Falcioni takes over Hugo Boss creative direction as Ingo Wilts steps down

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 28, 2022

Hugo Boss is continuing a hugely busy period for the company and its brands with news on Monday that it’s “rebuilding its creative leadership team” as Marco Falcioni steps up to take over from Ingo Wilts.

The German fashion giant has been relaunching the brand identities of its Hugo and Boss labels, refocusing on a younger, more casual style in recent periods and seeing success with major celebrity-filled marketing campaigns. 

And now it has said that Wilts, chief brand officer of Hugo Boss AG, has stepped down from the executive board for personal reasons as of February 28. 

Wilts has been a member of the board since 2016, and was most recently responsible for the overall creative direction of the collections, including runway. 

Along with his team, he also drove the visual realignment of the two labels that was completed in January. Despite his board exit, he’ll continue to be involved in the company's collection-related projects until the end of the year.

Falcioni, as Senior VP creative direction Hugo Boss, will take over the overall management of the creative direction at the two group brands on March 1, “in close cooperation with the designers responsible for the respective brand lines”. Having joined the business in 2015, he’ll report to CEO Daniel Grieder in this newly created role.

He has “extensive experience in a variety of product areas”. Most recently he was part of the Boss Menswear runway team and responsible for the “creative implementation of collaborations” including the Russell Athletic link-up, and co-leading the branding refresh. 

The company said that “with the unisex approach of the Russell Athletic capsules, Falcioni appealed to younger consumers and strengthened the brand’s approach to genderless dressing”. He was also responsible for the design of the company’s first NFT collection pieces. And “his passion for digital also triggered his involvement in the first entirely digitally developed collection by the company, Boss Pre-Fall 2021”. It added that “diversity and paying special attention to sustainability” are key for him and new collaborations and projects will be revealed soon.

At the same time as he takes up the post, Andrea Cannelloni will return to Hugo Boss for a year as creative advisor. He worked at the firm for a decade until 2008, during which time he was responsible for developing the casualwear division at Boss, launching the Boss Orange brand — including womenswear – “and bringing it to new levels”, together with Boss Green. He worked as president at VF Corp’s Napapijri until 2020.

Of the outgoing Ingo Wilts, supervisory board chairman Hermann Waldemer thanked him for “his great commitment” and said “he was a key contributor in the process of re-energising the company”.

Meanwhile Daniel Grieder said he’s looking forward to working with Falcioni and Cannelloni, “who both bring outstanding creative style and expertise in collection development”.

He added: “We want to be a 24/7 lifestyle brand for men and for women, reach out to younger consumers and turn them into true fans. I am therefore convinced, that Marco Falcioni is the perfect choice for us to develop our collections into the future. He has an absolute feel for trends and hits the zeitgeist and aspirations of the new generations. Andrea Cannelloni will in return be of great relevance when it comes to bringing our casual and athleisure business back to full scale in the upcoming years.”