Designers Switching Houses & Moving to New Brands

[eugenius]

If I never see that stupid label in those silly colors at the next underwear party, I’ll be okay with this.

 

[LadyJunon]

The situation reminds me of these people who after 15 years of mariage go through a crisis and then try a new s € x position in bed hoping it will solve everything....

So many new beginnings... I don't expect anything in particular, although I am curious.
In the end, the dogs are mostly the same, but with different collars...

Rationally, not every appointment will work as expected. Some of them will be successful, but some others will underperform. One will probably crash, another will give a good suprise...
Even the houses that say they don't obsess about the October show because they focus in the long run, know that the second half of this year will be important.

The SS17 season was quite similar with five CD debuts and a brand relaunch in one season:
- MGC at Christian Dior
- Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent
- Bouchra Jarrar at Lanvin
- PPP at Valentino
- Jonathan Saunders at Diane von Furstenburg
- Olivier Theyskens

 

[FAdS]

The SS17 season was quite similar with five CD debuts and a brand relaunch in one season:
- MGC at Christian Dior
- Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent
- Bouchra Jarrar at Lanvin
- PPP at Valentino
- Jonathan Saunders at Diane von Furstenburg
- Olivier Theyskens

Wish Bouchra and Jonathan had worked out better. I enjoyed their work.

 

[PDFSD]

BOF

Fashion’s Musical Chairs Ends — With Men in Almost Every Seat.​

There’s no denying that the biggest luxury brands badly need a creative reboot. But while the designers who got the top jobs are more than qualified, the lack of female representation speaks to deficiencies in how the industry considers its talent pipeline, writes Imran Amed.

There’s no denying that the biggest luxury brands badly need a fresh start, creative and commercially. While the designers who got the top jobs are more than qualified, the lack of diversity speaks to deficiencies in the industry’s talent pipeline. (BoF Team)

By
Imran Amed
07 June 2025
BoF PROFESSIONAL

LOS ANGELES — This week, with the confirmation from LVMH on Monday that Jonathan Anderson is taking over creative direction of the women’s, men’s and haute couture collections at Dior, all of the empty chairs at fashion’s top houses have now been filled. The pieces are now in place for the biggest fashion month ever this autumn.

Among all the creative reshuffling, three of our industry’s most talented designers have ended up with three of the biggest jobs at a critical time when luxury is facing a global downturn. In addition to Anderson’s new role at LVMH-owned Dior, Demna is gearing up for his debut at Gucci, which will come after his final couture show for Balenciaga in July, and Matthieu Blazy is now installed at Chanel.

That most of the big design roles have been filled by men has been a big topic in fashion of late. Save for Sarah Burton at Givenchy, Chemena Kamali at Chloé, Veronica Leoni at Calvin Klein Collection, Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta and Silvia Venturini Fendi at Fendi, all of the big jobs in fashion are occupied by men. Loewe, Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Celine and Maison Margiela have also appointed men as creative directors.

On Thursday, I popped into Neiman Marcus in Los Angeles, to take the temperature of what all of these changes mean. The store was a ghost town with nary a customer in sight. Admittedly, it was only 10:30 a.m. — a bit early for a splurge, but the countless displays shilling luxury fashion and leather goods for “up to 50 percent off” spoke volumes about the state of the business today.

As I was examining the Burberry wares on the ground floor (lots of trench coats and accessories emphasising the Burberry check), one of the store’s employees and a dedicated BoF reader approached me to say hello. I asked how business was doing and he simply motioned around the shop-in-shops by Dior, Chanel, Bottega Veneta and Loewe and said all of this is about to change. Customers (and Neiman Marcus sales associates) are mostly in wait-and-see mode, he said, as the upcoming fashion season will bring a lot of creative transformation.

This is long overdue.

Gucci is the lynchpin of the Kering group, where sales have nosedived. Revenues at Kering’s flagship brand plummeted by 23 percent in 2024 to €7.7 billion ($8.8 billion), down from €9.9 billion in 2023. The decline worsened in Q1 2025, with a 25 percent drop year on year. The group’s share price has tumbled by more than 60 percent over the last two years.

Demna (Getty Images)

When Kering executives announced in March that Demna would move from Balenciaga to Gucci in July, luxury market analysts and industry watchers scratched their heads. But I remain convinced that if Demna — one of the most gifted and thoughtful designers working fashion — is able to re-imagine Gucci and move on from his once ultra-popular Balenciaga aesthetic, this could be a very smart move because it simultaneously gives Demna a new creative challenge while breathing new life into Gucci, which accounts for more than 60 percent of Kering’s profits.

Then there’s Chanel, where Matthieu Blazy is in the hot seat. Known for his incredibly creative, globally inspired, craft-focused fashion shows at Bottega Veneta, Blazy has been tasked with upping Chanel’s fashion quotient. With the most well-defined codes of any luxury brand, as well as a slew of iconic products (think quilted leather flap bags like the 2.55, bouclé tweed suits and bi-colour patent shoes), the brand is pretty resilient even in times of trouble.

Matthieu Blazy speaking at BoF Voices in 2023. (Getty Images)

But without a strong fashion direction, Chanel’s cultural relevance has waned since the passing of Karl Lagerfeld in 2019. Meanwhile, revenues fell by $1 billion in 2024, down 4.3 percent year on year, as Chanel continued to raise prices by an average of 59 percent between 2020 and 2023, leading customers to question the value of Chanel’s products and pull back from the brand’s core leather goods offering. Executives are counting on Blazy to bring back Chanel’s fashion magic while they think about how to recalibrate their pricing strategy.

It’s a similar story at Dior, where prices increased by an average of 53 percent over the same period. LVMH does not break out individual brand performance, but said revenues declined by “slightly more” than the average 5 percent decline in the group’s fashion and leather goods division in the first quarter of 2025. In an in-depth interview announcing Anderson’s appointment, Delphine Arnault agreed with me that pricing is a big issue to address. For now, she is counting on Anderson’s creativity and a focus on customer experience in Dior’s upcoming megastores in Los Angeles and New York, to help turn things around.

Jonathan Anderson speaking at BoF Voices in 2023. (Getty Images)

As I was walking the floor of Neiman Marcus it was hard not to note that with the departures of Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior and Virginie Viard at Chanel, men are back in charge. While pricing and fashion oomph may have been challenges under their tenures, Chiuri and Viard both oversaw an unprecedented expansion of these megabrands post-Covid, leaving me wondering if what might be gained in fashion relevance could lead to a lack of the connection these female designers were able to foster with their female customers.


I’ve been asking some industry insiders why there is such a paucity of women at the helm of the big brands. One person posited that it’s because all of the number two designers — the first go-to when brands are looking to appoint a new creative director — are also mostly men. Seems like that old adage that we tend to pick people who look like us holds true in fashion as well.

If this is indeed the case, the change we need to see regarding women in the ranks of the industry’s top creative positions needs to start with some of these men appointing more women as their number two.

Fine. But there has to be more to it than just this explanation. Truly understanding (and valuing) how women designers connect differently to their customers — and giving them the opportunities to demonstrate this — must also be part of the change. Otherwise, the reign of men in top jobs is set to continue.

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

Thanks for sharing PDFSD.
It makes one think.

 

[chalayan]

what an absolutely ridiculous article.

it literally goes "apart from *names five whole brands where the artistic directors are women* most of the creative director positions are men".

it also conveniently forgets that the artistic director of arguably the largest luxury brand (hermes) is a woman, and that up until 2023, the artistic directors of chanel, dior, versace, and alexander mcqueen were also women. and that the CEOs of the first two are also women. celine also previously had a female artistic director.

is it exactly 50-50? no, of course not. but what industry is? but the notion that female artistic directors are being consciously shut out is absolute rubbish. one need only look at the data to realise that.

 

[PDFSD]

what an absolutely ridiculous article.

it literally goes "apart from *names five whole brands where the artistic directors are women* most of the creative director positions are men".

it also conveniently forgets that the artistic director of arguably the largest luxury brand (hermes) is a woman, and that up until 2023, the artistic directors of chanel, dior, versace, and alexander mcqueen were also women. and that the CEOs of the first two are also women. celine also previously had a female artistic director.

is it exactly 50-50? no, of course not. but what industry is? but the notion that female artistic directors are being consciously shut out is absolute rubbish. one need only look at the data to realise that.

its mixed on one side BOF doesn't go in deeply to actually make it clear what the situation has been versus now i agree on this and its typical journalism that just cranks out headline after head line with little depth or research.

but these article also serve a purpose of alerting what the status quo is which also valid because its reporting

but i agree the reporting is incomplete and not fully analyzed and lazy which does not help the situation which is also a real fact.

its written by Imran i didn't come to expect more from him any ways and i sat across to him at a past dinner event he likes to hear himself talk instead to ask the hard questions and he likes to sit on the fence and not ruffel to many feathers that was my impression of him since years ago. but this style works well for fashion eco system lolz

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

The article is about 2025, not about 2020 or 1920.
In my opinion, fashion has been since the beginning a field were women and men were on equality. Everybody would have laughed in Paris at the idea of Jeanne Lanvin being somewhat inferior because of her womanhood.
But the sad truth is that, as of 2025, many fashion lovers would struggle to come up with their top 5 female designers under 60 y.o.

We live very conservative times.
The triumph of phoebephiloism is only one of the aspects. The fact that there was one woman designing at Dior and you were, in a way, morally forced to admire her work is another. The fact that by the end of the year there will be almost no women shaping the fashion landscape is yet another.

Some people (some men) will see the current situation as normal, with two women CEOs and 4 women CDs, but for the standards of the fashion world, it is not.

 

[LadyJunon]

I think that the lack of female designers (and the issue with the types of female designers who do get hired) is just a sign of the larger issue among designers, which is aesthetical homogeny.

The Philo-Hedi switch created a gap in the market that was filled by a plethora of brands ranging from luxury leather goods houses that need clothes to send down the runway to fast fashion brands trying to make more money. Lots of the female designers (and quite a few male designers) that have gone mainstream in the last decade have pretty much pasted elements of her aesthetic onto their brands to appear tasteful and high-brow.

Then we have Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior. Like Bohan's, her era is seen as the 'Second Depression of Dior', commercial viable, well merchandised, but creatively bankrupt. Those words being used to describe the second largest HC house is a problem and even more so, with they throw feminist messaging behind it (which fills a man's pocket anyway).

Finally, there's the beloved indies. So many virtue signal about supporting them, only to insist on pumping them into these larger houses that will completely eat them alive, instead of creating their own legacies. Lots of people really don't realise the large gap in between a small, but profitable brand making a couple millions a years and behemoths like Kering and LVMH's largest brand. That's why we have the musical chairs and internal promotions.

 

[chalayan]

Then we have Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior. Like Bohan's, her era is seen as the 'Second Depression of Dior', commercial viable, well merchandised, but creatively bankrupt. Those words being used to describe the second largest HC house is a problem and even more so, with they throw feminist messaging behind it (which fills a man's pocket anyway).

so jonathan anderson will be like gianfranco ferre? the question is who will come after him and revive dior like JG did...

 

[Nimsay]

that article is cringe millennialcore

 

[tourbillions]

so jonathan anderson will be like gianfranco ferre? the question is who will come after him and revive dior like JG did...

sabato ofcourse

 

[Squizree]

BoF is not a great publication is it? It always sounds like glorified blog writing.

 

[jeanclaude]

I don´t care about what´s between CDs legs, as long as what´s between ears is brilliant.
That´s what really matters.

 

[Thefrenchy]

What the actual hell is going on over there at Trussardi?!

 

[TomBlanksFullFatMiuMiu]

Why Phoebe left Celine? Like an actual reason, I can't find it anywhere...

 

[TomBlanksFullFatMiuMiu]

BoF is not a great publication is it? It always sounds like glorified blog writing.

Let's face it... most fashion publications are like infleuncers these day = awful, biased, and can be bought

 

[TomBlanksFullFatMiuMiu]

I think that the lack of female designers (and the issue with the types of female designers who do get hired) is just a sign of the larger issue among designers, which is aesthetical homogeny.

Or perhaps most female designers stay true to themselves? Quite often, they are their own muses. They refuse to play the game or be puppets of the suits. Male designers (especially this generation) regardless of race, 90% of them dressed in all black jumpers and basic white tees are desperate opportunists willing to succeed at any cost. They lack an authentic point of view, seemingly driven primarily by a desire for fame and wealth.

 

[Nimsay]

after reading that mary grace was basically fired and not given a chance to renew at Dior. I expect her to 100% be in the offices at Kering right now.

Mary Grace to McQueen?

I think that John was at Giv for like 6 seasons before being promoted. Why did JWA do loewe for 20 seasons before being promoted ?

I think the Jeff Koonsing of Dior probably wont work.

I wouldve given him Celine bc the Jeff Koons works on top of Hedis look. Then of course Hedi Slimane to Christian Dior Femme and Homme.

 

[LadyJunon]

Or perhaps most female designers stay true to themselves? Quite often, they are their own muses. They refuse to play the game or be puppets of the suits. Male designers (especially this generation) regardless of race, 90% of them dressed in all black jumpers and basic white tees are desperate opportunists willing to succeed at any cost. They lack an authentic point of view, seemingly driven primarily by a desire for fame and wealth.

No offense, but if they were true to themselves, 2/3 of them wouldn't be copying Philo en masse.