September 25, 2025 • 14 mins
“Federico has made it alone, imagining much and working more, arriving from Ravenna, where he was born, to become part of King Charles III’s task force.… Those who want to break the mold have to take risks, swim against the tide, walk untrodden paths.”—Giorgio Armani, from the foreword to The Geek of Chic. At the start of the 21st century, shopping online was still a futuristic fantasy. There was no Facebook, there were no iPhones. And yet, in the spring of 2000, Federico Marchetti invented one of the world’s first platforms for online sales—and started a company that would revolutionize the luxury fashion sector. In THE GEEK OF CHIC: An American Dream, Italian Style (Post Hill Press; September 9, 2025; ISBN: 9798895650608; $18.99; 288 pages; Original Trade Paperback), international fashion business and tech icon Federico Marchetti, (with a foreword by Giorgio Armani), shares his engaging, honest and passionate memoir that reveals how he morphed from a geeky kid in the sleepy seaside town of Ravenna, Italy to a pioneer in online retail, offering practical advice for entrepreneurs and inspiration for visionaries and big dreamers. The Geek of Chic explains the present and future of Marchetti’s life, including working on His Majesty King Charles III’s service as Chair of The Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Fashion Task Force, which includes brands such as Chloé, Armani, Burberry, Cucinelli, Stella McCartney, and Prada. In a sector known for individualism, Marchetti is uniting global luxury groups around a common goal of shifting towards a circular industry that is climate-conscious and nature-positive. The King of England now considers Marchetti his consigliere on matters of regenerative fashion and digital innovation, collaborating on several initiatives and projects. Unfolding against a backdrop of famed vistas—Milan, Lake Como, Venice, England’s Royal Palace, New York City, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Dubai—and featuring encounters with notables from Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos to Giorgio Armani and Anna Wintour, The Geek of Chic’s message is relevant to a new generation of entrepreneurs who wish to combine innovation, business acumen, and AI with humanism, creativity and empathy: how to achieve the American dream in an Italian way. For more information about Marchetti, please visit www.federicomarchetti.com.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and good morning everybody. Hello, Hello, how are you
doing today, Federco.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm doing time? Am I am? I on time? Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Yes, you are. I like it when people are on time.
That means that you give a damn. That means that
you care, and that says a lot about you and
your characters. Sir.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, I feel that sometimes I'm it will be Japanese.
I stress out if I'm not on time.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh, that is so me. That is so me, because
I always tell people that I'm a time whore. That
that that's the reason why I have a Google calendar
and I've got to stick to it at all times.
How did you get that discipline in your life, especially
you're coming from a world where change is everything.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So I think it comes from the fact that I
needed to be very much organized, given that I have
so many things to do and to follow now from
the King of England, the multiple activities that I care about,
to jog yourmany board and traveling in the book and
(01:08):
meeting with the next generation. So I need to be
very efficient, and so I need to be very much
in time. Well.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
See, that's what I love about the title of the book,
because to me, it says a lot about you, the
geek of chic, in other words, that you were so
fine tuned in making sure that everybody got exactly what
they were looking for, but you, and then you give
it a twist with this an American Dream Italian style.
I like that. I like the way that you're so
open and transparent with us with that.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Thank you, thank you now I mean the title. I
mean I wrote to the book, first in Italian and
then now launching the book, and it was a best
seller in Italy, and so I decided that given that
title is an American Dream Italian style, I had to
come to America to launch it and to tell my story,
(02:00):
especially to inspire the young generation, the next generation of
change makers, and they wanted to change the world. And
it's a memoir full of stories, full of anecdots around
the King, around myself, around the Unwink, around everybody, and
(02:21):
primary people can get some advice from reading this story.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, it's a book of leadership, and we need that
right now, because it's not that the younger minds are
aren't creative. They just need the people behind them to say,
do it, go with it, that's it great eye, let's
make it into fashion let's get people to start talking.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, it's about you're right, and it's The book is
about taking risks and be brave and a courage to
be in certain situations where maybe you feel uncomfortable, but
then it tends to be a big opportunity. And so
(03:02):
in my book. It happened in my story more than
in my book, but it happened so many times that
I was in situations that I couldn't expect, and I
definitely took many risks. And it's out not always because
in the book there are also some mistakes that I
make it because obviously, like people make mistakes when they
(03:24):
do things. But the encouragement and inspiration is risks bring luck.
Without risks, you're not going to be lucky.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
How are you able to move around those that stood
in your way? Because there are those that say, come on, FABRICO,
that's a good idea, but it's not. I'm not buying
into it. But yet you kept pushing forward with your
ideas and plans.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Because I had a strong vision from the very beginning.
I knew that. I mean when I thought it was
nineteen ninety nine and the New York Times called me
the man who put fashion on the name because it
was the first. I was the first to sell luxury
fashion on the internet and in the world, so I
was a little bit ahead of time. And in ninety
(04:17):
nine there was nothing. There was no Facebook, non Instagram,
and Amazon was just selling a few books. In America,
there was Normalkipedia, no vive Geno for genog, there was nothing.
And definitely yes, at the beginning, I had a strong
resistance from everybody from I had to create a market
(04:40):
because it didn't exist. So I had to convince the
customers to buy a luxurre re fashion online and to
return it if they didn't rack it, which is now
very common and very haman. It's something very normal for
people to do to buy fashion line, but back in
two thousand was not normal at all. And I continue.
(05:03):
I was very persistent simply because I knew that the fashion,
luxury fashion, and in the internet and the web, they
were going to converge one day, in five years, in
ten years, and that's exactly what happened. So I started
knowing that my vision was right way, so I was
(05:27):
persistent because I was such a strong vision.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It reminds me so much of when I got into podcasting,
in twenty twelve, where people at the biggest company in
radio looked at me and said, I see what you're doing,
I just don't understand it. Did you run into the
same obstacle when it came to building your retail empire
when it came to the internet, because people see it,
but they didn't understand it, but yet you kept pushing forward.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, that's exactly the same. Because when I opened the
first website US dot com, the first because and I
bought a Metaparte, and then I opened any other website,
I operated all the online flexive stores for the brand.
So in the end I was running probably around fifty
(06:12):
websites and apps around luxury fashion on line. So there's
a big probability that if you were buying fashion online,
you were buying something from my company. And when I
opened the first website in June two thousand, I received
the call from a Dutch journalist. He was telling me,
(06:35):
are you crazy? Are you crazy to start something like
that in the middle of the bubble economy? Because in
the end, like in the spring in April May two thousand,
there was a big problem with the internet, and not
like the NAB that fell down and don't know any points,
et cetera, and the selling fashion line where nobody can
(06:56):
try it on. So that was say, the first mister
that contacted me when I opened my website. But frankly,
I knew that it was going to happen, so I
didn't get intimidated by this call.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Please do not move. There's more with Fedrico Manchetti coming
up next, the name of his book, The Geek of Chic.
We're back with Fedrico Manchetti. For many people, the name
Giorgio Armani is something that we see in magazines or
you know, some very expensive stores inside big cities. But
(07:31):
yet you call him maestro and I mean, I mean
to be in that position of learning as well as
executing your thoughts and processes forward. I mean, how do
you stay so humble.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I've been knowing ninety since thirty years, and in the
last six years I've been sitting also and is both
the directors in his company as the only non family member,
so there's a kind of trust. And obviously when he
passed away very instantly, has been not a shock because
(08:10):
we were prepared during the summer that was going to happen.
But it was very emotional for me. And I've learned
a lot from him because he was the only designer
fashion designer that he was also CEO, so he could combine.
(08:30):
He is a left brain, which is a right brain,
so he was both creative and a businessman and entrepreneur.
And so I learned a lot from him and a
lot of respect. And I'm very thankful that he wrote
the forward to my book, which is something pretty unique.
Never did it in his own life to write the
forward for somebody else's book. So I think that the
(08:53):
book is worth at least for the forward by mister Jeorgermany.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That the last thing that he wrote, Yeah, we're talking
about is the geek of chic. How is the King
of England's fashion change now that he is the King
of England, Because I've noticed that even when he was
getting together with our president last week, I could see
the fashion that he was projecting forward. It's so different
compared to when he was just Prince Charles.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I mean, the King of England that I had the
honor to work on multiple activities, so as his king
foundation on the Circle by Colony Alliance and the board
member of the Haygro Gardens. He produces sustainable food and
(09:43):
ultimately Amos the chair of his Session task force. Probably
not everybody knows that he is a true pioneer in
sustainability in climate change because his first speech was February
nineteen seventy, so I was just one year old and
fifty five years ago, and we started talking about the
(10:06):
issues that we were going to have if we were
continuing to do what we were doing in terms of
the environment, and they climate change. So at the beginning
it was so ahead of time that they thought that
it was very eccentric. But in the end is the
pioneer of sustainability and that's why digital innovator, entrepreneur like
(10:30):
me and the King of England we were teaming up
in order to make quick progress on the sustainability, in
my case in the fashion industry, but he's doing much
more than that.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You and I both know that creativity is endless. Do
you have things hidden away in the vault that's not
ready for the world yet, but you know one day
it'll be ready to come out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's a big question and if I knew the answer,
I'm not so sure that I would share it now.
But but now I think, I think that I'm very
much conviniced. Given that I don't know. I want to
(11:18):
m y U talking with the students because of the
adopted my book, the textbook and the marketing course. I
wanted to call of university to speak to under students.
And I think that there is a lot of appetite
for innovation in sustainability. So even if it seems that
(11:40):
sustainability and kind of change is not anymore health topic,
I think it's probably the time, given that it's not
hot anymore, to push the accelerator and to do amazing
stuff because in the end, the only innovation and technology
can say our planet because of like as Albert Einstein said,
(12:03):
if we are the same people, I will continue to
do the same stuff, It's impossible to change. So we
need innovation and we need technology in order to make
this change. And therefore I think for the young generation
of entrepreneurs in the twenties in the thirties, I think
there is a definitely a big room for making very
(12:29):
successful companies in the future.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Where can people go to find out more about you,
Federico in the way of not only this book, but
everything that you're doing, because once again you are one
of the most creative people that I've ever spent.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Time with, and thank you for the compliment today. And
the book is on Amazon right now and also the
website www. Siblicomarket dot com where it's kind of my
archives of interviews, videos, pictures, biography, etc. And so it's
(13:03):
more or less an archival. But I think in the book,
especially in the book, if if anybody will read it,
you will understand my story that is an American story
because I'm coming from nothing, so I didn't have in
context in fashion, I didn't having contexts in technology. I'm
(13:24):
coming from a very humble family from the northeast of
Italy below Venice called Ravenna is a small town and
I had a dream. I had a dream and I
continue to be persistent and in the end, before selling
my company in twenty eighteen, I created the leader in
(13:47):
the world in luxury fashional e commerce called the uxet
apartein that I sold it for six billion dollars. So
it was like, it's an American dream because really I'm
coming from nothing, and if I made it, it means
that everybody can make it because I didn't have anything
(14:08):
when I started.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Wow, I love where your heart is Please come back
to this show anytime in the future. The door is
always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Thank you so much. Was very kind of you and
I enjoyed the interview and thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
For brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Okay, okay,
Hello and good morning everybody. Hello, Hello, how are you
doing today, Federco.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm doing time? Am I am? I on time? Yes?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Yes, you are. I like it when people are on time.
That means that you give a damn. That means that
you care, and that says a lot about you and
your characters. Sir.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, I feel that sometimes I'm it will be Japanese.
I stress out if I'm not on time.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Oh, that is so me. That is so me, because
I always tell people that I'm a time whore. That
that that's the reason why I have a Google calendar
and I've got to stick to it at all times.
How did you get that discipline in your life, especially
you're coming from a world where change is everything.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So I think it comes from the fact that I
needed to be very much organized, given that I have
so many things to do and to follow now from
the King of England, the multiple activities that I care about,
to jog yourmany board and traveling in the book and
(01:08):
meeting with the next generation. So I need to be
very efficient, and so I need to be very much
in time. Well.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
See, that's what I love about the title of the book,
because to me, it says a lot about you, the
geek of chic, in other words, that you were so
fine tuned in making sure that everybody got exactly what
they were looking for, but you, and then you give
it a twist with this an American Dream Italian style.
I like that. I like the way that you're so
open and transparent with us with that.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Thank you, thank you now I mean the title. I
mean I wrote to the book, first in Italian and
then now launching the book, and it was a best
seller in Italy, and so I decided that given that
title is an American Dream Italian style, I had to
come to America to launch it and to tell my story,
(02:00):
especially to inspire the young generation, the next generation of
change makers, and they wanted to change the world. And
it's a memoir full of stories, full of anecdots around
the King, around myself, around the Unwink, around everybody, and
(02:21):
primary people can get some advice from reading this story.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, it's a book of leadership, and we need that
right now, because it's not that the younger minds are
aren't creative. They just need the people behind them to say,
do it, go with it, that's it great eye, let's
make it into fashion let's get people to start talking.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, it's about you're right, and it's The book is
about taking risks and be brave and a courage to
be in certain situations where maybe you feel uncomfortable, but
then it tends to be a big opportunity. And so
(03:02):
in my book. It happened in my story more than
in my book, but it happened so many times that
I was in situations that I couldn't expect, and I
definitely took many risks. And it's out not always because
in the book there are also some mistakes that I
make it because obviously, like people make mistakes when they
(03:24):
do things. But the encouragement and inspiration is risks bring luck.
Without risks, you're not going to be lucky.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
How are you able to move around those that stood
in your way? Because there are those that say, come on, FABRICO,
that's a good idea, but it's not. I'm not buying
into it. But yet you kept pushing forward with your
ideas and plans.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Because I had a strong vision from the very beginning.
I knew that. I mean when I thought it was
nineteen ninety nine and the New York Times called me
the man who put fashion on the name because it
was the first. I was the first to sell luxury
fashion on the internet and in the world, so I
was a little bit ahead of time. And in ninety
(04:17):
nine there was nothing. There was no Facebook, non Instagram,
and Amazon was just selling a few books. In America,
there was Normalkipedia, no vive Geno for genog, there was nothing.
And definitely yes, at the beginning, I had a strong
resistance from everybody from I had to create a market
(04:40):
because it didn't exist. So I had to convince the
customers to buy a luxurre re fashion online and to
return it if they didn't rack it, which is now
very common and very haman. It's something very normal for
people to do to buy fashion line, but back in
two thousand was not normal at all. And I continue.
(05:03):
I was very persistent simply because I knew that the fashion,
luxury fashion, and in the internet and the web, they
were going to converge one day, in five years, in
ten years, and that's exactly what happened. So I started
knowing that my vision was right way, so I was
(05:27):
persistent because I was such a strong vision.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
It reminds me so much of when I got into podcasting,
in twenty twelve, where people at the biggest company in
radio looked at me and said, I see what you're doing,
I just don't understand it. Did you run into the
same obstacle when it came to building your retail empire
when it came to the internet, because people see it,
but they didn't understand it, but yet you kept pushing forward.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, that's exactly the same. Because when I opened the
first website US dot com, the first because and I
bought a Metaparte, and then I opened any other website,
I operated all the online flexive stores for the brand.
So in the end I was running probably around fifty
(06:12):
websites and apps around luxury fashion on line. So there's
a big probability that if you were buying fashion online,
you were buying something from my company. And when I
opened the first website in June two thousand, I received
the call from a Dutch journalist. He was telling me,
(06:35):
are you crazy? Are you crazy to start something like
that in the middle of the bubble economy? Because in
the end, like in the spring in April May two thousand,
there was a big problem with the internet, and not
like the NAB that fell down and don't know any points,
et cetera, and the selling fashion line where nobody can
(06:56):
try it on. So that was say, the first mister
that contacted me when I opened my website. But frankly,
I knew that it was going to happen, so I
didn't get intimidated by this call.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Please do not move. There's more with Fedrico Manchetti coming
up next, the name of his book, The Geek of Chic.
We're back with Fedrico Manchetti. For many people, the name
Giorgio Armani is something that we see in magazines or
you know, some very expensive stores inside big cities. But
(07:31):
yet you call him maestro and I mean, I mean
to be in that position of learning as well as
executing your thoughts and processes forward. I mean, how do
you stay so humble.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I've been knowing ninety since thirty years, and in the
last six years I've been sitting also and is both
the directors in his company as the only non family member,
so there's a kind of trust. And obviously when he
passed away very instantly, has been not a shock because
(08:10):
we were prepared during the summer that was going to happen.
But it was very emotional for me. And I've learned
a lot from him because he was the only designer
fashion designer that he was also CEO, so he could combine.
(08:30):
He is a left brain, which is a right brain,
so he was both creative and a businessman and entrepreneur.
And so I learned a lot from him and a
lot of respect. And I'm very thankful that he wrote
the forward to my book, which is something pretty unique.
Never did it in his own life to write the
forward for somebody else's book. So I think that the
(08:53):
book is worth at least for the forward by mister Jeorgermany.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That the last thing that he wrote, Yeah, we're talking
about is the geek of chic. How is the King
of England's fashion change now that he is the King
of England, Because I've noticed that even when he was
getting together with our president last week, I could see
the fashion that he was projecting forward. It's so different
compared to when he was just Prince Charles.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I mean, the King of England that I had the
honor to work on multiple activities, so as his king
foundation on the Circle by Colony Alliance and the board
member of the Haygro Gardens. He produces sustainable food and
(09:43):
ultimately Amos the chair of his Session task force. Probably
not everybody knows that he is a true pioneer in
sustainability in climate change because his first speech was February
nineteen seventy, so I was just one year old and
fifty five years ago, and we started talking about the
(10:06):
issues that we were going to have if we were
continuing to do what we were doing in terms of
the environment, and they climate change. So at the beginning
it was so ahead of time that they thought that
it was very eccentric. But in the end is the
pioneer of sustainability and that's why digital innovator, entrepreneur like
(10:30):
me and the King of England we were teaming up
in order to make quick progress on the sustainability, in
my case in the fashion industry, but he's doing much
more than that.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
You and I both know that creativity is endless. Do
you have things hidden away in the vault that's not
ready for the world yet, but you know one day
it'll be ready to come out.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
It's a big question and if I knew the answer,
I'm not so sure that I would share it now.
But but now I think, I think that I'm very
much conviniced. Given that I don't know. I want to
(11:18):
m y U talking with the students because of the
adopted my book, the textbook and the marketing course. I
wanted to call of university to speak to under students.
And I think that there is a lot of appetite
for innovation in sustainability. So even if it seems that
(11:40):
sustainability and kind of change is not anymore health topic,
I think it's probably the time, given that it's not
hot anymore, to push the accelerator and to do amazing
stuff because in the end, the only innovation and technology
can say our planet because of like as Albert Einstein said,
(12:03):
if we are the same people, I will continue to
do the same stuff, It's impossible to change. So we
need innovation and we need technology in order to make
this change. And therefore I think for the young generation
of entrepreneurs in the twenties in the thirties, I think
there is a definitely a big room for making very
(12:29):
successful companies in the future.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Where can people go to find out more about you,
Federico in the way of not only this book, but
everything that you're doing, because once again you are one
of the most creative people that I've ever spent.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Time with, and thank you for the compliment today. And
the book is on Amazon right now and also the
website www. Siblicomarket dot com where it's kind of my
archives of interviews, videos, pictures, biography, etc. And so it's
(13:03):
more or less an archival. But I think in the book,
especially in the book, if if anybody will read it,
you will understand my story that is an American story
because I'm coming from nothing, so I didn't have in
context in fashion, I didn't having contexts in technology. I'm
(13:24):
coming from a very humble family from the northeast of
Italy below Venice called Ravenna is a small town and
I had a dream. I had a dream and I
continue to be persistent and in the end, before selling
my company in twenty eighteen, I created the leader in
(13:47):
the world in luxury fashional e commerce called the uxet
apartein that I sold it for six billion dollars. So
it was like, it's an American dream because really I'm
coming from nothing, and if I made it, it means
that everybody can make it because I didn't have anything
(14:08):
when I started.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Wow, I love where your heart is Please come back
to this show anytime in the future. The door is
always going to be open for you.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Thank you so much. Was very kind of you and
I enjoyed the interview and thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
For brilliant today.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Okay, okay,
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