In the biggest creative shake-up for a fashion brand since the COVID-19 pandemic, Gucci announced on Wednesday that Alessandro Micheleits creative director, was leaving the company.
the master. Michelle, the 49-year-old Rome-born designer who took over the top job in 2015, has been instrumental in transforming Gucci, seemingly overnight, from a fading symbol of star-studded glamour into a purveyor of quirky inclusivity that embodies the broader cultural conversation around gender. , gender identity, and race.
His new brand vision caught on in the fashion industry and he made tens of billions of dollars for Kering, the French luxury group that also owns Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, among other brands. However, Gucci was responsible for the bulk of the group's profits. Earning nearly 10 billion euros in revenue in 2021 - He was mr. Michele and Gucci's president, Marco Bizzarri, who has been credited with the success.
At least as long as it's successful. Recently, however, the once unstoppable growth has begun to slow. And although mr. Michelle had tried to expand Gucci's reach via restaurants, the metaverse and collaborations with Adidas and Harry Styles, and the staple show was beginning to elicit yawns rather than cravings. On Wednesday, 20 years after he joined the company, Gucci confirmed it in a statement the master. Michelle was stepping down and leaving the company.
“There are times when paths diverge due to the different perspectives each of us may have,” Michelle said in a signature flowery statement that he also thanked the Gucci staff. “Today, an extraordinary journey for me, lasting more than twenty years, within a company to which I have tirelessly devoted all my love and creative passion comes to an end.”
Kering Chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault added, "The path that Gucci and Alessandro have taken together over the years is unique and will remain a remarkable moment in the history of the House."
The statement said the Gucci design team will continue to produce the collections until a successor is announced.
Speculation about his departure, which was reported earlier by Women's Wear Daily, led to an initial increase in Kering's share price when markets opened on Wednesday, with analysts noting the new designer could help revive sales.
The market and Gucci in particular (with the state responsible for more than a third of all sales), said Luca Solka of research firm Sanford C.
"In order to re-accelerate, you need to open up a new creative chapter," he said. "We have to give credit to Kering for what they're doing, given that they have systematically and successfully revived fading brands in the past."
the master. Michelle's period at Gucci is a case in point. He joined the brand in 2002 as an accessories designer and was virtually unknown outside the company when he was Mr. Bizzarri appointed him creative director, allowing him free rein to control not only products, but also stores, campaigns, and communications.
Magpie's aesthetic, which ranged freely across time periods, reference points and notions of beauty, seemed perfectly calibrated to the more democratic age of social media. His offerings were collections of jewellery, eyewear, bags and apparel - that celebrated the elegant nature. His long hair and beard gave him the smoothness of a counterculture guru (his penchant for quoting Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes in his show notes helped), and fashion practically treated him as such, especially when the numbers started to climb.
A year ago he carried him First live show Since the pandemic began on Central Hollywood Boulevard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Dakota Johnson, Billie Eilish (who often wore Gucci in public) and Jared Leto have graced the catwalk. for him latest show At Milan Fashion Week, it was an ode to identical twins, one of the most heralded songs of the season.
But the unexpected and unemotional change at the top has become something of a pattern at Kering. This is the third time that mr. Pinault made a surprising shift in the direction of his high-profile brand. The first time was in 2004, when he separated from Tom Ford and Domenico Di Sole and the second, in 2014, when he divorced. Designer Frida Giannini and CEO Patrizio DeMarco.
The fashion world was especially shocked when he named the novice designer Our blood as artistic director of the esteemed Balenciaga in 2015 (which turned out to be a wise decision) and then shocked him again last year when he announced the Sudden departure of Daniel Lee At Bottega Veneta after a successful career, if only for three years.
the master. Michelle's exit also follows a renewed game of musical chairs in the luxury fashion industry, which is still recovering from the fallout from the Covid pandemic on sales and supply chains.
In September, Burberry announced that Mr. Lee will be its new creative director, replacing Riccardo Tisci. He, in turn, was replaced at Bottega Veneta by the design director, the rising star Matteo Blazzi. This month, Tom Ford sold his trademark of the same name That Estée Lauder. Then Raf Simons, the Belgian designer and co-creative director of Prada along with Miuccia Prada, said he was closing his small but hugely influential namesake label after 27 years, pointing to the challenges facing independent names. Rumors continue to grow that Phoebe Philo, Celine's former stylist, will be introducing a new brand sometime next year.
The focus will now turn to what happens next with Gucci - how far a seductive change will come next - and whether Mr. Bizarre will also leave. The brand is set to unveil its next men's collection in Milan in January. As usual, the show will go on.
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