Designers Switching Houses & Moving to New Brands

[vogue28]

Etro appoints Marco de Vincenzo as creative director:

 

[Deleted member 167090]

He seems like a good fit for the brand, but we members in TFS were always wrong in my recent memories!

 

[Lola701]

Etro appoints Marco de Vincenzo as creative director:

I’m happy for him but he should have been the one to take over Fendi (considering that he worked there). It’s hard for me to see how his edgy aesthetic would match well for a brand like Etro but we never know and it might be his big breakthrough.

 

[LiliVoguing]

Rochas

 

[LadyJunon]

Rochas

De Vilmorin got fired already?! Yikes, his first collection only arrived in stores a few months ago.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

I wonder how exciting is going to be the work of someone from Martin Margiela and Hermès at such joyful and italian (in the most eccentric way of the expression) like Missoni.
I already know it’s gonna be a snooze fest. Why they couldn’t give a rise to an intern from the design studio? I want to believe that isn’t on purpose but sometimes some brands are digging their own graves.

A bit presumptuous, no? Did you review his book? Did you grade the review he did to get the job?

His resume is outstanding and Hermes, Margiela and Tisci have a strong track record of employing excellent and talented designers.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

I find some of the responses here to this announcement to be a bit... unsophisticated.

Admittedly, I barely knew who Davis was before I read he got the job but his work is quite good. Sort of like a Jonathan Anderson meets Tom Ford... doesn't sound so bad for Ferragamo.

Seems par for the course given Marco Gobbetti's management style. If you remember, he once hired an unknown talent with only one eponymous collection under his belt to do Givenchy: Ricardo Tisci. That turned out to be a huge success.

Gobbetti hired Tisci to do Givenchy. He's also responsible for hiring Phoebe Philo to do Celine. So rather than Davis's hiring being inspired by Bottega Veneta, I'd reckon it's more inspired by Gobbetti's firsthand experience with Phoebe at Celine---from whom BV borrowed the playbook when they hired Daniel Lee (who I believe was fired for his... unsophisticated acumen and behavior).

I don't know about you, but I have faith in Gobbetti's judge of talent.

I will at least wait until I see what Davis can do before I start getting my panties in a twist.

And speaking of mediocrity, that's precisely what Paul Andrew's Ferragamo was.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

I’m happy for him but he should have been the one to take over Fendi (considering that he worked there). It’s hard for me to see how his edgy aesthetic would match well for a brand like Etro but we never know and it might be his big breakthrough.

Is it really all that edgy?

Vicenzo seems like a safe and appropriate choice for Etro who are DESPERATELY in need of an update.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Really? Is there any proof and/or substance to these rumours? Because I see a lot of gossip on Twitter etc, but no claims to back it up. Kering went as far as to threaten legal action against that Vogue France contributor for making such claims.

Either way, it's a shame he will be out of the game for a while. He was clearly the more talented and more visionary one one compared to Matthieu Blazy...

If you read between the lines in the reporting, it points to racism or some other kind of hideous, liability-creating behavior. There's only a couple of reasons why someone gets fired from a job like that when they are performing extremely well and none of them are pretty. Whatever he did to get let go had to have been BAD.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

I find it so weird that those classic Italian brands are suddenly afraid of classic clothes.

I think they're afraid of plummeting sales.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Very Olivier Lapidus for Lanvin vibes from this...

Totally.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

There's a sad truth about Felipe.
His work was maybe runway gold but it didn't really had an impact on what has been the bread and butter for the house since the shift of positioning.
His Kenzo was a bubble for the runway.

Ultimately, the problem at LVMH has to do with bad castings. They are testing things instead of merging two strong vision.

Felipe is good but he doesn't have a clear identifiable style. Matthew Williams is another flop and while Berluti has had great designer, there's clearly a lack of vision on "what to do".

I never understood why they didn't gave Kenzo at some of the winners of the LVMH Prize. There are enough unemployed, stars designers who can do Givenchy...


LOEWE is one of the biggest success of the group. If Anderson leaves, much like Phoebe and Riccardo, it will be on his terms...

Totally agree.

Felipe is a very strong designer and the runway collections we're great. But, if you went to the stores, you could barely tell the difference between his Kenzo and Carol and Humberto's. And they had a lot of social and cultural clout to help sell the clothes. Felipe only had his runway collections which were barely present in stores, even in the flagships.

He also debuted during the pandemic which really stifled his success.

I was in the store the day Nigo was announced. It was actually one of the sales assistants who told me and I guess they were asking folks in the store for their thoughts to report back to HQ. I grimaced and told them "I'm looking forward to being surprised."

 

[LadyJunon]

I find some of the responses here to this announcement to be a bit... unsophisticated.

Admittedly, I barely knew who Davis was before I read he got the job but his work is quite good. Sort of like a Jonathan Anderson meets Tom Ford... doesn't sound so bad for Ferragamo.

Seems par for the course given Marco Gobbetti's management style. If you remember, he once hired an unknown talent with only one eponymous collection under his belt to do Givenchy: Ricardo Tisci. That turned out to be a huge success.

Gobbetti hired Tisci to do Givenchy. He's also responsible for hiring Phoebe Philo to do Celine. So rather than Davis's hiring being inspired by Bottega Veneta, I'd reckon it's more inspired by Gobbetti's firsthand experience with Phoebe at Celine---from whom BV borrowed the playbook when they hired Daniel Lee (who I believe was fired for his... unsophisticated acumen and behavior).

I don't know about you, but I have faith in Gobbetti's judge of talent.

I will at least wait until I see what Davis can do before I start getting my panties in a twist.

And speaking of mediocrity, that's precisely what Paul Andrew's Ferragamo was.

I feel that he could potentially do well at Ferragamo. Looking at his collections for Fashion East, his clothes have a strong identity that differs heavily from his maximalist London-based peers. His clothes are sleek, sexy and elegant, but not p*rn*gr*ph*c like St. Sernin or tacky like Versace. With a few modifications here and there, we could have a revival of Ferragamo. I do, however, feel that he shouldn't have closed his eponymous label, since that's his safety net and means of unadulterated self-expression incase Ferragamo is a dud. I can't help but think of Olivier Theyskens' "Swiss cheese" career.

 

[TZ001]

LV CEO showed up at Martine Rose front row couple days ago.

 

[Lola701]

I find some of the responses here to this announcement to be a bit... unsophisticated.

Admittedly, I barely knew who Davis was before I read he got the job but his work is quite good. Sort of like a Jonathan Anderson meets Tom Ford... doesn't sound so bad for Ferragamo.

Seems par for the course given Marco Gobbetti's management style. If you remember, he once hired an unknown talent with only one eponymous collection under his belt to do Givenchy: Ricardo Tisci. That turned out to be a huge success.

Gobbetti hired Tisci to do Givenchy. He's also responsible for hiring Phoebe Philo to do Celine. So rather than Davis's hiring being inspired by Bottega Veneta, I'd reckon it's more inspired by Gobbetti's firsthand experience with Phoebe at Celine---from whom BV borrowed the playbook when they hired Daniel Lee (who I believe was fired for his... unsophisticated acumen and behavior).

I don't know about you, but I have faith in Gobbetti's judge of talent.

I will at least wait until I see what Davis can do before I start getting my panties in a twist.

And speaking of mediocrity, that's precisely what Paul Andrew's Ferragamo was.

I trust Gobbetti in his vision he might have for the house even if his decision to hire Tisci for Burberry was weird.

But let’s give credit to Carine for Tisci being at Burberry and to Delphine for Phoebe being at Celine.

Paul Andrew was mediocre. I had faith in him because his footwear line had that glamour needed for Ferragamo but obviously he tried to hard to be cool…

And about the new one at Missoni, the first collection is promising.

 

[Lola701]

Is it really all that edgy?

Vicenzo seems like a safe and appropriate choice for Etro who are DESPERATELY in need of an update.

Maybe because I associate his aesthetic with Fendi (house he has worked for many years) and they are miles away from Etro. Etro has always been a bit dusty to me even if the recent rebranding was cleverly done. I don’t know if it’s a safe choice but his modernity has the potential to be fruitful for Etro.

 

[bc collector]

But let’s give credit to Carine for Tisci being at Burberry and to Delphine for Phoebe being at Celine.

And also, let's give credit to Carine for Riccardo being at Givenchy to begin with. For me, Gobbetti's real merit has been that of giving Tisci time to develop his vision, because, if memory still serves me well, his first collections for the house were far from successful.
As for Phoebe, she was hardly an unknown by the time she was hired for the Celine job (Delphine or Gobbetti notwithstanding), her stint at Chloe had already attracted a lot of attention, somewhat overshadowing that of her former boss, SMC.

But this Maximilian Davies guy, he might as well have presented a fantastic book of sketches and an impressive resume, but it still is a weird choice, at least for a house like Ferragamo, that has always struggled to get out of a certain generic duty free luxury look. Plus I think it's crucial for whoever takes up the CD position for a leathergoods-based house like that to have relevant experience in the accessories field, which is not the case of Davies.

In any case, when time comes, I will be happy to be proven wrong.

 

[Lola701]

And also, let's give credit to Carine for Riccardo being at Givenchy to begin with. For me, Gobbetti's real merit has been that of giving Tisci time to develop his vision, because, if memory still serves me well, his first collections for the house were far from successful.
As for Phoebe, she was hardly an unknown by the time she was hired for the Celine job (Delphine or Gobbetti notwithstanding), her stint at Chloe had already attracted a lot of attention, somewhat overshadowing that of her former boss, SMC.

But this Maximilian Davies guy, he might as well have presented a fantastic book of sketches and an impressive resume, but it still is a weird choice, at least for a house like Ferragamo, that has always struggled to get out of a certain generic duty free luxury look. Plus I think it's crucial for whoever takes up the CD position for a leathergoods-based house like that to have relevant experience in the accessories field, which is not the case of Davies.

In any case, when time comes, I will be happy to be proven wrong.

Yes I wanted to say Givenchy not Burberry yes. Mariacarla was dating her son at that time. And Carine advised them to hire him and featured Givenchy in a heavy way.

Yes Phoebe wasn’t unknown but without Delphine, I’m not sure Gobbetti wouldn’t have hired somebody from the Gucci Group.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

But let’s give credit to Carine for Tisci being at Burberry and to Delphine for Phoebe being at Celine

Sorry but Gobbetti was CEO. He's solely responsible for hiring the creative director. That's literally his job. No one else is due credit for that.

 

[Deleted member 7575]

And also, let's give credit to Carine for Riccardo being at Givenchy to begin with. For me, Gobbetti's real merit has been that of giving Tisci time to develop his vision, because, if memory still serves me well, his first collections for the house were far from successful.
As for Phoebe, she was hardly an unknown by the time she was hired for the Celine job (Delphine or Gobbetti notwithstanding), her stint at Chloe had already attracted a lot of attention, somewhat overshadowing that of her former boss, SMC.

But this Maximilian Davies guy, he might as well have presented a fantastic book of sketches and an impressive resume, but it still is a weird choice, at least for a house like Ferragamo, that has always struggled to get out of a certain generic duty free luxury look. Plus I think it's crucial for whoever takes up the CD position for a leathergoods-based house like that to have relevant experience in the accessories field, which is not the case of Davies.

In any case, when time comes, I will be happy to be proven wrong.

I trust a seasoned LVMH executive who's responsible for two of fashion's greatest turnarounds over you.

And I reiterate again: Gobbetti was CEO. He's solely responsible for hiring the creative director. That's literally his job. No one else is due credit for that. If Carine was CEO, then yes, she would deserve credit, but she did not make executive, strategic decisions on behalf of Givenchy.

The incredulity on display here is bewildering.