The Tamesis
Parent company Fast Retailing announced today that Francesco Risso will serve as GU’s creative director. His first collection for GU is expected to launch in the fall and winter of 2026. In addition to his role at GU, Risso will also develop a new collaborative line with Uniqlo, which will be launched in 2026.
Founded in 2006, GU is the second-largest brand under Japanese retail holding company Fast Retailing, the largest of which is Uniqlo. Gu currently operates about 480 stores in Asia and has e-commerce sites in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. It will land in the United States in 2024 and open its first flagship store outside Asia in SoHo, New York.
Risso will take the helm of Uniqlo and Marni collections in 2022, having until recently served as Marni’s creative director. He has been with the Italian brand since 2016, where he developed a bold vision that was critically acclaimed. Prior to that, he worked as a couturier at Prada for ten years.
“More than ever, I want to make real clothes for real people. It’s vital that the future of fashion is filled with meaning and purpose. But in order for imagination to reach its full potential, bold ideas must have an infrastructure to impact people around the world,” Rizzo said of this new chapter.
