FASHION MERCATO 2025

As rumor mongers and industry observers speculated Thursday about Sabato De Sarno’s potential successor at Gucci, is it Kim? Is it Hedi? Is it Maria Grazia?

Kering shares rose 5.1% to 251.90 euros as the stock market reacted to the news about the Prince of Venice. Some analysts were surprised, others less so, that Gucci decided to end its collaboration with its creative director less than three weeks before its fall 2025 show in Milan, specifying that the show would be presented by the brand’s design team.

The statement simply said that the new creative direction would be announced in due course. Sarno’s departure has fueled speculation that Hedi Slimane has reportedly bought an apartment in Milan since leaving Celine last year.

In addition to Dario Vitale, who left his position as Miu Miu’s ready-to-wear design director in late January, Versace is also said to be interested in him. Maria Grazia Chiuri is also reportedly a potential candidate to succeed De Sarno, who is returning to Giorgia Meloni’s homeland.

Continue reading

JIL SANDER 2026

Serge Brunschwig has left LVMH, the intellectual and affable French executive. He made the announcement on his LinkedIn account, with a message beginning: ‘Au revoir hashtag#LVMH’.  Then #bonjour CEO of Jil Sander and OTB Group. Humour that will not have escaped the lord.

He would succeed Luca Lo Curzio, who left Jil Sander in November. Brunschwig is also expected to be appointed Chief Strategy Officer of OTB Group, parent company of Jil Sander, reporting to Ubaldo Minelli, CEO of the Italian fashion company.

The French-born Minelli spent three decades at LVMH as CEO of Fendi, where he was replaced by Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou in June 2024. At the time, LVMH spokespeople explained that he was ‘pursuing another mission within the group’. Promises are only binding on those who listen to them.

FM

KIM JONES RETIREMENT

Kim Jones has decided to leave his position as artistic director of men’s collections after seven-year run. The development is sure to further fuel speculation that Loewe fashion star Jonathan Anderson may soon be installed at Dior. Dior needs newness to recapture clients attention.

The luxury industry is all about creativity, product appeal and desirability . “There is a reason why creative directors are paid what they are.”

The British designer‘s resignation came one week after he paraded Dior’s fall 2025 menswear on a minimalist set of grand, white staircases and was decorated as a Knight of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest civilian decoration by the Wintour ! don’t understand by Anna a american lady. Jones and the next goal Chanel why not…

Three months ago, Jones also stepped down at Fendi after an eventful four-year collaboration that saw the Roman house dabble with collaborations . In his absence, Silvia Fendi is now overseeing all the collections until a successor is named. Perhaps Jones simply wants some peace and quiet and a well-deserved retirement from this crazy world. When you left the prince of Luxury, no country for old men.

KERING & BURBERRY

Kering is reportedly in negotiations with Burberry. A return to grace in the house of Stella McCartney, which has just bought its shares from LVMH. Kering seems to want to relaunch the purchase of brands and the competition with its historic rival. Kering is looking to strengthen its presence in different luxury segments. Burberry, with its British heritage, its expertise in ready-to-wear and trench coats, could complement Kering’s current offering, which is already strong in fashion brands (Gucci, Saint-Laurent, Balenciaga, Creed, Alexander McQueen), and thus complete its presence in British luxury.

Although smaller, Stella McCartney’s brand embodies modern and minimalist luxury, with strong growth potential, particularly in the women’s fashion and accessories segment. Kering could see in it an opportunity to rejuvenate its portfolio and reach younger clients.

Continue reading

DIOR A COURT DRESS

Iroquois haircuts, also known as Mohawk, are a bold and distinctive hairstyle.  ‘Yes, it’s a cross between a punk and a monk disguised as a hedgehog, the Iroquois, this haircut could have been a symbol of war status, a message to the Lord of luxury the big Bernard, perhaps!

But these dresses are to be found in the collections of many museums around the world. They have a specific name, they were called court dresses, or corpse dresses, according to the ceremonial dress of the European courts of the 18th century, they symbolised social rank, wealth and power, and that hasn’t changed much.

It was Louis XIV, the Sun King, who contributed to its design around 1680. It consisted of a rigid whalebone bodice laced at the back, a crinoline skirt and separate sleeves. It also included a train worn either at the waist or falling from the shoulders, but the Maria prefers without a train to admire the world origin of ‘courbet’, a visit under the girls’ dresses, a must.

Continue reading

KIM JONES

Kim Jones, under a black tent, like the sadness of the world, with a white staircase as a backdrop, Potemkin staircase style, a stripped-down décor to better highlight the fabrics and the construction of the fundamentals that distinguish the luxury of clothes as opposed to those of Zara. From a distance, looks are uncluttered, monochrome, sober at first glance, like this monastic black coat worn with a Yamamoto-style long skirt – the Catholicism is back. But if you zoomed in on the details, which even the front row had trouble seeing, you could spot details like these glass beads scattered like raindrops on the shoulders of a navy blue suit, the tears of luxury perhaps!

Diving into the archives makes sense at a time when many designers are redoubling their efforts to win back luxury consumers disappointed by the poverty of creations, because high-end basics ranging from €800 t-shirts to €4,500 coats are no longer in vogue, and at these prices, they’d better please. That’s probably why the more streamlined designs are given a touch of originality, often drawn from the women’s fashion lexicon of the old haute couture school.

In the 18th century, it was not uncommon to see fashionable men wearing brightly coloured silk damask coats. Jones revitalized this idea with belted kimono jackets and a pink satin robe embroidered with a motif borrowed at the Pondicherry dress from Christian Dior collection 1948.
Continue reading

MARIA NO COUNTRY FOR OLD LADIES

Even if the lord forbids his employees to speak to certain press organs, information continues to leak like the waters of Lake Victoria Falls. Information swells like a balloon. Maria Grazia is allegedly in trouble with the group, and her replacement is obviously imminent. After almost 10 years of reinterpretation, no one can take her seriously any more, such is her commitment to the subtle feminine poetry of the house.

She never had the thrill that art provokes in a creator, the emotion of the found subject, and of the scene that takes shape in the intoxication of creation, with a flat encephalogram of originality. A victimized, conflicted feminist who believes that men dominate women, but where would she get such an idea, knowing only nymphs?
Continue reading

ARMANI SEDUCTIVE SHOW

Giorgio Armani titled his collection “Seductive” with soft fabrics galore, including crushed velvet for pants, metallic touches in knits and generous animal prints on shoes, and little fur jackets.

The result was a strong and convincing show, perhaps a little flashier than usual, but proof that the master of Milanese fashion still has guts and new things to say at 90.

VUITTON HOMME 2025 AND GOOFI

Pharrell Williams, standing next to his longtime friend Nigo, two of the most influential tastemakers in streetwear, from the launch of their Billionaire Boys Club brand to their first eyewear design for Vuitton in 2004, to ongoing projects such as Nigo’s Human Made brand and Williams’ auction platform Joopiter, nigo and Williams to destroy Louis Vuitton.

Only at the top of the Louvre’s luxury pyramid, Nigo, “who means Goofi” in French, 54, took over the helm of Kenzo in 2021, and Williams, 51, was named artistic director of menswear at Vuitton in 2023, both young designers.

The collection they unveiled Tuesday in a mirror box in the courtyard of the Louvre, through a clothing vault filled with archive models, for a collection sprinkled with references and winks to the past, for a Vuitton men’s fashion that has no history!

A study varsity jacket that Williams never made, cherry blossom pink and leopard-print jeans, Williams’ bubblegum aesthetic, pink and the new black.

Continue reading

PHILIPPE PLEIN 2025

He began his career designing dog beds and will end up producing clothes for bitches. The 39-year-old Bavarian is worth millions thanks to his three clothing lines, and his house is worth at least 800 million euros. A maximalist style for this son of a doctor who doesn’t bother with codes of good taste, but he knows all about the fall of the “rêne”.

The designer likes not only rhetorical questions, but also provocation, confidences about the business of the rich and powerful, and ‘saying out loud what everyone else is thinking down low.

I like iconoclastic rebels, which is perhaps why I’m sympathetic towards him. But I never forget that my son is Franco-German too. In the cosseted world of luxury, this designer stands out, and so far he’s succeeded, because truth is always a winning bet in the long term.

Continue reading

PIERRE LOUIS MASCIA 2025

For fall 2025, Pierre-Louis Mascia stayed true to his approach to fashion, reinventing his colorful style without straying from following his North Star, he said backstage before his first coed runway show in Milan on Friday.

LOST HIGHWAY FOR LYNCH’S

It was a shock to learn of David Lynch’s death and to realise that there would be no more films from him. A filmmaker who left a profound mark on the history of cinema, from ‘Eraserhead’ to ‘Mulholland Drive’, via ‘Blue Velvet’, ‘Sailor et Lula’ and the world of ‘Twin Peaks’.

Elephant Man, his second feature film in black and white, was David Lynch’s crowning achievement. Fascinated by deformity, the young director brought to life the story of Joseph Merrick, a British man at the end of the 19th century suffering from a deforming disease. The man with the monstrous morphology became a freak show throughout the country.

Last August, after an interview with Sight & Sound magazine in which he revealed that he was suffering from the consequences of years of smoking.

PROENZA SCHOULER EXIT

Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who are stepping down as creative directors of the brand they founded in 2002.

Their exit is effective Jan. 31 They are widely expected to succeed Jonathan Anderson at the creative helm of Spanish luxury house Loewe, owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, clearing the way for Anderson to eventually take up a creative role at Dior, as has been reported.

The Proenza Schouler duo have long been on the radar of top European fashion houses. Valentino Fashion Group took a stake in Proenza Schouler in 2007. Four years later, a group of backers led by John Howard and Andrew Rosen bought most of Valentino’s position.

Then in 2018, Mudrick Capital Management led the designers’ buyback of their company. According to sources, LVMH has held discussions with McCollough and Hernandez over the years about joining one of its marquee fashion houses, which include Dior, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Fendi.