Vivetta Ponti On Taking Fashion At A Slower Pace With New Brand Venerdì Pomeriggio

MILAN — An invitation to slow down and to rethink the fashion cycle marks the latest venture of Vivetta Ponti, who on Tuesday will unveil her new brand Venerdì Pomeriggio on the opening day of Milan Fashion Week.

The label is a fresh start for the Italian designer after last year exiting the namesake company she founded in 2008. Now Venerdì Pomeriggio promises to keep faith with Ponti’s signature girly and whimsical aesthetic but within a different business framework, hinged on smaller production, a sustainable focus and lower price points compared to her previous line.

The name of the brand, which translates into “Friday Afternoon” in English, signals the renewed spirit, more attuned to Ponti’s personal values. “Once I left Vivetta I couldn’t use my name and surname unfortunately, but this is a way to mark a new journey after 18 years,” she told WWD in a preview.

She explained that her first name derives from a Greek word for Friday, which also happens to be her favorite day of the week. “You have the weekend ahead, when you reclaim your own time, enjoy your home and leave the stress behind. It’s kind of a metaphor of the past year and represents a new beginning.”

The domestic dimension is intrinsic to the brand’s ethos. Simple gestures like setting the table and choosing a feel-good, relaxed dress even just to stay at home are the starting points of her creative process. This has more of a lifestyle scope than merely fashion, as Ponti looks to deploy home textiles and rework tablecloths in her new designs, as well as embrace the creation of wallpapers, cushions and home decor to round out her offering.

“My style will remain the same, but the concept is different here,” Ponti said. “I’ve written down on a paper all the things that don’t work in fashion for me anymore. All these sample collections of 150 pieces, presented four times per year — that’s an approach to fashion we don’t need anymore. So much work, energy and economic resources go into that [cycle], and sometimes go wasted. I want to do less, more curated: few pieces, well-made and at an accessible price point….With vintage stores, platforms like Vinted and Vestiaire Collective and so on, people are not up to spend 1,000 euros for a dress any longer.”

Hence Ponti’s new brand plans to drop six to eight capsule collections a year, each comprising around a dozen items priced on average at under 300 euros.

The limited production will be exclusively made in Italy, relying not only on the support of local artisans and embroiderers located mainly in Tuscany or in the Apulia region but also crafted using deadstock and end-of-series fabrics hailing from Italian textile, fashion and furniture companies.

“The Vivetta brand first started like this, too,” she recalled, adding that she also involved local social organizations helping communities with disadvantaged backgrounds in the making of the collection.

Design-wise, another point of difference compared to her previous venture is “trying to abolish the target,” Ponti said. “Now every brand, even the smallest, has these professional figures obsessed with identifying the target. My woman can be whomever. Actually, this brand can be for men, too. I don’t do suits and ties but all those people who have a passion for detail can be drawn to it.”

Yet the wearable pieces Ponti intends to deliver come with a fair dose of eccentricity. Even if she has toned down her distinctive surrealist style, Ponti cuts easy-to-approach shapes like shirts and roomy dresses in flamboyant prints, including maxi floral motifs, big stripes in candy colors and rich embroideries that speak of her sugar-coated aesthetic.

The first capsule bowing on Tuesday via a runway show will be the biggest, as it represents “the cornerstone of the whole project,” Ponti said. It will comprise 21 pieces, including silhouettes evoking prairie dresses in tiny florals or lace, bloomers, shirts with oversize collars and sailor details, as well as pajama-inspired looks cut from poplin or velvet as a nod to loungewear. In the same vein, Ponti collaborated with ViBi Venezia on custom footwear reinterpreting the brand’s traditional Venetian slippers and velvet mary jane friulane.

In addition to floral-themed upholstery textiles and velvets, fabrics will comprise cotton piqué, polka-dot georgette and Chantilly lace. Some items will have an immediate connection with the domestic environment — such as a cotton top and ample skirt made from a floral tablecloth with scalloped hems — while others will echo wallpapers and ‘60s fashion,  such as a made-to-order hat with a large brim printed with maxi roses.

Overall, the mood of the collection was inspired by movies such as “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and “Death in Venice,” as well as the rarefied and romantic imagery of 1970s countryside photography by Sarah Moon. 

The soft light and nostalgic delicacy will be amplified by the relaxed soundtrack curated by Ponti’s longtime collaborator Santamaria Sound Studio and the slow pace of the show, which was initially intended to be a presentation before pivoting into an intimate runway event reminiscent of “‘60s couture shows,” as Ponti put it.

After the show, a selection of looks will be available to purchase online from the brand’s e-commerce. This will be the main retail platform in Venerdì Pomeriggio’s first phase. Pop-ups and a select distribution will follow in the coming months, more to enhance brand awareness than to chase “a capillary retail presence, which requires a kind of structure that I’m not interested in having,” Ponti said.

Instead, the designer is more interested in introducing a custom-made service — including affordable bridal pieces — going forward, in addition to expanding the lifestyle dimension of the brand. After the wallpaper realized with a Tuscan specialist, she is eyeing collaborations with local companies to develop quirky glassware, tableware and furniture — fully expressing her passion for the home category.

Meanwhile, her former label Vivetta has opened a new chapter under chief executive officer Nicoletta Raponi — who joined the company in 2018 and was promoted to her current role in 2022 — and owner Modamet, the holding of the Arezzo, Italy-based Anselmi family that took a 58 percent stake in the brand in 2022 and also controls the Chimera Gold metal accessories and jewelry manufacturer.

The Vivetta brand will stage a show on Wednesday to present its fall 2026 collection, designed by an in-house team. It will be a coed debut, as the brand has recently introduced menswear. As reported, since September the label has also embraced a shift from girly toward a more mature woman, which goes hand-in-hand with a tweak in the brand’s positioning from the contemporary segment previously to a more advanced contemporary category.