Former Marni creative director set to debut at Fast Retailing’s second-largest label
Francesco Risso has been appointed creative director of GU, according to an announcement from parent company Fast Retailing. His first collection for the label is scheduled for Fall/Winter 2026.
Founded in 2006, GU is Fast Retailing’s second-largest business after Uniqlo. The brand operates roughly 480 stores across Asia and runs e-commerce platforms in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. In 2024, GU entered the U.S. market with its first flagship outside Asia, opening in SoHo, New York—a move signaling broader international ambition.
Risso’s appointment follows his recent exit from Marni, where he served as creative director from 2016 and built a distinctive, expressive vision that earned strong critical recognition. Earlier in his career, he spent a decade at Prada as a womenswear designer. His prior work within the Fast Retailing ecosystem includes the Uniqlo and Marni collaboration launched in 2022.
The strategic appeal of Risso’s move lies in the alignment between his conceptual sensibility and Fast Retailing’s global infrastructure. In outlining this next chapter, Risso has emphasized the importance of designing purposeful, everyday clothing while leveraging scale to bring imaginative ideas to a broad audience—an approach that dovetails with GU’s value-driven positioning.
In parallel with his role at GU, Risso will also develop a new collaboration line with Uniqlo, slated for launch in 2026. Together, the dual appointments suggest a wider creative recalibration at Fast Retailing, as the group looks to inject stronger authorial vision into its portfolio while maintaining its emphasis on reach, accessibility, and volume.