Pierpaolo Piccioli - Designer, Creative Director of Balenciaga

[Norden]

Hes a very safe choice for Kering. I also wasn't sold on his Valentino, but it was serviceable. It indeed lacked interesting accessories and image building. I always had the feeling that he's a very moodboard driven designer. Even in his color use (a very flat rendition of YSL) it felt moodboarded. Maybe Balenciaga's very tight and precise history will offer him a productive framework to bounce on. Menswear will be a huge issue for him, and Demna's legacy looming over the stores like a dark cloud will be challenging to change with all the investments that went in there.

 

[Salvatore]

It's not necessarily the haute couture that is giving me pause concern, but the rest of it. He's not very strong with ready-to-wear, especially menswear which accounts for a lot of sales at Balenciaga, or accessories. Maybe having some time off and actively assembling a fresh team at a new house will reignite him as he has done some wonderful collections, but hit a plateau fairly quickly.

 

[Creative]

Hes a very safe choice for Kering. I also wasn't sold on his Valentino, but it was serviceable. It indeed lacked interesting accessories and image building. I always had the feeling that he's a very moodboard driven designer. Even in his color use (a very flat rendition of YSL) it felt moodboarded. Maybe Balenciaga's very tight and precise history will offer him a productive framework to bounce on. Menswear will be a huge issue for him, and Demna's legacy looming over the stores like a dark cloud will be challenging to change with all the investments that went in there.

Wow I didn’t think of that. How would his princessy, inoffensive dresses look in a concrete bunker?

Imagine the clueless Balenciaga customers going to buy the next pair of ugliest sneakers ever designed and finding a dress for a 90 year old Madame 🤣 Maybe they think it’s irony since they are used to the silliest things ever, and they end up buying.

 

[Lola701]

I'm really shocked at the quantity of naysayers here...
Daniel Lee at Balenciaga? Really? Out of which couture expertise?
For me appointing PPP makes total sense, who else has the same sense resume to approach a house like that? (I know, I know, resume doesn't count much these days, yet...)

We are going to act like Demna came to Balenciaga with a Couture experience?
Normally, any classically trained designer should be able to do Couture, just in terms of pure technical capacities.

 

[bc collector]

We are going to act like Demna came to Balenciaga with a Couture experience?

Yes, we are, since he was initially hired to only do RTW. It was Demna himself who decided to revive the couture operations, without any real necessity to. And, as you say, there is less and less of "classically trained designers".
Speaking of which, it will be interesting to see JWA working with the Dior atelier one day, he will have to drastically amp up his limited design range.

 

[yslforever]

Nice try.

View attachment 1380788

Horror flash back of Emanuele Ungaro's colours.

 

[tatouejeremie]

Why would a creative director need couture experience? They’re not the ones making the clothes - that’s the atelier’s job. You have atelier people or designers to help translate that for you.

In fact, I’d argue that having any hands-on fashion design experience isn’t essential these to be a creative director in fashion these days. As long as you have a strong vision and know how to assemble and lead a talented team, you’re good to go.

 

[yslforever]

Why would a creative director need couture experience? They’re not the ones making the clothes - that’s the atelier’s job. You have atelier people or designers to help translate that for you.

In fact, I’d argue that having any hands-on fashion design experience isn’t essential these to be a creative director in fashion these days. As long as you have a strong vision and know how to assemble and lead a talented team, you’re good to go.

A CD with couture experience can see immediately how their vision can be physically rendered, through which technic, or they can also choose or narrow the choice of fabrics. It's not easy, there can be large differences on the end result, even with very similar fabrics, like charmeuse or crepe.
So it probably improves their initial sketch, design and demand.

 

[Xone]

i think it is a safe hiring...he had his moments at Valentino...i think his couture was more praised than his RTW but i imagine he will bring some elegance that was missing at Balenciaga....

And we all know how this story will end, like many others too, 3/4 years then changed and the circus will continue to go on and on....

 

[tatouejeremie]

A CD with couture experience can see immediately how their vision can be physically rendered, through which technic, or they can also choose or narrow the choice of fabrics. It's not easy, there can be large differences on the end result, even with very similar fabrics, like charmeuse or crepe.
So it probably improves their initial sketch, design and demand.

That’s fair - and I get that technical knowledge can definitely help refine a vision early on. But I still think it’s more of a bonus than a necessity. A strong creative director can rely on their team for that kind of technical input - the key is being open to collaboration and knowing how to communicate their vision clearly.

In the end, it’s not about knowing every fabric nuance yourself - but knowing what you want and trusting the right people to help bring it to life.

 

[Xone]

 

[Creative]

I wonder why Sabato chose fashion instead of poetry 🤨

 

[plentyofhorns]

Confirmed at Balenciaga:

Congrats to Kering for making Balenciaga irrelevant again! I see givenchy 2.0 in its future, completely forgotten

 

[Lola701]

Yes, we are, since he was initially hired to only do RTW. It was Demna himself who decided to revive the couture operations, without any real necessity to. And, as you say, there is less and less of "classically trained designers".
Speaking of which, it will be interesting to see JWA working with the Dior atelier one day, he will have to drastically amp up his limited design range.

Demna is a classically trained designer who never done Couture before. It’s a matter of challenge. Ghesquiere is classically trained. One could argue that what he did at Balenciaga was Couture level. Yet they never did Haute Couture.

But Demna had no Couture experience prior to that. The same way that RAF didn’t when he took over Dior or even MGC and PPP who were first accessories designers before the Valentino HC SS2009 collection.

 

[carla56]

I’m sorry but saying Pierpaolo was “never good at color” is blasphemy. He literally has some of the best sense of color story in all of fashion, the rich marigolds, teals, magentas in his couture were downright breathtaking. His absolutely has an eye for color.

Even for me, Yves, Lacroix, Dries, Haider and PPP are the best colorists in fashion! (Btw if someone knons other desiger so good in with colore please mention it ‘cause it will be very helpful! Thanks 🌟)

 

[PDFSD]

I mean Kering did with the Ancora guy and look at them now.

The only way to go is up for Balenciaga at this point. I’m sure PPP won’t be able to go any lower and than whatever Demna put Balenciaga through.

And please I want pure couture and not just stunts anymore.

that's not fair assessment :

Lee as Blazy was new, Demna was new, Alessandro was unknown Frida same Sara at MCQ, even before kering Tom was nobody Thomas was insider at hermes before hired for BV NG was nobody that's just examples of the brands group pre kering and current.

Wang and Ancora the only big failures they had so far commercially

 

[PDFSD]

I think Yvan Mispelaere should be the design director on all the lines. As for his team, I hope he will shake things up,

balenciaga team are a bunch off rave/wannabe hipsters that just came back from berlin berghain club raving all weekend i doubt many want to even design under PPP lol totally different office culture.

but PPP like to be cool if balencia team leave it mostly not because he fired them they left because they find him cringe

i seen some team member already liking post that speak critical /sceptical of PPP coming there but these ones are safe they are going to gucci any ways lol

 

[PDFSD]

Puck news​

Pierpaolo Pressure​

With the appointment of Pierpaolo Piccioli to succeed Demna at Balenciaga, Kering appears to be choosing stability—taking a second chance on a proven operator, rather than betting it all on an untested genius. It’s indicative of the risk-averse state of luxury these days, but also the growing pressures on the Pinault family, itself.

Regardless of how things ended at Valentino, Piccioli will likely bring stability to Balenciaga, especially on the ready-to-wear front. He already has a meaningful couture and ready-to-wear client base, many of whom will follow him to Balenciaga. Photo: Kiran Ridley/AFP

Lauren Sherman
May 19, 2025
On Monday, the final round of this particular game of designer musical chairs came to a gentle conclusion. Balenciaga, the French couture house controlled by the Pinault family since 2001, named Pierpaolo Piccioli its new designer. He will succeed Demna, who is off to Gucci come July. Piccioli’s first collection will be shown in the fall, although the company has yet to communicate on that front.
In some ways, Piccioli is an obvious choice for Balenciaga. In others, he is very much not. Less than two years ago, Piccioli was unceremoniously cycled out of Valentino, which is part-owned by Kering, and where he’d spent the majority of his career. His final collection, shown just weeks before his departure, was rendered in all-black—an ominous display of mourning for a fashion house where he’d been designing since 1999.
So if it wasn’t working at Valentino, why would Kering bring Piccioli back into the fold? The recycling of designers within a group is not unheard of—LVMH does it all the time. But this boomerang situation is probably indicative of the limited pool of capable talent at this stage in the industry’s trajectory. Today’s creative directors cannot be, for lack of a more elegant descriptor, a mess. They have to be creative, sure, but also proficient managers, too—overseeing everything from product design to the employee experience. Some act as a co-C.E.O., others are simply in service to the C.E.O., but they must understand that these are multibillion-dollar businesses, not pet projects. For a struggling company like Kering, it was safer to offer another chance to a proven number one than take a risk on an unproven number two.

The birth of the modern luxury industry can be pegged to Lagerfeld’s appointment as creative director of Chanel in 1983. Note the cluster of assignments in the late 1990s, when the conglomerates were forming, then again in the first half of the 2010s, post-Great Recession, and then, finally, the recent surge, propelled by commodification at the top houses.
Regardless of how things ended at Valentino, Piccioli will likely bring stability to Balenciaga, especially on the ready-to-wear front. He already has a meaningful couture and ready-to-wear client base, many of whom will follow him to Balenciaga. He’s not a gifted accessories creator in the vein of his former Valentino co-designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri—or Alessandro Michele, for that matter—but that should be of little consequence given the right merchandising support. (Remember, the brand’s star merchandiser, Nathalie Raynaud, was just promoted to deputy C.E.O.) Piccioli also simply has the right attitude. In his note announcing the appointment, he went out of his way to thank outgoing designer Demna. When things like this happen, there are so many uncertainties for lower-rung employees—job security being the greatest—and knowing that the person coming in wants a peaceful transition can help with morale.

---

The House of Pinault​

Everyone is wishing for the best, even if this isn’t quite a stock-moving announcement. (Balenciaga is a sub-$2 billion brand, after all, and the news was released about 30 minutes after Euronext trading closed.) Alaïa’s Pieter Mulier, an early favorite for the job, may have generated more of a spark if he had been appointed—not only does Mulier have a fast-growing ready-to-wear clientele, but he’s also been tremendously successful on the accessories front. Alas, it didn’t happen for multiple reasons. Meanwhile, I’m sure that Piccioli plans to bring in a good number of people from his Valentino team, adding further reassurance. “I hope, for the system, it works,” one C-suite luxury executive said to me late last week, when the speculation about Piccioli began to solidify. “Because we need things to be better in general.”
No one likely feels that sentiment more than Kering deputy C.E.O. Francesca Bellettini, who must turn the whole business around while facing both macro challenges and micro issues specific to the group. It’s easy to say that her boss, Kering C.E.O. and heir François-Henri Pinault, should have never let Michele leave Gucci, but I disagree. Michele’s time there was up, and revenue growth would have been tough even if he stayed. However, they should have hired a big name, not Sabato De Sarno, if they wanted Gucci to become a true competitor to Louis Vuitton. (In perhaps the greatest irony of this whole debacle, De Sarno was Piccioli’s number two at Valentino.)
In particular, they should have moved mountains to bring Jonathan Anderson to Kering, even by acquiring J.W. Anderson. The price tag would have been far less than what they’ve lost over the course of the past two years, both in terms of revenue and cultural capital. Even if Demna’s Gucci hits, it will be at least another two years before we see a real recovery at the group.
Anyway, as I’ve discussed the Kering saga with various stakeholders over the past week, one name that rarely surfaces has come to the fore: François Pinault, who became a white knight in luxury fashion when he brokered a deal with Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole to acquire Gucci, in 1999, ostensibly saving them from Bernard Arnault’s less desirable overtures.
Pinault, who is 88, has been out of the game for more than 20 years. As with nearly any succession, executives claim François was skeptical of his son’s abilities in the early days of the transition, but went on to benefit financially from François-Henri’s strategy of culling the business to create a pure-luxury strategic group. By 2018, François was worth $36 billion, in no small part because of the work that François-Henri did turning Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Bottega Veneta into profit machines. Now, however, some people say they sense François’ “frustration” as Kering continues to lose market share.
A source close to pretty much everyone involved said that while that may be true, François remains as removed from the daily operations as he always has been. Indeed, it’s all up to François-Henri to fix the business. After all, he is only 62 years old—downright young in C.E.O. terms—and his succession plans mostly include people outside of the family. His son François is getting his M.B.A. in the United States, and may someday be a candidate. But this isn’t like LVMH, where there are multiple children running significant parts of the family business.
Also, as with any personal relationship, I’m wary of outsider projection. For instance, you may all think you know who Bernard Arnault will be anointing as his heir, but my educated guess is that even he doesn’t know yet, and that the answer will be complex.
But there is no getting around the fact that Kering is in trouble. Groupe Artémis, the Pinault family office that also includes CAA and Christie’s, owns 42.3 percent of Kering, with 59 percent of the voting rights. François-Henri has the final say. For years, many analysts speculated that the company would need to merge with another firm (maybe Richemont) to increase its negotiating power in terms of real estate, supply chain, etcetera. Now, though, it’s possible that another scenario could play out. There is market speculation that Kering’s deal to wholly acquire Valentino, which must happen by the end of 2027, will take place sooner: either by the end of this year, or early 2026. Sources inside Kering said that’s unlikely, though, and that while the acquisition will definitely go through at some point, the group would like to wait until it has more cash on hand.
No matter when it goes down, there is a chance that the deal would include a share exchange, and Mayhoola—the Qatari investment vehicle that currently owns a majority stake in Valentino—could become a meaningful shareholder in Kering.
Without the proper infrastructure and industry network, Mayhoola has struggled to develop its fashion businesses as much as hoped. (In 2024, Valentino’s profits dropped 22 percent, while revenue declined about 3 percent, indicating that the group relied on discounting and off-price to manage slow sales.) A partnership with an actual strategic group, like Kering, would presumably make the operations part easier.
Perhaps financial support from Mayhoola is exactly what François-Henri needs to help build what he is surely hoping will be Kering’s next phase of growth. One of François-Henri’s best qualities, especially for the designers and executives working for him, has been patience. But he may no longer have the luxury of exhibiting it.

 

[eugenius]

I'll just be happy when they redo the decor for the stores. If I never see doo-doo like this again, I'll be okay. (src: 10 magazine)

 

[reese06]

It’s safe but also a big gamble. It really seems like another ancora choice.

Most of the people buying balenciaga are likely to evaporate. Does PPP have enough following or creativity to make an impact and make up for the loss of those people. I don’t think so.

PPP doesn’t even have a following outside of people fangirling over his couture. I imagine their couture sales may increase but no one is really going to ppp for rtw.

His hits were, that dreadful VLTN merch - which is worse than anything Demna produced, the platform pumps towards the end of his tenure and he was smart to keep the rock studs which was created when Maria was there too.

I am excited to see if he has anything new to bring but most likely will be following Demna