Could Patrizio di Marco have landed a job at Dolce & Gabbana?
Market sources say the former chairman and chief executive officer of Gucci is set to join the Italian fashion group, after honoring his one-year noncompete agreement.
Neither di Marco nor representatives of Dolce & Gabbana returned calls and messages for comment.
Di Marco left Gucci on Jan. 1 2015, followed shortly after by creative director Frida Giannini. The executive had joined the Florence-based firm in 2009, succeeding Mark Lee, at the peak of the economic crisis. The executive and Giannini, who later became his wife, focused on Gucci’s origins, highlighting Italian artisanal craftsmanship and reworking several of the brand’s staple and archival designs. Prior to that, di Marco played an instrumental role in turning around Bottega Veneta as president and ceo for eight years.
Separately, on Friday, Stefano Gabbana sparked a slew of heated responses to the images of T-shirts and bags he posted on Instagram under #dgfamily and showing same-sex couples holding babies. The issue is especially controversial at the moment in Italy as the country is divided over efforts to legalize civil unions and stepchild adoption. Also, this comes on the heels of Domenico Dolce and Gabbana’s comments made on “traditional families” in March, which also generated a social media backlash as well as headlines in Italy and internationally. Dolce’s views on “traditional families,” comprising a father and a mother, and comments he made on children he called “synthetic,” offended Sir Elton John, who called for a boycott of the Dolce & Gabbana brand, quickly spreading and drawing a slew of followers including Sharon Stone, Courtney Love, Ricky Martin and Martina Navratilova.
On Friday, Gabbana’s followers on Instagram responded to the images of the new products with comments ranging from “hypocrite” to “you like money, don’t you?”
The designer responded: “I regret that many misinterpret this message, I just want to say that Family is love!! And that love is not sexuality!!!” followed by red heart emojis.