Italian designer Alberta Ferretti resigns as creative director of the brand she founded 43 years ago

ROME — Italian designer Alberta Ferretti announced on Tuesday she is stepping down as creative director of the eponymous brand she founded more than 40 years ago.

''On Sept. 17th, you attended my last fashion show,'' Ferretti wrote in a letter sent out by email.

''Yes, it's time for me to make room for a new chapter for my brand, a new narrative. It was a difficult, complicated, but a very thoughtful choice,'' she added.

Ferretti, 74, said the brand will continue to bear her name and she will announce her successor soon.

Fashion group Aeffe -- which owns the Alberta Ferretti brand along with Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini, Moschino and Pollini -- said that Ferretti will retain her role as vice president of the group.

At her last show during Milan's fashion week, Ferretti presented her summery creations in the courtyard of a former cloister, now a science museum, with an elegant dome rising in the background, emphasizing the artisanal heritage in her collection.

''They are real summer clothes, because the world in the summer is very warm. I know a show is supposed to be a show but reality is important,'' she said backstage, without hinting at her decision of stepping down soon.

Ferretti, who grew up in her family's dressmaking shop before opening her own boutique as a teenager, has remained true to her signature gentle feminine silhouettes since the launch of the brand in 1981.

''The Alberta of that day is in many ways still the Alberta of today, even if in the meantime a small family business has become a company with 1500 employees,'' she wrote in her letter.