Gucci names…Alessandro Michele as Creative Director
It’s official. Alessandro Michele – Gucci’s head accessories designer – is to become creative director at the Italian megabrand.
Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s new Creative Director
Michele takes up the position left vacant by Frida Giannini, the label’s creative director for 11 years. Giannini’s departure, along with that of her partner, chief executive Patrizio di Marco, was announced in December. The pair were due to work until Gucci’s autumn/winter runway show in February, but this month the company confirmed that Giannini had already left.
Giannini’s departure had been linked with falling sales. Traditionally, Gucci makes up half of all sales at its parent company Kering, which also owns Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and Saint Laurent. In 2013, Gucci experienced the slowest growth in three years – with like-for-like revenues up only 0.2% from the previous year in the final quarter. By contrast, sales at Saint Laurent rose 28%.
Rumours about Giannini’s replacement have been swirling for weeks. New York designer Joseph Altuzarra and Riccardo Tisci of Givenchy were linked to the job, as was Giannini’s predecessor Tom Ford, who had huge success at the brand from 1994 to 2004. That delicious possibility now seems like wishful thinking from an industry thirsty for gossip (an insider from Ford’s eponymous label was quoted as saying there was “no truth” to the suggestion).
Michele’s name was strongly mooted, too, partially because Gucci has a history of hiring from the inside. Michele has been Giannini’s deputy since 2011, just as Giannini was Ford’s deputy in the noughties. The biggest clue that the fingerprints of a Gucci insider were already being seen at the brand came on 19 January, at the presentation of the label’s autumn/winter menswear collection in Milan. The brand was officially rudderless, so fashion critics would have expected the show to concentrate on house classics, rather than presenting new ideas. In fact, the aesthetic had been entirely overhauled, with Gucci’s customary jet-set glitz eschewed for thoughtful 1970s-influenced androgyny – men wore berets and pussybow blouses. The collection received a standing ovation from the front row.
Italian fashion is often judged to be old-fashioned and – some would say – backward-looking, with only Prada, of the big design houses, credited for creating agenda-setting, off-kilter wearables. Is Gucci now attempting to take a slice of that edgier pie? For an answer to that question, all eyes will be on Gucci’s autumn/winter womenswear catwalk show in February.
Another Italian superbrand made news on Wednesday, as Versace named Italian-Belgian designer Anthony Vaccarello – famous for his edgy, highly revealing frocks – creative director of its secondary line, Versus Versace. Vaccarello presented a highly successful capsule line for the Versace offshoot in September at New York fashion week, following in the footsteps of Christopher Kane and JW Anderson. He will make his debut in his new role in February.
Courtesy www.theguardian.com
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