Alessandro Vigilante to be next creative director at Rochas

Italian designer Alessandro Vigilante has been named as the next to helm womenswear label Rochas as creative director of ready-to-wear, with his first collection to come in February during Paris Fashion Week for autumn 2024.

The graduate of Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) Moda Lab is the sixth creative director to step into the role following the exit of the brand’s founder, Marcel Rochas.

In a release, Vigilante said on his appointment that he was honoured to be joining the luxury house, adding: "Rochas represents a dedication to French sophistication and a celebration of Womanhood that I find incredibly inspiring."

In an interview with Vogue, the designer elaborated: “It’s exciting when something unexpected happens. For 16 years, I translated the vision of other creative directors; now I really need to speak in my own voice.

“As a dancer, everything is about the body and movement. It’s not just making fashion that has to be ‘wow’, it’s about doing clothes that make you feel stronger, powerful and self-confident because you feel really, really good in them.”

His experience in the luxury fashion industry spans around 23 years, having first entered the sector as senior womenswear designer at Dolce&Gabbana, before taking on similar leadership roles at the likes of Gucci and Aeffe.

He began his own eponymous label in 2020, following the motto “Decorate your body with movements”, in reference to the world of dance, an industry he had been a part of for 15 years.

The ‘new Rochas woman’ doesn’t follow trends

In his own statement to the media outlet, Philippe Benacin, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Rochas owner Interparfums, said the brand’s identity was “rooted in the idea of elegant femininity and audacious Parisian refinement”.

He added that while the brand had remained relatively discrete in recent years, it still has “name recognition”, with his comment continuing: “The succession of talented art directors in the past 15 years shows that the house is still trying to find the magic formula.”

Rochas former creative director, Charles de Vilmorin, exited the company in April 2023, just two years on from his appointment and following the production of four collections for the brand.

Now, it appears that Rochas is looking to lean into drastically new directions, while remaining close to the house’s archives, with the label already sharing a glimpse into Vigilante's plans for upcoming releases.

In the release, the brand said that the designer was set to bring "modernity to the charismatic, sophisticated, and timeless beauty that have long been part of the brand DNA".

To Vogue, Vigilante added: “I imagine the new Rochas woman as someone who doesn’t follow trends, she has her own personality and I love the way she wears her clothes.”