Loreto Di Rienzo: The factory is part of the design process
The AZ Academy mentor on the relationship between craft and technology, and why understanding the supply chain can make a brand stronger.
By India Birgitta Jarvis
We need new roadmaps in fashion. Leaving school with a mountain of debt and a dream is a strategy few designers can rely upon in 2026. As fees at prestigious design schools continue to climb, we’ve partnered with AZ Academy, a free Milan-based fashion course born out of the late Alber Elbaz’s AZ Factory – his brand turned fashion incubator – and overseen by Richemont, Creative Academy and Accademia Costume & Moda (ACM), to democratise access to fashion business education and a roster of esteemed industry figures.
Loreto Di Rienzo is the link between the luxury atelier and the factory floor – a secret weapon in Italian fashion who has helped shape and refine the country’s industry. For Loreto, this means a unique sensitivity to both futuristic technique and The Old Ways.
Having spent almost 40 years at the helm of integrated luxury manufacturing platform DYLOAN Bond Factory – part of Pattern Group since 2022 – Loreto also founded D-house Urban Laboratory. His professional relationship with both DYLOAN and D-house ended in September 2025. Today, his legacy lies not only in the techniques and collaborations he helped pioneer, but in the way his approach continues to shape how younger generations think about the relationship between design, technology and manufacturing, including through initiatives such as AZ Academy.
It’s long been the case that smaller, independent brands have been cut off from the top manufacturers due to obstructive costs, unachievable minimum orders, or market monopoly from the luxury juggernauts, but Loreto thinks the tide may be turning. As the landscape of design and commerce changes around them, producers are looking more and more to the up-and-comers, not just to fill in the gaps that used to be filled by big brands, but to keep the work interesting.
So, maybe it’s never been a better time to figure out your supply chain, if you know what it is you’re looking for. Loreto’s advice? Meaningful collaboration: designer with designer, designer with manufacturer, past with future.
“It used to be that one company made embroidery, one company did laser-cutting, another did the printing, but in my factory we thought of an approach we call ‘cross-technology’. I think that’s why designers wanted to work with me. Designers like Versace, Trussardi, Dolce & Gabbana gave me a graphic, and I gave them a surprise.” – Loreto Di Rienzo
I think consumers have ideas around Italian products, that they will be well engineered and beautiful, but the realities of the world behind the products are not always that visible. The thing is, most consumers only see the result of ‘Made in Italy’, they only see the product itself… they never see the actual making. And inside every product there is material, there is history, family, a whole culture. So for me, what is important now is to try and connect people with those stories. What’s behind the object you’re buying?
Why has Italy been such a centre for innovation and engineering across different categories?
Historically, Italy never really produced raw material, it always imported it, and it always had this real capacity for transformation. Because of these conditions, we developed a very particular kind of supply chain in the country where we are very sensitive to innovation.
How has it managed to maintain more analogue, handmade techniques or artisanal practices alongside advancement in new technology?
By recognising that these two aspects are not in contraposition, but actually should be integrated or united. Even within one individual product, the two can work together. It’s one ecosystem. Because also, in Italy, we are building the machine too, so there is a dialogue between the person using the machine to make something, and with the person using the thing the machine makes. We are able to make very specific requests for modification or application to create specific results, because there is such a strong interaction with the producers of the technology itself.
So you don’t see a distinction between traditional craft and the type of technologies manufacturers are able to work with now?
I don’t think so – a good artisan will recognise that there are possibilities that industrialised techniques allow him to create that he just can’t do by hand. The Italian ecosystem feels unique in that way, we have everything concentrated in one place from idea to final product. Which is very useful for designers, because I think it can be a big error to outsource too much in the production chain. I think designers should stay as close to it as possible to stimulate creative solutions and have this kind of dialogue with the producer. You can’t do that so much if you’re sending things all over the place – to get a bit put on here and a bit added there. It’ll reduce the overall value.
When you speak with young, independent designers at AZ Academy, do you encourage them to try and keep their manufacturing process quite close to home then?
Yes, the producer can be an integral creative partner if you’re able to create that sense of collaboration. They might suggest a better material, or how you can get the shape you want. They might stimulate a shift in mindset. So my advice is to keep them close.
"In Italy the manufacturers aren’t just waiting around for the designers to bring the ideas, they have ideas of their own, and they will often direct those back." – Loreto Di Rienzo
Tell me a bit about how you came into this industry.
When I was young I had no idea about what kind of work I wanted to do. I remember my mother making hand-made embroidery with an old woman who lived in a mountain village, for wedding trousseaux. She asked me to help sometimes, but it didn’t interest me so much because it didn’t feel like anything new. But then when I started working with my sister who had a shop; we discovered the world of factories, and an electronic embroidery machine. I fell in love with it! It felt exciting. But the experience of seeing my mother’s work helped me a lot, because I understood both worlds: the digital and the handmade. I was quite an early adopter of this idea of combining technologies. It used to be that one company made embroidery, one company did laser-cutting, another did the printing, but in my factory we thought of an approach we call ‘cross-technology’. I think that’s why designers wanted to work with me. They gave me a graphic, and I gave them a surprise. Gianfranco Ferré, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Trussardi… I interpreted their designs in a technical way, but they also interpreted the technology that was available to them and designed around it, and that combination made things which were very exciting.
So it’s a very reciprocal relationship?
Oh yes, in Italy the manufacturers aren’t just waiting around for the designers to bring the ideas, they have ideas of their own, and they will often direct those back. It’s a great way of working.
Where luxury brands are buying up the producers, that’s a great thing for these crafts to stay alive, but does it mean that independent designers are losing access to specialist manufacturing?
I think it meant that at one point, but actually now because of various factors like geopolitics and economics, even the luxury brands are having to produce in smaller quantities too. Once the manufacturers would have only sought the business of big brands because they were the ones who were ordering stock in large numbers, but if everyone is working in smaller numbers then it’s more interesting for factories to work with independent designers who are the vanguards of innovation.
"I think more designers should be partnering with each other. Three or four complimentary brands could well join forces to bring a specialist manufacturer on board to service them all together." – Loreto Di Rienzo
What are the biggest supply chain obstacles for independent designers at the moment? And how can cross-technology make things easier for them?
Well, cross-technology is great for new designers because I don’t think they are as risk-averse as corporate luxury brands – they are more willing to be experimental and try new techniques. But for all this creativity, something they don’t always have organisation, which makes things difficult. That’s why I always encourage proper partnership with manufacturers. Of course, they can help with the 3D printing, the laser cutting, the heat sealing, the high-frequency welding, the seamless bonding – the things you can’t always do in the atelier – but also logistics, storage, those things which are just as important. In fact, I think more designers should be partnering with each other. Three or four complimentary brands could well join forces to bring a specialist manufacturer on board to service them all together. This would make up for the deficit that factories are experiencing from big brands who are decreasing their volumes, or outsourcing to other countries, and it would also make the small to medium-sized brands stronger in what they’re able to access.
Can you tell me about any recurring challenges or knowledge gaps for mentees with AZ Academy?
The connection between the Academy and the manufacturing businesses is just so important, because often the students really have no idea about things like costings, timelines, the way different materials behave, or about eco-design. And in fact, the luxury brands don’t always have detailed knowledge of these areas too, they really put it in the hands of the manufacturers themselves. So, the fact we are able to introduce young designers to this knowledge early on, as well as educating them about the possibilities of production will give them a huge advantage as they grow.
Do you think young designers are more inclined to adopt sustainable practices than their more established, legacy counterparts?
Yes, most luxury brands have been dictated to through government regulation, rather than having environmental considerations built into their business models, and so when the regulations are introduced they turn around to their suppliers and put all the responsibility on them. They say, if you want our business you need to not only be compliant, but you need to handle every single process in its entirety. Because they don’t want to have to deal with the complexities themselves. New brands, new designers, have freer, more open minds – that’s why, ultimately, it is they who will lead us into the future.
Find how to submit your application and receive one of the scholarships offered by the Richemont group to AZ Academy here. The deadline has been extended until the 20th of June 2026.
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*Editor’s note: This article has been updated on June 24th to clarify that DYLOAN Bond Factory and D-house Urban Laboratory have been part of Pattern Group since 2022, and that Loreto Di Rienzo’s professional relationship with both companies ended in September 2025.