Riccitelli Milano manufactures resortwear in Italy for fashion brands: linen and cotton separates, kaftans and cover ups, resort shirting, easy dresses, crochet and open knit pieces, and the light tailoring that travels. Resort is the collection a customer packs, which makes it the one they judge most practically.
We are a fashion production agency in Milan. A brand hires us and we produce the collection, answering for the result at every stage.
Resortwear has to survive a suitcase
Everything about the category follows from the fact that the garment is folded, carried, worn in heat, washed by hand in a hotel sink and worn again the next day.
Creasing. Linen creases, that is its character, but there is a difference between a linen that falls into a soft crease and one that folds into a hard crease that will not drop out. Weave, weight and finishing decide which one you get, and it is testable before booking.
Sun and salt. Resort colours are exposed to strong sun, chlorine, salt and sun cream, all of which attack dye. Colour fastness testing matters more here than in any category except swim, and skipping it is why a coral shirt comes back as a faded orange one.
Transparency. Light cloth in strong sunlight behaves differently from light cloth in a showroom. Whether a white linen dress needs a lining or a slip is decided by looking at it in real light, not under a lamp.
Weight. Every gram matters in a suitcase. A resort piece that is beautiful and heavy is left at home the second time.
What we produce
Linen and cotton separates: shirts, wide trousers, shorts and skirts. Kaftans, cover ups and beach dresses. Resort shirting in lightweight poplin, voile and linen, made alongside our shirt production. Easy dresses in viscose, cupro and cotton. Crochet, macramé and open knit pieces. Light unlined tailoring in linen and cotton silk. Matching sets and co ords.
Swimwear runs through swimwear and beachwear, covered resort dressing through modest fashion production, and silk scarves and pareos through the printers in Como.
Cloth
Linen from the European spinners, in weights chosen against the garment rather than the season: a shirting linen and a trouser linen are different cloths. Cotton voile and poplin for lightness with opacity. Viscose and cupro for drape and for their behaviour in heat. Cotton silk blends where a resort piece has to read dressier.
Everything is tested for shrinkage, for colour fastness to light and salt, and for how it creases after being folded. See fabric sourcing in Italy.
Calendars
Resort sits awkwardly in the fashion calendar: it is delivered to stores in the autumn for the winter travel season and then again for summer, so a brand selling it properly runs two drops rather than one. Linen in specific colours books out early, and crochet and hand worked pieces set the critical path because that work cannot be compressed.
How a resortwear project runs
Flats drawn, patterns drafted with the ease that resort needs, samples made and then treated the way a customer will treat them: folded, packed, washed, worn in real light. Corrections into the pattern, size set proven, approved sample as the reference. See pattern making and sampling.
Quantities
See low minimum order production and capsule collections.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a good resort linen?
How it creases. All linen creases, but a good one falls into a soft crease that drops out and a poor one folds into a hard line that stays. Weave, weight and finishing decide it, and it can be tested by folding and hanging a sample before you book the cloth.
Why does resort colour fade?
Sun, chlorine, salt and sun cream all attack dye, and resort garments meet all four. Colour fastness testing matters more here than anywhere except swimwear, which is why we test before booking rather than after the first season of returns.
Does a white linen dress need lining?
It depends on the cloth in real light, not showroom light. Light fabric behaves differently in strong sun, so we look at the finished garment outdoors before deciding between a lining, a slip or a heavier cloth.
When is resortwear delivered?
Usually twice: into stores in autumn for winter travel, then again for summer. A brand selling resort properly runs two drops, and the calendar has to be built for both rather than treated as an extension of spring.
Do you produce crochet and hand worked pieces?
Yes, and they set the critical path in a resort collection because hand work cannot be compressed. They go into development first, before the woven pieces.
Why does weight matter in resortwear?
Because the garment goes in a suitcase. A resort piece that is beautiful and heavy gets worn once and left at home the next trip. Weight is a design constraint here, not an afterthought.
Can you produce a small resort capsule?
Yes, and resort suits a capsule well because the range is naturally focused. Minimums follow the cloth.
Produce your resortwear in Italy
Send a reference garment, a fabric or a finished tech pack and we tell you what it takes to build it. Contact our Milan studio, or see all fashion production services.
Start your production with Riccitelli Milano
Tell us about the collection you would like to create. Our team will get back to you to begin your production in Italy.