Alberta Ferretti

Alberta Ferretti is an Italian fashion designer and dressmaker.

In 1968, Alberta Ferretti opened her first boutique, called Jolly, in Cattolica.

She designed a first collection in 1973 and began showing seasonal collections on the runways of Milan in 1981.

Together with her brother Massimo, Ferretti co-founded, a publicly traded clothing manufacturer and distributor based in San Giovanni in Marignano, in 1976.

Since 1984, Ferreti has been operating Philosophy, a diffusion line.

The brand has been showing its collections at New York Fashion Week.

She launched Ferretti Jeans Philosophy in 1989, renamed Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti in 1994.

In October 1993 Ferretti presented clothes reminiscent of The Great Gatsby for the Milan ready-to-wear shows.

One of her designs was a long and trim gingham dress, in pale blue.

A flapper showed a beige crocheted dress styled just above the knee.

Her renditions of the toga for the production were diverse.

They were simple gowns, some of them short, others long and draped.

Ferretti is known for her designs featuring twisting, tucking, and draping techniques. Her style employs a subtle layered look, sometimes showing a hint of hand-beaded gauze which extends slightly beneath the hem of a wool dress.

From 1994, Ferretti extended the breadth of her company outside of Italy beginning with the acquisition of a building at 30 West 56th Street in New York City.

She also started Aeffe U.S.A., which produced and distributed clothing by Moschino, Rifat Ozbek, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Narcisco Rodriguez.

The locale also became the hub for marketing her own collections.

In 1994 she renovated a 13th-century castle into the Palazzo Viviani hotel in Montegridolfo.

By 1998 Ferretti opened in-store boutiques for selling her signature and Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti lines at Bergdorf Goodman.

Next she obtained her initial American freestanding store in SoHo.

This business, near Prince Street, is exclusively for her Philosophy collection, the lower priced edition of Ferretti's signature line intended for younger women.

From 2000 to 2006, Sanpaolo IMI – through Nuova Holding Subalpina – held a 20 percent share in Aeffe.

it had purchased that share for $44.5 million.

Ferretti signed a licensing deal with Procter & Gamble for a fragrance line in 2000.

The erotic qualities of the chiffon and jersey fashions she introduced for her spring 2008 fashion collection is evident in the look of her dresses.

Many of them are cut high in the front and draped low in the back.

Her target customer is the cocktail crowd.

Specifically the dresses

are party frocks, above the knee, and enhanced by rhinestone rosettes and armour-like chain mail.

Feretti's collection includes pleated bubbled coats, toga-like minidresses and skirts, and a sparse number of gowns of soft mint green and white hues.

The minidresses and skirts were shown with ethereal models wearing metallic gladiator flats.

The brand's first ever women's fragrance was only launched in 2009.

In July 2011 her collection was presented at the catwalk of The Brandery fashion show in Barcelona.

In 2021, Ferretti unveiled the brand’s first athleisure capsule collection.

In 2011, Ferretti worked with Emma Watson on a collection labeled Pure Threads by Emma Watson Alberta Ferretti, produced with materials and techniques that are environmentally friendly and made in Italy.

Past creative directors have included Natalie Ratabesi (2011–2014) and Lorenzo Serafini (since 2014).

She designs for her namesake brand Alberta Ferretti, and designed for Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti until 2014.

Her showroom is in Milan, Italy but her studio is in her native village of Cattolica, near Rimini, Italy.

In 2018, Ferretti created the staff uniforms for Italy’s largest airline company, Alitalia.

In 2022, Ferretti designed a limited-edition Lancia Ypsilon compact car.

From 2019, another capsule collection using only eco-friendly materials such as recycled cashmere and organic cotton was launched in collaboration with Livia Firth.