Hello, I’m Danilo Venturi, the director of IED Florence and the author of Brand Persona. My expertise is in fashion, spanning strategic branding, curation, creative direction, communication, writing, and education.

With a background in political science and luxury management, my career has been multidisciplinary since the very beginning: from the music industry to pioneering e-commerce, and from concept stores to La Perla.

As director of Polimoda from 2015 to 2021, I involved the giants LVMH, Kering, and Richemont, as well as the iconic brands Gucci, Ferragamo and Valentino. I fostered pivotal collaborations with industry leaders like Vogue, WGSN, and the CFDA, and engaged with visionaries such as Alber Elbaz, Suzy Menkes, Renzo Rosso, Marina Abramovic, and Rick Owens.

That experience began with Fashion Displacement, a panel discussion in the Sky Room of the New Museum, and over time it proved to be an innovative educational model, so much so that it ended with Forbes praising it as The Reign of Error.

At that point, I sensed the need to give back, and during a break in Miami I published the book Brand Persona, with a foreword by Marco Bizzarri, who was then President and CEO of Gucci.

In the same period, I also started collaborating with Fashion Politique, sharing our taste for iconicity in fashion imagery. We’ve worked with talents like Monica Bellucci, Maye Musk, and Carmen Dell’Orefice, alongside photographers such as Paolo Roversi, Ellen von Unwerth, and Albert Watson. Actually, Carmen and Albert’s cover was featured in Vanessa Friedman’s New York Times Open Thread, marking a significant milestone.

In 2022, I took on the role of director at IED Florence, where we love mixing fashion, art, and design, also teaming up with creatives like Lucy Orta, Stefan Sagmeister, and Joana Vasconcelos on the occasion of her exhibition at the Uffizi. Furthermore, thanks to the partnership with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, IED hosted the public programs of Jeff Koons, Olafur Eliasson, and Anish Kapoor exhibitions.

Since then, we expanded our fashion labs to Palazzo Pucci n. 6, where Emilio Pucci designed his collections, and revamped the 18th-century Oriuolo Theater for curatorial practice and digital arts. With three walking distance locations right under Brunelleschi’s dome, the campus is now synonymous with Florence itself.

I believe fashion is made of people even before the clothes they wear. So, I want to mention few more projects I’ve curated. Breaking the Mould, a culinary symposium at Ginori 1735 during Pitti Uomo on what is contemporary. The interview to Coco Rocha for Forbes and to Anna Dello Russo for Harper’s Bazaar. And Very Good, a series of video interviews, including Margherita Missoni, Danielle Kwateng, and Diane Pernet, to explore how the sector can shape a better future.

For more information, visuals, and contact details, visit my social media. 

Join me on this journey!