Federico Marchetti first published his memoir, “Le Avventure di un Innovatore [The adventures of an innovator]” cowritten with Daniela Hamaui, in 2023 and now an American edition from Post Hill Press has come out — with a few twists. First, the book is called “The Geek of Chic” in the U.S., taken from the title of a 2012 profile of him in The New Yorker. There also is a different ending, since Marchetti — who founded Yoox and subsequently merged it with Net-a-porter to form the Yoox Net-a-porter Group — has added a chapter that covers his post-YNAP career advising companies and first Prince, and now King, Charles on sustainability and the environment. He also sits on the board of the Giorgio Armani Group and recently became a minority investor in a fund that is planning a 200 million euro restoration of the Belle Epoque resort Grand Hôtel des Bains in Venice.
At a lunch at the Armani Restaurant on Madison Avenue in New York earlier this fall, shortly after the iconic designer died, Marchetti discussed his admiration for him and how amazed he was that Armani agreed to write a foreword to his book. Expecting a brief paragraph, Marchetti said he was surprised to receive a long article filled with praise. “All you have to do really is read his foreword; don’t necessarily read the book,” Marchetti joked.
In his foreword, Armani writes: “In Federico I can see something of myself: my ideals and my way of acting and thinking. In him I recognize loyalty, enterprise, leadership quality.”
Marchetti — who did a book tour of the U.S. this fall that stretched from New York to Chicago, then Washington, D.C. and back to New York — said the revised edition of his memoir represents somewhat of a full-circle moment for him. The final chapter of the U.S. edition recaps some of the amusing moments he has had mingling with the British upper classes — from what to buy the-then Prince Charles (in this case, a toothpaste tube squeezer) to how to wear a kilt and what “smoking jacket” means as a dress code. Then there is the question of how to act at a king’s coronation.
But Marchetti, at the lunch, admitted to pride when he accompanied King Charles and Queen Camilla back to his hometown of Ravenna in April 2025 after they had visited the Vatican. It forms the conclusion of his revised edition of the book, during which the internet entrepreneur advocates for a future that combines the best of technology with a human touch. As he writes, when all clothes are designed by artificial intelligence and algorithms, consumers are likely to then seek the small artisan who can make them something special.
Charles’ visit, his only other stop in Italy apart from seeing the Pope, exemplified that. He is a king, and Marchetti is a businessman — or “philanthropic entrepreneur,” as Brunello Cucinelli described him. “And, at the end of the day as I stood next to him in the Basilica of San Vitale staring up in wonder at the mosaics that evoked a deep blue starry night sky, we were just two people awed by a timeless masterpiece, created by human creativity.”
