The Milan fashion scene was shaken Friday by the news that Davide Renne, newly named creative director of Moschino, has died of undisclosed causes at 46.
“There are no words to describe the pain we are experiencing at this dramatic time. Davide joined us only a few days ago, when a sudden illness took him from us too soon. We still can’t believe what happened,” said Massimo Ferretti, chairman of Moschino’s parent company Aeffe SpA. “With Davide, we were working on an ambitious project, in an atmosphere of enthusiasm and optimism for the future. Even though he was only with us for a very short time, Davide was able to immediately make himself loved and respected. Today we are left with the responsibility of carrying on what his imagination and creativity had only envisioned. Our deepest sympathies go to his family and friends,” he said.
Hailing from Gucci, Renne started working at Moschino on Nov. 1, and his first collection was to debut for fall 2024 in February during Milan Fashion Week. He succeeded Jeremy Scott, who exited the brand last March after a 10-year tenure.
Ferrett told WWD at the time of the appointment that “the meeting with Davide was immediately enlightening. Already in our first talks I appreciated his aesthetic sensibility and the ability to see the different levels of interpretation that Franco Moschino always inserted within his creations.”
In addition, Ferretti said Renne has “immediately shown an approach that is extremely polite and respectful, which reflects our company culture where the values connected to the family and the sense of belonging are still the foundations of our daily life.”
Renne designed women’s collections for two decades at Gucci, eventually becoming head designer of womenswear, and at Moschino he was due to oversee women’s, men’s and accessories collections.
“Franco Moschino had a nickname for his design studio: la sala giochi — the playroom. This resonates deeply with me: what fashion — Italian fashion especially, and the house of Moschino most of all — can achieve with its enormous power should be accomplished with a sense of play, of joy. A sense of discovery and experimentation,” Renne said at the time of his appointment.
Renne on that occasion even penned a letter, shedding some light on his life, which has taken him “through a journey of discovery: after all, I was born in 1977 in Follonica, Tuscany, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, a magical body of water, according to Greek mythology, the cliffs above the Tyrrhenian housed the four winds kept by Aeolus.”
While in high school, “for some mysterious reason I kept drawing women’s clothes,” he writes. “Nevertheless, I figured I’d go on to study architecture, but enrolling at Polimoda in Florence endowed me with a sense of absolute freedom, paving the way for a journey of creativity that, I soon discovered, became my life.”
His first steps in fashion were at Alessandro Dell’Acqua and Renne described the designer as his “first teacher and mentor in fashion,” then moving on to Gucci.
“I spent the past eight years with Alessandro Michele who taught me to dream bigger and pushed me further ahead, and helped me to make my dreams come true. Fashion, like life, is about discovering ourselves. I dislike fashion that dictates answers — I’m more inclined to find the right question, then the answers come in the designer’s dialogue with our audience: fashion is inherently bespoke.”
