Gianfranco Ferre collection. Image by catwalking.com

It’s all executive change at Gianfranco Ferre and Brioni. Yesterday Paolo Romani, Italy’s recently nominated minister for economic affairs, approved the purchase of the first by the New York-based merchant bank Prodos Capital Management LLC, which had been pending since September when this newspaper first reported the presence of Prodos’ chairman, Douglas Song, in Ferre’s front row. Ferre, along with former parent company Ittierre, has been in administration for the past two years. The Prodos purchase, which WWD reported at between $13.8m and $20.8m, is effected partly through agreements with Samsung (still to be finalized) and the Greek shipping company Salmar Shipping Ltd. Read more