Domenico Orefice on Design, Craftsmanship and Contemporary Fashion

Domenico Orefice’s approach to production clearly points back to the origins of the brand. Founded in Milan in 2010, the label is deeply influenced by Florentine tailoring thanks to the founder’s studies at Polimoda. Before moving into fashion, Orefice devoted many years to design: products, furniture, interiors, and exhibition spaces were the focus of his research long before clothing. This is why, in the brand’s collections, the creative process starts from materials rather than silhouettes.

Within a method so strongly oriented toward quality before form, Orefice and his team combine Italian artisanal tradition with contemporary technologies, maintaining an extremely current aesthetic. Over the years, the brand has produced several emblematic collections, including Man de Milan, a line of furniture, objects, and textiles that explores Milanese identity in collaboration with the Lombard artisanal company Fornace Curti; CottoMilano, a project that reinterprets traditional Milanese terracotta through invisible technologies for Ceramiche Keope; and the Ce(d)rino bench in solid cedar, created together with Riva1920.

The Domenico Orefice fashion brand was founded in 2020 as a genderless and seasonless line, positioning itself as a hybrid of technical sportswear, sartorial tailoring, and digital innovation. While at the beginning the designer intended to place equal emphasis on these three elements, today the brand’s direction appears different, a choice driven by market changes, competitive pressure, and Orefice’s foresight, which has allowed him to adapt his project even during a particularly delicate phase for the fashion industry.

We had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with Domenico Orefice in Florence, on the occasion of Pitti Uomo 109.

Moving from design to fashion is not so obvious. When did you realize that the body would become your design space?

Perhaps as a child, precisely because it was my first experience with the body. When I was little, my mother dressed me, obviously, I couldn’t decide for myself. At that age (six or seven), a relationship with the body is formed through a point of view different from your own, namely that of your parents. I truly understood the kind of silhouettes I wanted to work with when I gained weight. I wondered how to present myself, so I began to broaden the shoulders and widen the silhouettes, which is why the brand’s lines often take on hourglass shapes or fall straight down, almost to hide the body.

During that time, I also tried to experiment with my own body on others. When you dress these silhouettes on very slim people, the discovery of the body becomes even sexier. Beneath these oversized garments, you try to imagine the person’s physicality, turning it into a continuous discovery. Even today, though, I don’t believe I’ve fully figured out how I want to use the body, I’m still searching.

In your collections, research always starts from materials. What does it mean to respect a material in an age of overproduction?

We young emerging brands are the ones who can truly change the rules of the game. I always try to use materials that are already in stock, both to avoid creating overly large collections and for ethical reasons.

How important is it for you that innovation is visible? And how does it dialogue with tailoring in your collections?

When I created the brand, I wanted to build a website divided into two parts, one e-commerce and one virtual experience, but I realized that, unfortunately, competitors like Zara exist and focus entirely on fast purchasing. Still, I believe that today an innovative approach is fundamental for everything related to craftsmanship, which is the core of our brand.

Do you think craftsmanship today is more a question of method or scale?

It’s no longer clear who truly practices craftsmanship, but I believe it’s still what you find in the workshop. Our collections are artisanal, we make them with our own hands (myself personally): perhaps this is true craftsmanship, not what you outsource to external companies, but what you design and create yourself from scratch.

How has your approach to design changed compared to the beginning of your studies?

The experience Polimoda gave me during and after my studies was fundamental, above all because of the kind of support it provided. What I still produce today is supported by Polimoda, which has always shown particular care for the future of its alumni. Having a large company behind you that believes in your project is essential, but the relationships you build with the people involved are even more important. There is a company called Gruppo Cinque that has supported us since collection zero, and even today many studies are sponsored by them.

Which adjectives would you use to define your way of working?

I would definitely say sartorial. We do everything, from design to pattern-making, from prototypes to every other step. Then I would say nomadic, in terms of the brand’s vision, understood as a person who is constantly moving and adapting to every new environment and its challenges. As a third adjective, I might choose a verb: to become recognized rather than known, not as Domenico Orefice the person, but as an aesthetic that starts from form and goes on to define the brand.

And what direction is the aesthetic of Domenico Orefice taking today?

The brand has always been a hybrid between sport and tailoring. As it has grown, ideas and products have matured, and consequently the brand’s storytelling has changed as well. While at the beginning I was tied to this philosophy and used technical fabrics such as nylon, we have since embraced a more sartorial vision while maintaining details and silhouettes from the world of sportswear.