What does fashion have to do with land art, ceramics and the so-called bear community?
Richemont executives found out this week when 17 emerging designers presented their business plans at the conclusion of their year with the AZ Academy, a new postgraduate education program founded in 2024 as a tribute to the late Alber Elbaz.
Many plans were in the mold-breaking spirit of Elbaz, the acclaimed Israeli designer whose final venture, AZ Factory, centered on smart fabrics and with storytelling, problem-solving and entertainment embedded in design, distribution and communications.
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Rome-based designer Caterina Moro, who founded her eponymous brand in 2019, used the program to explore if she could pivot from a traditional business model — biannual collections, a showroom and wholesale distribution — to a seasonless, “phygital” and art-centric approach, aligning with land art fairs instead of fashion weeks — and her love of nature.
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“I wasn’t sure my idea was good. I need somebody to help me to nail it down and validate it. And it was super useful for this reason,” Moro said Monday night in Paris on the sidelines of a cocktail party to toast the conclusion of the inaugural program, which is funded by Richemont and set up as a partnership between its Milan-based corporate school Creative Academy and Rome’s Accademia Costume & Moda fashion school, hosted at ACM’s Milan campus.
Moro said her AZ Academy mentors even hooked her up with a buyer from Penelope, a renowned fashion boutique in Brescia, Italy, in order to further validate her concept, which involves only a few, carefully curated styles a year.
“I already designed my first capsule. So I am ready to start. Now I need to find the money,” she said, flashing a big smile.
Philippe Fortunato, chief executive officer of Richemont’s fashion and accessories maisons, said the program was designed to prepare highly creative designers to pitch to potential investors, having clarified their brand identity, price positioning, target clients, collection plan, supply chain, marketing and distribution strategies — and a financial roadmap.
“They were all very much able to mix the magic and the logic and bring creativity into a strong business model,” Fortunato said in a joint interview with Mauro Grimaldi, his strategic adviser. “The level of maturity has improved tremendously between the moment when we receive the applications to the presentations of today.…They were in command of their business language.”
Over two days at Richemont’s Paris offices, the 17 designers pitched their plans to a panel that included Fortunato; Nicolas Bos, Richemont’s group CEO; Laurent Malecaze, CEO of Chloé; Costanzo Ruocco, CEO of Gianvito Rossi, and Anne Dellière, group marketing and strategic planning director at Richemont.
Laureates interviewed by WWD said they relished the opportunity to learn business fundamentals and engage with various mentors as they navigated fashion’s complex production ecosystem — and demanding financials.
They came with unique brand concepts based on specialized manufacturing, unusual wells of inspiration — or overlooked target audiences.
Spanish designer Brais Albor, a 2022 graduate of London’s Central Saint Martins fashion school, took inspiration from the bear community for his fashion-forward line targeting plus-size men, bodybuilders — or anyone who can’t find the clothes they want in their size.
He said the AZ Academy taught him to crunch the numbers, and delve into production minimums, fabric costs and margins. “Through the program, you really study production, including how much it should cost for the specific target that you are seeking,” he said in an interview. “This prepares me for the official launch.”
Liwen Liang, a graduate of London College of Fashion, emerged from the program with a tiered price structure and key factory connections to realize his handbags and dresses decorated with thin tiles of ceramic, inspired by his family’s ceramic business in Jingdezhen, China, a stronghold of porcelain-making for centuries.
Liang said he developed the technique during the coronavirus pandemic, glueing the 0.4 millimeter tiles onto leather, cotton or mesh, and then smashing them at various angles to add flexibility. “The movement is totally different from any fabric you can see in the market,” he said, flicking through the tiles on his Instagram account and showing his unusual dresses depicted on the cover of a range of Chinese magazines.
During the program, he developed many prototypes and received crucial referrals to factories, including one in Florence with superior leather quality and manufacturing ability. Liang is plotting a solo presentation during Milan Fashion Week in February.
Richemont executives were smitten with the vivid storytelling behind a fledgling leather goods line by Manon Marcelot, who draws inspiration from her rustic upbringing in rural France among cattle breeders.
Marketing and price positioning were the main pain points for Marcelot, given the crowded handbag market. She settled on the “affordable luxury” zone with bags retailing between 400 euros and 1,000 euros — and made in atypical shapes, like a cross-body style modeled after the bells strung on the necks of mountain cows.
“And I like working with metal parts as well, because it reminds me of the machines,” she said, showing off the double zippers on the bag, a wink to worker overalls, and its metal branding plaque.
Marcelot said she emerged from the program with a strong handle on how she will prepare her collection launch sometime in 2026.
Fortunato said many of the students came from modest backgrounds, and often found themselves quite alone in trying to translate their strongly felt creative ideas into real businesses.
Instead of offering prize money or funding, Richemont decided via AZ Academy to offer emerging designers education, mentorships and moral support to give unique fashion propositions a practical leg up.
“What people want today is authenticity,” Fortunato said. “There is more curiosity for lesser-known products, new sources of creativity and also a new way to spend money that isn’t show-off. It’s a bit of an evolution in the customer mindset.”
Indeed, Fortunato was struck that none of the emerging designers employed logos on their designs, though their products were clearly identifiable via other signifiers.
According to Grimaldi, “there is a new generation of designers who want to create their own projects, and I think it’s a big opportunity, because there is something fresh that talks to another generation.
“For sure, heritage brands are important, but it could also be the time to create new designer heroes for a new generation,” he argued. “They don’t care about status symbols. They want something that talks to them.”
For year two of the program, a jury that included Richemont executives and designers Isabel Marant, Lutz Huelle and Serge Ruffieux selected 19 students from around the world, including honorary student Sarah Lévy, who won the accessories prize at the 2025 ANDAM awards with her avant-garde Sarahlevy line.
Following Elbaz’s death in April 2021, AZ Factory evolved into a hub for serial collaborations before being transformed into AZ Academy. The experience helped Richemont, the Swiss group mostly known for its hard luxury brands headlined by Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, connect with a new generation of designers, and understand the myriad challenges they face in building independent brands.