Italian Fashion Brand Maison Jejia Sets Up Milan HQ to Push International Expansion

MILAN — Maison Jejia has set up its new home — quite literally.

The fashion label’s founder and industry veteran Anna Maria Marino has turned the space previously housing her apartment into the brand’s headquarters in town.

As she now spends most of her time in Southern France, Marino reimagined the Milanese location situated a stone’s throw from the Arco della Pace landmark arch here as the company’s showroom and offices to signal a new chapter for Maison Jejia — one where all the business activities are centralized and operated by the brand.

To this end, the founder has internalized its licenses — mainly in ready-to-wear categories — and set up an in-house commercial team tasked to further push the international expansion of the label.

The move comes at a moment of growth for the brand, which over the past decade has carved out a market niche and attracted a global audience from ages 25 to 60-plus with its contemporary proposition and too-cool-to-care spirit. Without disclosing exact figures, Marino said sales grew 65 percent in 2025 versus 2024, with between 60 and 70 percent of these generated outside national borders — a testament to the international appeal of the brand, especially in Asia. Overall, she expects to report a similar growth in 2026.

“It’s a moment of countertrend compared to other companies. The brand is growing in a moment where the general market is stalling, so I think our path of perseverance and consistency with my DNA, which is very precise and rooted into imperfection, has been somehow rewarded,” Marino told WWD. She highlighted that directly overseeing all processes — from creation and manufacturing to distribution — marks a big step for her but “comes at the right time, because we’re seeing the results of our work.”

While in the past Marino could count on the backing of Riccardo Grassi Showroom for example, she will now use the physical space to stage sales campaigns and presentations during fashion weeks, as well as set up meetings with buyers and wholesale partners throughout the year.

“We wanted to turn this venue into a real home to make a strong statement,” said Marino, whose goal is to consolidate the brand’s top-performing markets — which include China, Japan, the U.S. and Northern Europe — identify new distribution partners and implement tailor-made strategies for different regions to further elevate the perception of the label.

The Milanese headquarters will be flanked by an outpost in Paris expected to open in the second half of 2026. In the meantime, Marino has zeroed in on a temporary space in Rue Bonaparte to surf the growing wave of interest the French market is showing toward Maison Jejia.

For one, Galeries Lafayette is among the 135 international stockists of the brand, which also include the likes of Biffi and Penelope in Italy, Princess in Belgium and Ecru in South Korea.

If in the long term, Marino eyes the opening of “little direct stores that could mirror the homey concept of the brand,” with the retail concept likely to debut in Paris, the founder seems not to be interested in banking on a digital presence. The brand doesn’t have an e-commerce as Marino never “felt the need for it, because I believe my designs are meant to be touched and tried on.”

The spring 2026 collection she presented in September during Milan Fashion Week conveyed a sense of spontaneity and freedom of self-expression via maxi proportions, clashing prints and an interplay of airy, fluid fabrics with structured textures. Easy-to-approach separates in loose volumes charmed the most for possessing the same unfussy attitude that sets the founder apart, as seen in classic poplin striped shirts whose familiar looks were refreshed by Marino’s filter.

Launched in 2012 more as a hobby and a personal way to honor her late mother — after whose nickname the company is labeled — Maison Jejia officially took shape as a brand around 2016, when Marino decided to devote herself to the project, giving up her role as a consultant at Max Mara. Marino, who hails from Como, Italy, kick-started her career with Remo Ruffini on his New England brand in the Eighties and also worked with Tod’s Group in the past, among others. She served as consultant for many luxury companies for three decades before fully focusing on her solo project.

“I’ve never meant to launch a brand in my life. I loved being a consultant but when my mother passed away, I wanted to pay tribute to her,” she said. “My biggest driver in this profession has always been the great love and passion I feel when creating, which also becomes a form of freedom and catharsis in difficult moments. The creative act is the easiest part of my job.”

The most challenging one? “The relationship with suppliers,” she quipped.

Under her own label, Marino has pushed a spontaneous yet intellectual approach to fashion, hinged on tailoring and a few everyday pieces worked in high-end fabrics. Deconstructed blazer jackets and coats cut in generous volumes, a plethora of takes on mannish shirts and extra-wide baggy pants are all part of her aesthetic, which attracts not a specific demographic but “targets an attitude that transcends generations, instead,” said Marino. 

“And that’s the strength of the brand,” she said. So much so it enabled her to increase the accessible price points by 10 percent. Now bestsellers such as shirts are priced between 250 euros and 500 euros; pants start retailing at 300 euros, while blazer jackets cost between 1,000 euros and 2,000 euros for the most special pieces.

Most recently, Marino started to experiment also with lingerie, which in her version was reworked in textile combinations of silk and jersey or cut from velvet. To anchor the Maison Jejia looks, in the past Marino also toyed with footwear, introducing clog styles crafted by local artisans. While teasing she would like to dig deeper into the shoe category, she said future product extensions would be aimed at expanding the scope of the brand beyond fashion, through home designs such as rugs or objects telegraphing a Maison Jejia lifestyle.