece, but never modern or for the future. But I think that because romance is eternal, it must also be modern. So what we’re exploring is this: what does it look like to be romantic but also progressive—a woman who lives in love and the now?”
The suddenness of romance’s emotional earthquake effect coincidentally mirrors Serafini’s own current professional state of potential-filled tumult. Or as he puts it: “It has been a very intense few months, and very exciting too.” Last September Serafini was gearing up for his 10th anniversary year at the helm of Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, a label which started life back in 1984 as the diffusion line of Alberta Ferretti. Then, in what Serafini insists was a “total shock” to him and almost everyone in the company, Ferretti herself announced that she was stepping down from the creative directorship of her mainline label—which itself has been showing in Milan since 1981. The following month, Serafini was unveiled as her successor and immediately set to work on his debut collection in that role. “So it’s really been non-stop.”
Tomorrow night, Serafini presents his first Alberta Ferretti show. Its location is Palazzo Donizetti, the Art Nouveau-inflected 1920s pile that has acted as the company’s showroom since 1994. Serafini is no stranger to the place: in his role at Philosophy, his studio was based on an upper floor of the building. “The capacity is going to be a lot smaller than at Alberta’s shows,” said Lorenzo: “but I wanted to invite the audience into our Milan home in order to say that while the person coming out after the show is new, the identity of the label remains as strong as it has been for over 40 years.”
As Serafini shows me pictures of the collection’s toiles, he says. “I’m working to stay true to the spirit of Alberta while translating it through my own vision and instincts. Alberta really spoke to and understood her customer’s desires. She was rooted in the real world, but also she shared their dreams and their fantasies.”
Alongside Mariuccia Mandelli of Krizia, and Anna Molinari of Blumarine, Ferretti was at the vanguard of independent and entrepreneurial womenswear designers who carved themselves a space in the fiercely competitive fashion landscape of Milan in the 1980s. Even before her first show, Ferretti had long been honing her sense of women’s wants as the proprietor of a boutique named Jolly in her home town of Cattolica—which is by coincidence only a few miles from Serafini’s birthplace. Says Serafini: “To me, Alberta’s work is always more about sensuality than sexiness. It always carries discretion alongside grace and lightness. Her way of dressing was to create pleasure for the woman herself. This is very inspiring to me.”
Ferretti and her brother Massimo co-founded Aeffe Group at the beginning of the 1980s as the holding vehicle for the brands she created. It later acquired Moschino (which has a studio based elsewhere in Milan) and the accessories specialist Pollini. In 2023, its last declared full year of results, Aeffe posted revenues of €319 million ($334 million USD). Says Serafini: “One of the great advantages about being in Aeffe is that we are our own suppliers. We manufacture the collections in house, and work with Pollini for the shoes and bags. It’s a very Italian thing, and it works.”
While the toiles I see are by necessity monochromatic, Serafini promises accents of color within the finished pieces in a collection that looks languidly contemporary—and points to his romantic agenda. Layered prints beneath sheer fabrics create a blurred, shadowy effect, while another striking, orchid-inspired decorative element evokes wanton, chaotic beauty. It would not be fair however to share too much before the runway reveal of a collection Serafini is planning to call Progressive Romance. “That’s because my starting point here at Ferretti has been to investigate the notion of romance in 2025 without being nostalgic: through a progressive lens.”
Although he has been at Aeffe since 2014, Serafini’s association with it goes back much further. Aged 19, he interned at Moschino in Cattolica during his fashion degree. “I remember Jean Paul Gaultier was coming in and out, and Rifat Ozbek was there. It was very inspiring.” After graduation, he joined Blumarine as an intern in 1996: “This gave me the chance to work in everything from design to the selling campaigns, and I absorbed a lot.”
In 2000 he went to design in the studio at Roberto Cavalli, which he remembers as: “a place really larger than life, with the opportunity to dream larger than life.” Cavalli himself, Serafini says, was most often found in the stamperia, “working on his incredible screen prints with huge passion and dedication”. After 10 years, Serafini joined the womenswear design studio at Dolce & Gabbana. “This added a completely new dimension to my experience. In terms of skills, structure, and organization, it is the best that you could want. They are super-clever, super-creative, and super-energetic.” And then, five years later, he was poached to join Philosophy and Aeffe.
After my meeting with Serafini I was able to catch up with Ferretti over email. Of her decision to step down from the brand, she wrote: “It was not easy… it was a decision not taken lightly, but with great awareness. After a 40-year career, I thought the time had come for me to leave room in my brand for new creativity, and to focus on other aspects of the company I created. On the eve of Lorenzo’s debut show, I think it will be very exciting to be sitting in the front row and not busy backstage.” Serafini, she added, “is a great professional who knows perfectly the dynamics of our company and who shares with me an aesthetic devoted to femininity and lightness. I believe he will write a wonderful new chapter for the brand, and I can’t wait to see the collection come to life at the show.”
After receiving that email, I showed it to Serafini, who said: “Ah wow! You know, I will always be grateful to Alberta for showing me this trust. It is the biggest compliment of my life.”
