23/11/2022
It’s the end of an era for Italy’s biggest fashion brand.
Alessandro Michele, creative director of Gucci since 2015, is stepping down, effective immediately. A replacement has not yet been named, the Kering-owned brand said in a statement.
After taking the creative reins of Gucci in 2015, Michele reignited excitement around the Milan-headquartered house, soon dominating the fashion zeitgeist with his decadent layering of brand signatures, streetwear-inspired merchandising and quirky, gender-fluid styling. An all-encompassing revamp of Gucci’s products, communications and store decor spearheaded by Michele alongside CEO Marco Bizzarri attracted a voracious following for the brand, and helped usher in a new, younger generation of consumers to a luxury industry that had been catering to the tastes of more mature buyers.
Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci said: “I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet Alessandro at the end of 2014, since then we have had the pleasure to work closely together as Gucci has charted its successful path over these last eight years.”
François-Henri Pinault, Chairman & CEO of Kering, said: “The road that Gucci and Alessandro walked together over the past years is unique and will remain as an outstanding moment in the history of the House. I am grateful to Alessandro for bringing so much of himself in this adventure.”
Alessandro Michele said: “There are times when paths part ways because of the different perspectives each one of us may have. Today an extraordinary journey ends for me, lasting more than twenty years, within a company to which I have tirelessly dedicated all my love and creative passion. During this long period Gucci has been my home, my adopted family. Together with them I have wished, dreamed, imagined. Without them, none of what I have built would have been possible.”
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