MILAN — Elisabetta Franchi believes Milan embodies “elegance, innovation and beauty.”
Accordingly, the Italian designer has selected the city to unveil a new flagship that is “more than just a place of creation, but also a tribute to the modern woman: strong, sophisticated and ever evolving.”
The flagship opens on Thursday during Design Week and is modeled after a new blueprint, which chief executive officer Gabriele Maggio said “reflects the brand’s evolution and recent elevation.”
Located on the corner of Via della Spiga and Via Manzoni, a few steps away from the Emporio Armani store and the Armani Hotel, the almost 4,900-square-foot boutique is housed inside a 19th-century Art Nouveau building under the purview of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage.
In the same building, Rocco Forte Hotels operates the Rocco Forte House concept comprising 11 apartments with bespoke furniture.
“This is a luxury island in the luxury shopping district of Milan,” enthused Maggio. “The position is tactical on the corner of the two streets, the elegant, storied Via Spiga, and Via Manzoni, which offers a lot of visibility and foot traffic.”
The existing Elisabetta Franchi boutique on Via Manzoni opened in December 2012 is closing upon the opening of the new one.
In the store, pure and rigorous lines and industrial minimalism are offset by material opulence and the brand’s feminine and sensual designs.
The new Elisabetta Franchi flagship in Milan.
Spanning over two levels, the ground floor sets the tone with a gallery-like space, where ready-to-wear and accessories are presented against industrial-chic interiors punctuated by fluted plexiglass paneling.
A striking metal-framed portal marks the transition to the staircase, where the translucent Barrisol ceiling diffuses a warm light.
The spaces facing Via Manzoni unveil an architectural installation in which towering columns clad in fluted plexiglass contrast with the brutalist ceiling structure with its irregular sequence of exposed steel beams.
For Maggio, Milan “embodies innovation, culture and style.” In his first interview since joining the company in February last year, he said that “the opening of this store is not only a significant milestone in the growth of our brand but also a testament to our strong commitment to excellence and the continuous evolution of the brand.” Upcoming stores will be modeled after the Milan blueprint.
Maggio’s career in fashion spans more than 25 years and he was previously president and CEO of Stella McCartney, which he exited in December 2023. Since his arrival, he has been redefining the distribution of the Elisabetta Franchi brand to be aligned with its positioning, together with the namesake founder as well as chairman Marco Bizzarri.
Bizzarri, the former president and CEO of Gucci, in April last year invested in the Italian fashion brand through a personal holding called Nessifashion, acquiring a 23 percent stake.
The new Elisabetta Franchi boutique in Milan.
“The product and the experience in the store must be in sync and consistent with the image and our marketing and communication activities. The execution of this strategy and control are fundamental,” said Maggio, citing, for example, the sleek and sophisticated spring 2025 campaign, fronted by Kate Moss for the first time and photographed by Luigi & Iango.
With her spring 2025 collection paraded in September in Milan, Franchi celebrated the first decade of runway shows for her brand, and for fall, the designer moved the show to Milan’s grand 17th-century Palazzo Acerbi in the Baroque style, which contrasted with the sharp tailoring of her pantsuits and statement coats.
With the arrival of Bizzarri and Maggio, the brand entered the American market, with a first U.S. boutique in the Bal Harbour Shops in Miami opening in December. It is also launching the spring collection with Saks Fifth Avenue in stores including in New York, Beverly Hills and Houston. “These are performing very well, and selling at full price,” Maggio remarked.
Asked about the Trump tariffs — which on Wednesday afternoon were paused for 90 days — Maggio said “we are trying to understand their impact. Given our price positioning we can compensate and handle them without transferring them to our customers. Elisabetta Franchi communicates an aesthetic that is sellable. Her customer must be able to wear these clothes, Elisabetta always says, and she wants her products to live outside the stores and be part of the life of customers. We are not aiming to become super exclusive and we control our pricing.”
In Los Angeles, in West Hollywood, the company has opened a multifunctional office hub and showroom in a villa with a pool, with areas for “cordial moments,” Maggio said. In November, the company also moved its Milan showroom to a new sprawling space in the city, which it acquired.
The brand is present in 78 countries and counts about 100 monobrand stores. Maggio said the unit in Dubai is the best performing, pointing to a very strong Middle East market where it has partnered locally with Krisma. After Dubai, the top two stores are Milan and Rome.
The company is evaluating the opening of stores in Central and South America, propelled by strong brand awareness developed thanks to the Madrid boutique. It is also eyeing Southeast Asia, where there is already a store in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The designer’s parent company, Betty Blue, is based in Granarolo Emilia, a town outside Bologna, and it relies on its own production chain. It closed 2023 with sales of 170 million euros and a margin of earnings before interest and taxes of 31.8 percent.
Maggio said 2024 sales closed “flattish,” but he projected double-digit growth in 2025. “Spring sales were up 52 percent,” he touted.
The only license the brand has is for childrenswear with Gimel, so Maggio said there are opportunities to develop other product categories. The brand has also been expanding its handbags offer, and the executive said that the Avenue, Everywhere and Boulevard bags have been very successful.
In Europe, “we want to be more aggressive with more monobrands than multibrands in Spain, France, the U.K. and Eastern Europe,” Maggio said.
Maggio praised Franchi, who founded her namesake firm 1998, “a self-made woman,” for her vision, clear objectives and for knowing her customer and having built a loyal community of women.
“She is charismatic and genuine, she is accessible and women can dream of becoming like her because she shares her daily life with them.”
