Brands we love, Fashion

The Attico history: a timeline from the 2016 launch to the runway

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Brands we love, Fashion

The Attico history: a timeline from the 2016 launch to the runway

Posted by author-avatar

The Attico is ten years old in 2026, and its history is short enough to tell in dates. It began as a presentation with cake and champagne in a Milan apartment in February 2016, became a company with outside investment in 2018, won Italy’s Altagamma prize for young businesses in 2019, and put its first collection on a runway, on a street in western Milan, in September 2023. Revenue went from 5 million euros in 2018 to more than 30 million in 2023, on the chief executive’s own figures. Every date below is sourced at the foot of the page, and the wardrobe those years produced is the 229 pieces in stock at Luxury Shoes .

Key facts

  • 25 February 2016: Gilda Ambrosio and Giorgia Tordini launch Attico in Milan with robe dresses and slips; Vogue covers the presentation the same day.
  • 2017: Launch of the Year at the 31st Footwear News Achievement Awards in New York; the founders join the BoF 500; Vogue profiles them again in November.
  • October 2018: Archive, the investment vehicle of Remo Ruffini’s family holding, takes a 49 percent stake; Stefano Marcovaldi becomes chief executive.
  • 2019: the first Milan Fashion Week presentation, the Altagamma Young Business Award, and the Eres swim collaboration.
  • 2020 to 2022: shoes launch for fall 2020, see-now-buy-now from spring 2021, pop-ups at Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorf Goodman and a Wooster Street space in New York in September 2022.
  • September 2023: the first runway show, held on a street in the Arco della Pace neighbourhood; revenue above 30 million euros that year, from 5 million in 2018.

2016: robes out of the bedroom

The launch presentation on 25 February 2016 showed peignoirs, slip dresses and dungarees in velvet, canvas, embroidered silk and tulle, with models lounging on settees and the hashtag #JoinUsUpstairs on the notes. The name is the Italian word for penthouse. Vanity Fair Italia ran a profile that November, and Vogue’s May 2016 issue carried the founders. The brand’s first year established the thing it still sells most of: a dress meant for the night, cut in a fabric that had until then stayed at home.

2017: the award and the index

Footwear News named the label Launch of the Year at its 31st Achievement Awards in New York on 31 October 2017, an odd prize for a brand that had not yet launched shoes, and a sign of how fast the accessories were expected. The same year the founders were listed in the BoF 500, and Vogue’s second profile, in November 2017, was headlined with the phrase “growing Attico into a significant business”. The Fashion Law’s December 2017 “Blueprint” piece is the clearest early account of how the two stylists built the company.

2018: Archive and a chief executive

WWD reported on 8 October 2018 that Archive, an investment vehicle controlled by ou(R), the family holding of Moncler chairman Remo Ruffini, was taking 49 percent of the company. Stefano Marcovaldi, a co-founder of Archive, became chief executive. In his December 2023 interview with WWD he described the mandate as building “a portfolio of brands and creative languages aimed at the new generation”, and said the restructuring brought distribution in-house and broadened the manufacturing base. Revenue that year was 5 million euros. WWD also put the founders on its “40 of Tomorrow” list in November 2018, and Forbes profiled them in September.

2019: Milan Fashion Week and Altagamma

Tordini moved back to Milan and the brand held its first official Milan Fashion Week presentation. In June 2019 the Altagamma Foundation gave The Attico its Giovani Imprese award for fashion, the Italian luxury industry’s prize for a young company. In July the Eres collaboration, a swim capsule with the French swimwear house, was covered by Vogue France; it is the root of the swim line the brand now calls Il primo bagno.

2020 to 2022: categories, pop-ups and a strategy

Shoes were formally introduced for fall 2020, and by the end of 2023 accessories were 35 percent of the business. WWD reported in June 2020 that a new strategy would launch in November, and the brand moved to see-now-buy-now from the spring 2021 collection, a model it kept even after it started showing on a runway. February 2020 brought the Air Jordan 1 Mid Milan pack with Nike. Pop-ups followed at Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorf Goodman, La Rinascente, The Webster, Beymen and Level Shoes, with a December 2021 series built around accessories, and on 14 September 2022 the brand opened its first New York pop-up on Wooster Street, the week the New York Times ran “Little Dresses for Big Nights”. During the 2022 Salone del Mobile the brand staged a design exhibition with the New York gallery Superhouse.

2023: the runway

Vogue reported in July 2023 that the founders would stage their first show in September. It was held on a street in the Arco della Pace neighbourhood, a deliberate departure from the apartment presentations of earlier years, and WWD’s preview the same week carries the founders’ reasoning in their own words. In December 2023 the chief executive told WWD the brand would post revenue above 30 million euros for the year, up from 27 million in 2022, with 270 stockists, 75 percent of sales in Europe and the United States and about 10 percent in the Middle East. The show collections since have carried titles on the brand’s own site: “The Morning After” for September 2023, “The Sound of Breaking Glass” for September 2024 and “Lei è così” for September 2025.

2024 to 2026: what the wardrobe looks like now

At Luxury Handbags the current pool runs 229 pieces across 9 seasons, from $370 to $8,417, with 88 pieces from fall-winter 2026 and 62 from spring-summer 2026. 208 of the 229 are made in Italy. The FW26 edit and the SS26 edit walk the two current seasons; the signatures page explains which pieces recur.

“It’s not a starting point nor a destination, it’s just part of the process,” Giorgia Tordini told WWD of the first runway show in September 2023. “We didn’t work over the past seven years thinking about how one day we would have hosted a runway show. That was never our priority, we worked to build the company.”

Frequently asked questions

When was The Attico founded?

In 2016. The launch presentation in Milan was on 25 February 2016, covered by Vogue the same day.

Who owns The Attico?

Its founders together with Archive, the investment vehicle of Remo Ruffini’s family holding ou(R), which took 49 percent in October 2018.

When was The Attico’s first runway show?

September 2023, during Milan Fashion Week, on a street in the Arco della Pace neighbourhood. Earlier seasons were presentations and digital releases.

How big is The Attico as a business?

Revenue above 30 million euros in 2023 on the chief executive’s figures, up from 27 million in 2022 and 5 million in 2018, with 270 stockists worldwide.

What awards has The Attico won?

Launch of the Year at the 2017 Footwear News Achievement Awards, the Altagamma Young Business Award in 2019, and a place on the BoF 500 for its founders.

Does The Attico still use see-now-buy-now?

Yes. The brand adopted it from the spring 2021 collection and kept it after the runway debut, so a runway piece can be bought the day it is shown.

Read next

Who is The Attico? Who wears The Attico? The Attico collaborations. Is The Attico a luxury brand? Shop The Attico at Luxury Shoes .

More The Attico guides

Every The Attico page by Luxury Shoes ’s fashion editor Gemma Deeks: Who is The Attico?, How to style, Brands like The Attico, FW26 edit, Is it a luxury brand?, Where to buy, Price guide, Size guide, Sale, vs Magda Butrym, Dresses, Mini dresses, Midi and maxi dresses, Black dresses, White dresses, Red dresses, Zebra and prints, Wedding-guest dresses, Jeans, Pants, Skirts, Tops and shirts, Knitwear, Jackets and coats, Swimwear, Who wears it, Review, Real vs fake, Materials and care, Glossary, Collaborations, Signatures, vs 16Arlington, vs Alessandra Rich, SS26 edit, Capsule wardrobe, Cargo pants, Bomber jackets, Sweatshirts and joggers, Shorts, Tailoring, Leather and fur, T-shirts, Cut-outs, Lace and tulle, Feathers and fringe, Satin and silk, Blue and green, Grey, beige and brown, Stripes and checks, Yellow, pink and purple, Party dresses, Holiday edit.

Sources and method

Checked on 19 September 2026 by Gemma Deeks, fashion editor at Luxury Shoes . Product facts, the compositions, made-in lines, fit notes and model measurements, are the brand’s own product-page text; counts, prices and price ranges are Luxury Shoes ’s live catalogue on that date and move with stock, and only pieces that were in stock at both Luxury Handbags and theattico.com on that date are named; the brand history comes from the brand’s own About page and the press articles listed below, each read on the date above, with the founders’ and the chief executive’s words quoted verbatim. Where a claim could not be checked against one of these it was left out, and where the fitting room is giving its own advice the page says so.

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About Gemma Deeks

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