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MILAN — Gucci and parent company Kering on Wednesday appointed Alessandro Michele creative director of the Italian luxury brand, succeeding Frida Giannini. This confirms a WWD report on Tuesday. Michele’s first collection in his new role will bow for the women’s fall/winter 2015/16 season in Milan on Feb. 25. WWD was the first to report on Jan. 10 that Michele was likely to take over Giannini’s role. “After a considered and thorough selection process, Alessandro Michele has been chosen to assume the role as Gucci creative director, based upon the contemporary vision he has articulated for the brand that he will now bring to life,” said Marco Bizzarri, president and chief executive officer of Gucci. “Alessandro and I are fully aligned on this new contemporary vision needed by the brand and we will be continuously inspired by that new identity in our respective roles and duties.”
Michele, 42, studied at Accademia di Costume e di Moda in Rome and cut his teeth at Fendi as senior accessories designer, working with Giannini. He joined Gucci’s design team in 2002 and was promoted associate to Giannini in May 2011. Last September, he was also named creative director of fine porcelain brand Richard Ginori, acquired by Gucci in June 2013. Michele, who is said to be passionate about antiquities and interiors, helped to create the brand’s new store concept in Florence that was unveiled in June.
Bizzarri underscored Michele’s “talent and his knowledge of the company and the design teams in place will for sure allow him to move quickly and seamlessly in implementing his new creative direction for the collections and the brand."
The executive, previously head of Kering’s luxury couture and leather goods division, joined Gucci on January 1, succeeding Patrizio di Marco. Bizzarri said the men’s fall collection shown on Jan. 19 “realized thanks to a remarkable collaboration between the men's design and production teams, is a clear indication that the brand is ready to take a new direction.”
Michele, in his first appearance on the runway, took the bow at the Gucci men’s show on Monday afternoon, along with a dozen members of the house’s design team. Under the direction of Michele, the team had been working around the clock to completely redesign the men’s collection, creating ambiguously sexy and romantic looks that included silk chiffon bow blouses and shrunken military jackets — a marked departure from Giannini’s aesthetic. The show was divisive, with some calling it a strong statement of Gucci’s new direction and others questioning its blend of the masculine and feminine. While Giannini and Michele worked together at Fendi earlier in their careers and went on to become a closely-knit duo at Gucci, their fashion aesthetics have diverged in recent years, according to sources.
François-Henri Pinault, chairman and ceo of Kering, said that “Throughout its history, Gucci has always created attention and excitement through its innovative and distinctive products and collections as it has become Italy's most renowned fashion house and one of the most iconic, and prominentluxury brands in the world. Alessandro Michele has both the qualities and the vision necessary to bring a new contemporary perspective to Gucci and lead the brand into an exciting new creative chapter of its history."
Giannini and di Marco revealed in December that they would step down from their roles. The designer, who’d spent nearly a decade at Gucci, was set to step down following the women’s show in February.
As reported first by WWD on Jan. 12, Giannini made a surprise exit from the company earlier this month. It is understood Gucci cut short Giannini’s contract in a bid to facilitate decision-making about the brand’s future creative direction.
The failure of Giannini and di Marco, who are also partners, to turn around the flagging brand precipitated their departure, setting off a guessing game as to who would succeed Giannini and who might be able to get the brand back on a solid growth track.
Michele emerged over a string of designers that sources had identified as Givenchy’s couturier Riccardo Tisci and one of Valentino’s creative duo, Maria Grazia Chiuri, along with Joseph Altuzarra. Kering, controlled by France’s Pinault family, has a track record of promoting inside talents.
Indeed, when Gucci was faced with replacing its tag-team of Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole when they exited in 2004, it promoted a trio of insiders — Alessandra Facchinetti, Giannini and John Ray — to succeed Ford at the design helm, heading women’s ready-to-wear, accessories and men’s wear, respectively.
Giannini ultimately took over as the brand’s sole creative director in 2006, relocating the design studios to her hometown of Rome.
Gucci is trying to reverse sliding sales in China and elsewhere by reinventing itself with fewer logo products. In the third quarter of 2014, Gucci revenues slipped 1.6 percent to 851 million euros, or $1.13 billion, despite positive trends in directly operated stores in North America and Japan, as reported.
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