Kering? We have a problem. October 9, 2026, Anthony Vaccarello, after ten years, says goodbye to leading Saint Laurent; October 15, 2026, Seán McGirr leaves Alexander McQueen 36 months after his appointment and yesterday, November 5, Pier Paolo Piccioli also ends his collaboration as creative director of Balenciaga. Coincidences? Apparently not. Since Luca de Meo was appointed CEO of the Pinault family group, no one can be saved, among other things, there are increasingly insistent rumors about Alessandro Michele’s exit from Valentino just after the couture show in January. That the mandate of the former CEO of Renault is to restructure the company which, from November 2025 to November 2026, lost over 30% on the Paris Stock Exchange seems very clear. However, de Meo himself has repeatedly stated that he wants to make all brands profitable. In his plan, presented last April at the Leopolda in Florence, the manager did not give discounts to anyone and underlined the importance of integrating technology and artificial intelligence into the supply chain of each brand. Territories that scare a little those who have made Heritage and craftsmanship their code, however, the new appointments or the most accredited hypotheses, however, all go in the direction of the New Gen of creativity which, perhaps, is more familiar and familiar with AI and technological tools. It is not yet confirmed, but Chemena Kamali, born in 1981, studied at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and will be head of style at Chloé from 2023. At Balenciaga, however, the appointment of Martine Rose has just been announced, a talent born in 1980, who knows the maison well as she was already a consultant for menswear during the creative direction of Demna Gvasalia (who now heads Gucci, ed.). For McQueen, all is silent, it seems that a turnover based only on the sale of sneakers is not considered profitable and worthy of attention in the current scenario. All that remains is to find out whether Millennial creativity will be able to boost Kering’s accounts and win over the public again. There are premises, JW Anderson at Dior and Mathieu Blazy at Chanel, to name a couple of names and both are 42 years old. In the meantime, all that remains is to wish Martine Rose and Pier Paolo Piccioli all the best because, each in their own way, they tell the story of contemporaneity and certainly do not lack vision. A piece of advice, however, to the luxury CEOs, I have to go back to the numbers, we know this well, but applying an algorithm is not enough for creativity and the world of fashion to flourish, it takes skill, passion and even that pinch of madness that is so scary for budgets.
