Arianna Casadei: a very modern CEO

MB: You grew up immersed in the fashion world with your family. What was it like and how did it influence you in later life?

AC: It was obviously very fascinating in that I was surrounded by craftspeople and samples and materials, but it also taught me something really early on about responsibility. Everyone was always so busy around me and family gatherings were usually  surrounded by shoes. We would often meet at my aunt’s house, which is close to the factory, on Sundays, then we would all go to the factory while no workers were there to check everything and discuss business. My mother made me very aware right from the start that it was a real privilege to stay and learn: to be quiet and watch and listen and understand the importance of what was going on around me. But also, as a kid, it was just great fun to run loose in that environment, and we were always in the design office borrowing crayons or paper or pieces of lace. The lace maestra had been with my grandparents since the 1960s and she became like another grandmother to me. She was very strict but she taught me to sew and would always let me play with the pearls and the crystals. It was a dream come true for a little girl.

MB: You’re raising your own daughter in a similar fashion. Do you see your own upbringing reflected in hers? 

AC: I think that my daughter is growing up with even more of a sense of what we are doing. During Fashion Week she was carrying bags around the showroom saying, okay, I have to go to work now. The thing that delighted me the most as a child was when my father or my grandfather would name something after me – there was an Arianna Bow, for example – and my father now does the same with my daughter. For example, the new season sneakers have been named after her – Mia Flora - because he says she is constantly on the move and has great energy, and that's the kind of vibe that we want to express with that shoe in particular.

MB: In 2023 you were promoted to CEO. As the third generation of this 65-year-old business, how are you bringing your own contemporary influence to the brand?

AC: We have to find new ways to communicate the way that we are very conscious and proud of the history that we have, but also to look  forward. Due to my background, I joined the company with creating a powerful e-commerce platform in mind. So, since the start, building the digital side of the company has been definitely an important element for me and it’s something we implemented right away in order to have a narrative that is seamless. Another of our strongest attributes is that we are 100 percent produced in Italy, so those are values we want to highlight too. We work hard with the old team to integrate them into the future and have everyone on board. All of our people need to know where we are going. 

MB: Casadei is now stocked all over the world and is developing a particularly strong presence in the Middle East. Who is the Casadei woman and has she changed over the years?

AC: I think that the Casadei woman remains the same, but we have had to change the way that we create the collections. The essential values of the Casadei woman are eternal – she is international, she's not afraid to take centre stage. She's passionate and she knows what she wants. And she recognises the quality of craftsmanship. But every season we evolve according to our woman's needs. If we look back at the first collection that my grandparents made in the late fifties, it's totally different from what we have today, but that's because fashion has changed, not because our values have.

MB: This year you created your first fully sustainable bag with Daniela Agnelli at the Agora. How important has this process been for you in terms of progress?

AC: Becoming more sustainable is a crucial and challenging part of the process for all fashion brands. A few years ago, we worked with the Ethical Fashion Initiative to create a shoe collaboration with them. With Daniela, we created our first fully sustainable bag. The project was a match made in heaven, but I also felt that it was a real vision of what we wanted to present to our customers. We wanted to do something that was special, that felt unique, and yet at the same something that was part of our organic journey. We are now having more discussions internally in order to bring to the table a more sustainable way of working through all the steps, and this includes social sustainability. As a factory with more than 60 years of experience, it's important to keep the people we love, who are passionate about the product, and to train them to be the shoe technicians of the future.

MB: You launched the bag here in Ibiza in summer. What is your relationship with the island and is it somewhere that you find inspiration?

AC: Ibiza has been since forever one of the places that has been the birthplace of freedom in a way. That’s the reason why we also wanted to launch here and we were very conscious about it. Ibiza  is linked to spirituality. To vision. And the time I have spent here has been a form of transformation within our collection: we include the nature references, the colours, the subtle tones. My father is a colour obsessive and  uses very specific shades that take inspiration from across the globe. One of those places has always been Ibiza.