Belgium’s Designer of the Year Is Now Marni’s Designer of the Future
The hiring of Marni’s new creative director, Meryll Rogge, is almost as much of a surprise as the departure of its previous creative director.
After a decade of shaping Marni through his uber maximalist vision, Italian designer Francesco Risso stepped down from his position at the brand on June 18. It came as a shock, Risso and Marni were almost synonymous with each other and there had been no industry whispers of such a departure.
Now, not even a full month later, Risso’s successor is announced. And in an industry where rumors quickly spread, Meryll Rogge’s appointment comes out of the blue.
This is one of the rare recent fashion creative director hirings that hasn’t arrived after months of incessant hearsay. (OTB Group, the company that owns Marni, is making a habit of conducting its business quietly.)
But while the move was somewhat unexpected, it makes sense. Meryll Rogge arrives at Marni with an impressive CV, the type to get any fashion CEO excited.
At the beginning of this month, Rogge’s eponymous brand (which she founded in 2020) was awarded the 2025 ANDAM Grand Prize. She provided a “masterclass in fashion and contemporary culture, turning ambiguity, hybridity, and the unexpected into allies,” said ANDAM president Guillaume Houzé.
This is only the latest piece of critical acclaim Rogge has received. She was also Belgium’s designer of the year in 2024, the first woman to receive this honour.
A graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Rogge moved to New York in 2008 to work as a womenswear designer for Marc Jacobs, then, in 2014, started working as head of womenswear at Dries Van Noten. After that, it was time to go it alone.
Meryll Rogge, the brand, is known for its eccentric touches. Everything is done with a wink, from the proportions of tailored jackets to the skillful clashing of opposing materials. There are bold colors and equally bold patterns across every collection, as you'd expect from any Dries protégé, but they're incorporated without sacrificing wearability.
While not reaching the outlandish levels of her predecessor Risso, whose runway spectacles often entered surrealist territory, Rogge’s design history signals that Marni will continue to be fun. And that is everything we want.
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