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“Any collaboration I do, I feel like I want it to feel just real and authentic to what I would use myself,” he said. He has designed home products for Baccarat and Christofle and owns crystal and silver from both companies. And yes, he said, he uses Frette linens.
Paolo Casati, a co-founder of Studiolabo, which oversees the promotion of many exhibitions connected with Milan Design Week, noted in an email that fashion brands have made housewares incursions into the festival for more than a decade, starting with early actors like Marni and Giorgio Armani and evolving to include Bottega Veneta and Dior.
“It has become an international reference point for promoting a cultural lifestyle, where product design, fashion, art, technology, architecture, automotive and material research all take center stage at the event,” he said. The fashion presence has expanded the international audience for the design week as a whole, he noted, “both financially and through their ability to create immersive installations and experiences.”
The collaboration with Mr. Browne marks the first time Frette, which was founded in 1860, has worked with a fashion brand. So what took so long?
Filippo Arnaboldi, Frette’s chief executive, said in a video call that other fashion companies have come knocking, but none had “the right DNA or the right image that could have really been complementary.”
Any partner needed to be a stickler for quality and attention to details, he said. But Frette was also looking for access to lackluster markets. Thom Browne “is very, very, very, very strong in Southeast Asia and China,” and Frette is not, Mr. Arnaboldi said, and he hoped some of that allure would rub off.
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