Creative direction reshuffle: Does the trust between CEO and creative director have an expiration date?
With Maria Grazia Chiuri's departure from Dior now official, new appointments are anticipated. It seems as though all that is missing is the station master's whistle and the call of 'all aboard' to begin this latest journey towards a new creative direction in luxury fashion.
We are witnessing a continuous reshuffling of creative directors; only a few weeks ago, news broke that Pierpaolo Piccioli, after years at the helm of Valentino–eight of these alongside Maria Grazia Chiuri, who left the brand in 2016 to join Dior–was moving to Balenciaga (Kering). A year prior, Alessandro Michele took the creative lead at Valentino, after Piccioli's departure in 2024.
Michele left Gucci in 2022, subsequently replaced by Sabato De Sarno, who served as the Florentine brand's creative director from 2023 to February 2025, shortly before Demna Gvasalia's appointment. Gvasalia, in turn, vacated the position at Balenciaga, which was then 'assigned' to Piccioli.
We'll stop here, but the merry-go-round of appointments in recent months has, of course, been much more extensive. It is perhaps worth remembering the arrival of Dutch designer Duran Lantink as the new permanent creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier, perhaps one of the few truly new entries into the Olympus of fashion in recent times.
Not that Lantink is a novice; on the contrary, the designer, already shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2019 and winner of this year's Woolmark Prize, has designed pieces for artists such as Beyonce, Doja Cat, Paris Hilton, Billie Eilish, and Solange. Let's just say he's a fresher name. Sabato De Sarno Credits: Courtesy of Gucci, ph Riccardo Raspa
The question that arises at this moment, however, is not so much whether in fashion, as in cinema, there is a famous 'inner circle' of names that move from one label to another yet always remain in the spotlight at one brand or another, but how much this sometimes frantic alternation can really contribute to the growth of brands. Or whether it contributes to the loss of the label's DNA and the partial recycling of loyal customers (who no longer recognise themselves in the brand), rather than a real expansion of the target audience, which is what, hopefully, the top management of the brands that move creative directors from one brand to another are aiming for.
There is no shortage of choice, given that in LVMH's fashion and leather goods division alone, there are Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Celine, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, Loro Piana, Rimowa and Patou; while Kering today has, in the fashion segment, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni. Kering deputy CEO: 'There must be mutual trust between CEO and creative director'
In this regard, on May 22 in Milan, during the Changemakers in luxury fashion meeting, organised by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) and Zalando, Francesca Bellettini, Kering's deputy CEO, stressed: 'There must be mutual trust between the CEO and creative director, but each must have their role with mutual respect.'
In complex times like the ones luxury is going through, brands must be true to their DNA and 'generate appeal and desirability thanks to creative directors'.
But this trust, instead of consolidating over time, season after season, seems undermined in a short time and influenced by a turnover that, these days, has to do with the crisis, weak demand and the complicated geopolitical situation.
Even the authenticity, transparency and coherence demanded by consumers and mentioned just two days ago by Matteo Lunelli, president of Altagamma, during the foundation's shareholders' meeting, do not always seem to be at the top of the list of priorities for brands. Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Balenciaga Credits: Courtesy of Kering and Balenciaga, ph David Sims Demna Credits: Courtesy of Kering This article was translated to English using an AI tool.
FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on a new era for museums: letting the public take control
The museum of the future has arrived and it looks like an Amazon warehouse. But art critics have unanimously awarded it five stars. From Saturday, visitors to the V&A East Storehouse in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park will be able to wander among the 250,000 objects in the Victoria and Albert Museum's collection that are not on display in its west London home. The headline-grabbing order-an-object initiative means you can book online to get your hands (gloves are provided) on a priceless artefact any day you like. And all for free. It is a triumph born out of necessity. After the V&A's eviction from their Kensington storage home a decade ago, they decided that instead of hiding one of the world's largest design collections in an expensive warehouse, they would turn it into an attraction in its own right. Storage is a big issue for institutions: only 1% of the British Museum's more than 8m artefacts are on public display. Showing off your overflowing attic makes the most of what you've already got, repurposing a closet that, for the V&A, includes a Balenciaga gown (the most requested item so far) and PJ Harvey's hotpants. Open-access storage is not a new idea. In 2021, the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam became the first purpose-built (and presumably the only Ikea-salad bowl-inspired) public art-storage destination. The V&A Storehouse takes a leap further. You are invited behind the scenes of the museum, where everything is jumbled together and conservators are at work – a giant version of the BBC's The Repair Shop. Like the children who run away to New York's Metropolitan Museum for a week in EL Konigsburg's classic 1967 novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, visitors are able to explore freely. 'We wanted people to feel like they're trespassing,' said Tim Reeve, the deputy director of the V&A. 'That feeling of joy, seeing behind the curtain.' Part of the V&A's mission was to inspire innovation, to be a bit radical. Ordering an object is a user-friendly way of engaging newcomers, not just a click-and-collect for art lovers. Like Sadler's Wells, which also launched a Stratford venue earlier this year, the V&A hopes to draw in a younger audience who may have felt excluded from its stately South Kensington home. A sister V&A East Museum will open close to the Storehouse next year. Putting everything on show cannot get over uncomfortable questions about the provenance of a museum's acquisitions. But it does give transparency to how the museum works and what – down to every last pin – it has got. This week, Manchester Museum won the European museum of the year award for its own approach to opening up the curatorial process. As part of its revamp in 2023, the museum handed its new South Asia gallery to a collective of 30 people from Manchester's diaspora communities to design and fill as they chose. The top floor has been given over to a college for neurodivergent students, with a London campus opening at the Design Museum in September. The pandemic, as well as funding and sponsorship crises and anxieties over legacy, have put institutions under pressure. Both the V&A East Storehouse and Manchester Museum show bold new ways forward. They mark a shift in how museums perceive their role. They remind us that these collections are our collections. Fill your basket.
Fashion United
3 days ago
- Fashion United
Creative direction reshuffle: Does the trust between CEO and creative director have an expiration date?
With Maria Grazia Chiuri's departure from Dior now official, new appointments are anticipated. It seems as though all that is missing is the station master's whistle and the call of 'all aboard' to begin this latest journey towards a new creative direction in luxury fashion. We are witnessing a continuous reshuffling of creative directors; only a few weeks ago, news broke that Pierpaolo Piccioli, after years at the helm of Valentino–eight of these alongside Maria Grazia Chiuri, who left the brand in 2016 to join Dior–was moving to Balenciaga (Kering). A year prior, Alessandro Michele took the creative lead at Valentino, after Piccioli's departure in 2024. Michele left Gucci in 2022, subsequently replaced by Sabato De Sarno, who served as the Florentine brand's creative director from 2023 to February 2025, shortly before Demna Gvasalia's appointment. Gvasalia, in turn, vacated the position at Balenciaga, which was then 'assigned' to Piccioli. We'll stop here, but the merry-go-round of appointments in recent months has, of course, been much more extensive. It is perhaps worth remembering the arrival of Dutch designer Duran Lantink as the new permanent creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier, perhaps one of the few truly new entries into the Olympus of fashion in recent times. Not that Lantink is a novice; on the contrary, the designer, already shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2019 and winner of this year's Woolmark Prize, has designed pieces for artists such as Beyonce, Doja Cat, Paris Hilton, Billie Eilish, and Solange. Let's just say he's a fresher name. Sabato De Sarno Credits: Courtesy of Gucci, ph Riccardo Raspa The question that arises at this moment, however, is not so much whether in fashion, as in cinema, there is a famous 'inner circle' of names that move from one label to another yet always remain in the spotlight at one brand or another, but how much this sometimes frantic alternation can really contribute to the growth of brands. Or whether it contributes to the loss of the label's DNA and the partial recycling of loyal customers (who no longer recognise themselves in the brand), rather than a real expansion of the target audience, which is what, hopefully, the top management of the brands that move creative directors from one brand to another are aiming for. There is no shortage of choice, given that in LVMH's fashion and leather goods division alone, there are Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Celine, Loewe, Kenzo, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Marc Jacobs, Berluti, Loro Piana, Rimowa and Patou; while Kering today has, in the fashion segment, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, McQueen and Brioni. Kering deputy CEO: 'There must be mutual trust between CEO and creative director' In this regard, on May 22 in Milan, during the Changemakers in luxury fashion meeting, organised by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana (CNMI) and Zalando, Francesca Bellettini, Kering's deputy CEO, stressed: 'There must be mutual trust between the CEO and creative director, but each must have their role with mutual respect.' In complex times like the ones luxury is going through, brands must be true to their DNA and 'generate appeal and desirability thanks to creative directors'. But this trust, instead of consolidating over time, season after season, seems undermined in a short time and influenced by a turnover that, these days, has to do with the crisis, weak demand and the complicated geopolitical situation. Even the authenticity, transparency and coherence demanded by consumers and mentioned just two days ago by Matteo Lunelli, president of Altagamma, during the foundation's shareholders' meeting, do not always seem to be at the top of the list of priorities for brands. Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director of Balenciaga Credits: Courtesy of Kering and Balenciaga, ph David Sims Demna Credits: Courtesy of Kering This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@
Scottish Sun
3 days ago
- Scottish Sun
Who is Francis Bourgeois and when will the YouTube star present The Grand Tour with Thomas Holland and James Engelsman?
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) FRANCIS Bourgeois is an influencer known for his trainspotting videos. The locomotive enthusiast and fashion icon is joining the new cast of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 3 Francis Bourgeois is known for his adorable Instagram videos Credit: Getty Images 3 Francis and James Englesman will be presenting The Grand Tour Credit: Instagram 3 Thomas Holland will be joining the pair on the show Credit: Instagram A fascination with trains Born on July 9, 2000, in north-west London, Francis had a love of trains from a young age. He revealed in an interview that he would often go to Willesdon Junction train station as a child to watch the trains pass by. Then, he would return home and draw pictures of the vehicles from memory. He explained: 'I was just fixated by these big machines. 'Ever since, I've had a passion for trains, cars, planes.' However, he was bullied terribly at school for his hobby which prompted him to sell his huge collection of train sets. Eventually, he decided to chase his dreams and went on to study engineering at the University of Nottingham. Finding fame The star rocketed to fame in 2021 when he started sharing videos about trains. They featured a distinctive style, with Francis attaching a fish-eye lens to his head. Within months, he went viral and built a fanbase of over 2.5 million followers as of May 2025. James May issues brutal response to working with Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond again after Grand Tour stars split Opening up about why he shared his now famous videos, he said: 'I love to show how awesome trains can be as well as trying to make you smile, laugh and just try and bring joy. 'I want to contribute my passion for trains and also engineering to make the railway network a better place for everyone.' The influencer started partnering with iconic fashion brands, including Gucci, which include train imagery in his photoshoots. Joining the Grand Tour Francis will be presenting the brand new series of The Grand Tour with two other famous influencers. He will be joined by Thomas Holland and James Engelsman, who both run the Throttle House channel on YouTube. The trio will be replacing James May, Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson who left the show after a special episode named The Not Very Grand Tour. The BBC have not yet confirmed when the new series will launch.
