Born in Milan, Kean studied in Switzerland, attended Aiglon College, and University of Cambridge before returning to Milan to study medieval history.

The famous designer joined the family owned brand Etro in 1986 to work on upgrading the information systems. In 1989 he developed Etro Perfume division.

In 1990 Kean designed the first ever Menswear Collection, giving extraordinary momentum to the wave of creative transformation that was already sweeping the Etro brand, introducing the concepts that will define the company’s values such as the ‘New Tradition’ and the motto ‘Faithful to Love and Beauty’.

In 1997 he presented the first menswear show, theorizing the concept of New Tradition, which would become a keystone theme of his style and almost immediately entered the world’s top ten sell out list.

Kean’s fashion shows soon became dialectic moments of encounter and exchange, a vehicle for the transmission of cultural values. Amongst others, the fashion show S-upper Market of Style – Esselunga Bio Bio Pio Pio; the Tree of Life, where trees were the real protagonists; Gentleman Vs Busyman where the debate between productivity and sentiment between the gentleman versus the perpetually busy man was emphasized; and again, Sartoria Felice fashion show, an homage to Italy and its Km0 territoriality.

Kean is highly sensitive to environmental and social themes, having created and developed initiatives, such as Gli Oggetti dell’Affetto (“Objects of Love”) with Sotheby’s for the Vidas charity, the theme of biodiversity illustrated at the 2002 Paris conference on organic fashion, organized by the International Herald Tribune, and the project “A Thousand Gardens in Africa” by Carlo Petrini, president of Slow Food.

Kean presented his latest men’s collection for Etro passing the baton to Marco De Vincenzo, the new creative director of the Maison from June 2022.