Filippo Arnaboldi was happily employed at J. Walter Thompson’s Milan office when the advertising agency offered him a position at Einson Freeman, its affiliate in New Jersey.
Thrilled for the opportunity abroad, Arnaboldi arrived stateside in 1998; a year later Frette—the luxury Italian linen company based in Monza, just north of Milan—wooed him to its nascent marketing department in New York. Since 2017, he has been Frette’s CEO.
Founded in 1860, the textile house opened its inaugural (and still-standing) flagship on Milan’s Via Manzoni in 1878. Not long after, its linens were sought out by European royalty. But this fabled legacy was largely unknown in the U.S. when Arnaboldi joined Frette, as it had only established a foothold there in 1978.
“People were still sleeping in beautiful linens, but home décor didn’t hold the same amount of space back then as it does now,” says Arnaboldi, noting how hospitality’s priorities have also shifted. “Linens were a commodity for a hotel. They had to be quality, but there was no emphasis on the sleeping experience.”
Frette sheets dress guestroom beds at the Palazzo Cordusio in Milan, designed by Studio Marco Piva
All of that has changed. The U.S. has become Frette’s No. 1 market, fueled over the years by the opening of standalone stores and a wholesale venture with Bloomingdale’s in 2010. Pushing Frette online in 2008 was especially pivotal to growth. “The luxury sector was so afraid of going digital,” Arnaboldi remembers.
About 50 percent of Frette’s business is in hospitality, and Arnaboldi says the segment is so robust because hotels are eager to create homey guestrooms with custom elements. Partnerships with the likes of the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection and Disney Cruise Line are also helping drive the category.
Take the recently renovated Surrey in New York, part of the Corinthia Hotels portfolio. The guestrooms, from Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, sport distinctive layouts and color palettes, and Frette offerings, with their bespoke piping and finishes.
Likewise, Frette made its mark at the Lungarno Collection’s Michele Bönan-designed Portrait Milano with cotton sateen sheet, pillowcase, and duvet sets that customers can also purchase.
Frette linens and blankets add to the luxe experience in a Palazzo Cordusio suite
“More and more, we are acting like tailors,” says Arnaboldi. Frette’s in-house design team even compiles pattern and color inspirations that draw from a property’s façades and interiors. Each hotel has its own standards, he adds, and “in the end, it’s about how their clients want to sleep.”
At the 2024 edition of Salone del Mobile Milano, Frette unveiled its first-ever collaboration with fashion designer Thom Browne spanning bedding, towels, and a bathmat.
It was a turning point for the evolving company, which, although focused on the home sphere, is now taking a more active lifestyle approach by going “beyond and above the bedroom,” as Arnaboldi puts it. “We can enjoy Frette in other ambiances—the bathroom, the dining room, the spa, the pool terrace, the gym—at different times of the day.”
Loungewear, candles, cushions, and napkins, for example, are all part of the mix. In the process, he adds, “we are touching consumers in so many ways.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s November 2024 issue.
