Inside Story

In the latest round of creative director musical chairs, Kering has announced that designer Demna will be Gucci’s newest Artistic Director. The Georgian designer was formerly creative director at Balenciaga as well as co-founder of VETEMENTS. “His creative power is exactly what Gucci needs,” said Kering’s chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault.

As Vogue reports, the 43-year-old Georgian-born designer will oversee his final couture show at Balenciaga on July 9 before decamping to Italy’s largest luxury house, where he will work in partnership with Gucci CEO Stefano Cantino. Demna’s successor at Balenciaga will be named in due course, Kering indicated.

In a statement shared by the Business of Fashion, Francesca Bellettini, the CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, opened up about the decision, revealing it was serendipitous, where most assumed it was random. “We went out for dinner. I said: ‘We would really love to talk about this opportunity.’” To their surprise, Demna took a pause and then shared excitement. “Yes! I have it in my mind — let me put together the project for you,” Demna told them. “He worked on that, and when Stefano and I received it for the first time, we were both: ‘Let’s accelerate!’” Bellettini continued.

“I am truly excited to join the Gucci family,” Demna said in a press release: “It is an honour to contribute to a house that I deeply respect and have long admired. I look forward to writing together with Stefano and the whole team a new chapter of Gucci’s amazing story.”

However, not everyone is excited about the news. As WWD reports, following Demna’s appointment as Gucci’s next artistic director last Thursday, the Italian luxury house’s parent company Kering saw its shares drop 11.2% in early trading on Friday. Luxury analysts have been awaiting a high-profile creative director to turn Gucci’s declining business around, but many seem lukewarm on the house’s choice of Demna.

As Fashionista reports, Carole Madjo, an analyst at Barclays, noted that Demna’s dystopian and underground aesthetic “may not resonate with Gucci’s consumers”. Bernstein analyst Luca Solca also expressed doubt on Gucci’s artistic director appointment: “We are not sure that Demna measures up to the task, nor that he is the right fit for Gucci at the moment, but we understand their risk minimization strategy: going for the well known,” Solca said.

According to Vogue, the challenge (and adventure) facing “Fashion’s Master Maverick” at Gucci starts with deciding how to integrate the house’s codes and spirit to shape a freshly accented manifestation of his design language. Between Vetements’s foundation and his most recent show at Balenciaga, Demna has always paid as much attention to the streets as he has to fashion’s rigmarole of celebrity and status. This democratic and socially pragmatic impulse should be to his advantage at a house built on a foundation of small leather goods, and which enjoys a far broader reach than the house he is now preparing to exit.

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