Marco Zanini has been appointed at the new Schiaparelli.
The announcement, rumours about which began circling a few months ago, marks another exciting step forward in the re-imagination of the iconic Italian fashion house, the one-time rival to , founded by the eponymous Elsa in 1927 and famed for its surrealist flourishes.
Bought by Tod's Group chairman and CEO Diego Della Valle in 2006, it is due to relaunch in January. Zanini will over see the 'pret-a-couture' - high-end ready-to-wear - line.
The designer has form on such a project: he was the creative hand that steered US heritage label Halston from the pages of fashion history back onto the catwalks in 2007 and since 2008, hes been doing exactly the same at Rochas for the past five years. It was announced just last week that Alessandro Dell'Acqua had succeeded him there.
Says Rebecca Lowthorpe, ELLE Collections editor: It's very exciting to think of Marco Zanini heading to Schiaparelli. I've loved what he's been doing at Rochas and I think he's got just the right offbeat intelligence to capture the spirit of Schiaparelli, but in a modern way.
The return of Schiaparelli is set to light up the fashion world, and its revival has already begun; during the summer Haute Couture season, Christian Lacroix created a one-off capsule collection of dresses to trumpet the labels return.
