Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s ousted whiz child, returns from the feud as the brand new artistic director of Valentino.
The style world’s been spinning not too long ago, as designers for a number of the world’s main luxurious labels interact in an prolonged sport of musical chairs. However this week, the tables turned when former Gucci designer Alessandro Michele was introduced as the brand new artistic director of Valentino, days after its designer of over 20 years, the much-lauded Pierpaolo Piccioli, stepped down.
Within the two years since Gucci unceremoniously dumped Michele, there’s been rampant hypothesis about the place the 51-year-old designer would land subsequent – Fendi? Zegna? Banana Republic? (The latter not too long ago made headlines after hiring one other design star, Zac Posen, to move up its artistic group).
Michele honed his penchant for idiosyncratic appears whereas working for Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi and for Tom Ford at Gucci. When Ford departed to move his personal label, Gucci put in his formidable younger protégé to the highest job in 2015. Over the subsequent two years, because of Michele, gross sales at Gucci ballooned by 50 %, the very best in 20 years.
Michele was a favourite of Harry Types, Billie Eilish, Jared Leto and Jessica Chastain. His 2021 star-packed Gucci blockbuster on Hollywood Boulevard made headlines throughout the globe. So why would Gucci let him go? Michele’s trademark model of surrealist maximalism — a uncommon combo of nostalgic and futuristic thrives — was nonetheless promoting properly. However, apparently, the model’s fortunes weren’t accelerating quick sufficient for Kering, Gucci’s dad or mum firm. Within the always-raging vogue battle between creativity and the underside line, Rome-based Michele all the time sided with the previous, usually to Kering’s dismay.
Now Michele may need the final snicker. Working as artistic director of Valentino is without doubt one of the most prestigious jobs in vogue: They didn’t name founder Valentino Garavani the “final emperor” for nothing. After his retirement in 2008 after 48 years, founder Valentino was efficiently succeeded by two of his former acolytes, Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chuiri, who subsequently decamped to Dior.
Piccioli continued solely in 2016, reinventing Valentino’s custom of daring colours: its signature crimson after which ushering within the age of fuchsia in 2022 (and also you thought it was Barbie). He glammed up unfussy stars Meryl Streep, Viola Davis and Frances McDormand for the crimson carpet, then dressed the likes of Zendaya and Florence Pugh in fairytale fashions.
Valentino doesn’t come near Gucci’s mass gross sales. In a typical yr, it brings in 10 occasions greater than Valentino’s annual billion-dollar revenues. Valentino is tailor-made to a extra particular buyer: first girls, aristocrats, royals and mega film stars, drawn by its standout black tie and couture eveningwear, in addition to its famed “rock stud” equipment. Sabato De Sarno, who changed Michele as Gucci’s new-era minimalist designer, nonetheless has loads to show — although his preliminary appears on Taylor Swift and Lily Gladstone had been the discuss of the style world this season.
Nonetheless, you need to marvel what Kering’s billionaire CEO Francois-Henri Pinault (he owns Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney) thinks of Michele’s boomerang again to relevance — notably after Kering acquired a wholesome 30 % chunk of Valentino final yr. (Nothing like falling upward to infuriate ex-employers.)
What does Michele’s re-emergence say about the state of 2023’s inescapable “quiet luxurious” development, immortalized by HBO’s hit Succession? Is Michele’s decidedly noisy model of maximalism — wild shade combos, blended patterns and materials, embellishment, usually paired with goofy glasses — already again from the lifeless? (Wow – that was fast!) Style traits have all the time swung each couple years, however they’re particularly frenetic within the social media age.
After a number of seasons of luxe minimalism, current fall 2024 collections spawned ubiquitous headlines heralding the return of Boho stylish. A decade of elevated gross sales of luxurious garments and equipment is beginning to gradual; manufacturers really feel they must give buyers one thing new to crave each season.
Days into his reign as Valentino’s czar, the style rumor mill is already churning with hypothesis about the place the youngish designer will land subsequent. Would possibly he succeed the controversial Demna at Balenciaga, or transfer to designer-less Givenchy? After all, it’s too quickly to invest, however the buzz in vogue circles is already underway. If all goes properly, he might even be the handpicked successor to the reigning grasp of Milan, 89-year-old Giorgio Armani.