At the first edition of the Mercedes-Benz Bucharest Fashion Week, FashionNetwork.com met Alessandro De Benedetti, an Italian designer who has trained in Paris at Thierry Mugler’s haute couture atelier, and has been the creative director of Mila Schön. De Benedetti is now in charge of style at Italian label Romeo Gigli, owned by Eccentric, and showed as Guest Designer at the Bucharest event. 

Romeo Gigli recently granted an exclusive worldwide distribution licence to Studio Z, a company that has been in the market for 40 years and operates showrooms in Milan and Paris. The Italian label’s relaunch began in earnest with the Spring/Summer 2025 collection, which was presented in Paris in September, during womenswear fashion week. Eccentric had initially started to reorganise Romeo Gigli just before the pandemic, but had to slow down the process and distribute the first new collection mostly online.  

“I’m very happy because in Paris the buyers really understood the collection and appreciated its tailoring. Although I wasn’t aiming for haute couture, I focused on garments inspired by early 20th century workwear, made with wonderful fabrics, including linen and cotton by Candiani, to the highest production standards. A select range with an artisanal feel,” said De Benedetti. 

Romeo Gigli’s main line is currently distributed via the wholesale channel, through a number of top international retailers. The plan is to open monobrand stores, concessions and pop-up stores in future, but the first step is to focus on the multibrand retailers that are best suited to convey the values of a long-established name like Romeo Gigli, and to win over international customers with looks developed through De Benedetti’s own interpretation of the label’s archives. Market-wise, Italy currently accounts for 60% of total revenue, followed by the USA, but Japan and the Middle East are also producing excellent results.

Eccentric has streamlined the label’s licensing operations. Of the various licenses granted over the years for Romeo Gigli, only eyewear is currently active, and will be soon followed by a new licence for perfumes. Romeo Gigli’s eyewear licence is operated by Logo Project, which is distributing the products via 400 opticians belonging to the VisionOttica Group in Italy, with excellent results. In term of fragrances, besides the Oh Romeo by Romeo Gigli eau de parfum, the label is developing a new women’s scent in partnership with Diamond International.

The Spring/Summer 2025 collection presented in Bucharest was inspired by early 20th century British tailoring, a style dear to Romeo Gigli. De Benedetti’s new collection features reversible items and ornately decorated tailored jackets, giving the silhouette a sophisticated, poetic elegance. The aesthetic typical of British university students of the 1920s, with pinstripe suits and colonial-style ensembles, blends with ultra-feminine evening gowns and day looks, featuring garments such as bustiers, fitted suits and jackets, as well as trench-coats, blouses, and romantic ruffled dresses and skirts. The colour palette ranges from cream to black, aquamarine, and bright red. 

“We are thrilled to have shown the Spring/Summer 2025 collection for the first time in Bucharest, during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The collection is a hymn to regeneration, weaving together romanticism and conceptual modernity with strong references to historical and artistic elements. It’s characterised by light, flowing lines, rare fabrics and meticulous tailoring, creating a visual symphony of tradition and modernity,” said De Benedetti.

For him, the runway show represented “much more than an event. It was the celebration of a long and laboured journey, a moment of rebirth. [Romeo Gigli] has been absent from the runways for years, and showing again marks an important turning point. A new debut, symbolising a return to the glory of an iconic label, and paving the way for renewed success and international recognition,” concluded De Benedetti.