The Verdict on Luxury Fashion’s Designer Reset
Robert Williams, BOF's chief luxury correspondent, discusses the outcomes of major creative director changes at luxury fashion houses one year into their tenures. While Chanel's reset with Mathieu Blasi has been demonstrably successful with reported 16% sales growth, other brands like Gucci, Dior, Celine, and Loewe show more mixed results, with product quality and brand coherence still catching up to compelling creative visions.
Summary
In this episode of The Debrief, Sheena Butler-Young interviews Robert Williams about the luxury fashion industry's recent wave of creative director changes and their early outcomes. Williams emphasizes that while creative direction is essential to these brands, it cannot single-handedly solve business problems—organizational-wide strategic moves are equally critical.
Chanel emerges as the clear success story. Mathieu Blasi's appointment has yielded immediate positive results, including reported 16% sales growth in the first half of the year amid a largely flat market. Williams attributes this success to Blasi's ability to make Chanel more accessible and wearable, moving away from purely status-symbol positioning toward pieces that fit naturally into customers' lives. The brand also emphasized visible, touchable craftsmanship that justified premium pricing. However, Williams cautions against declaring total victory, noting the risk that Blasi's effective formula could become formulaic over time, requiring continued evolution and new ideas.
Gucci's situation under Demna is more complicated. Despite sales being down approximately 2%, Williams describes Demna's September show as a "breakthrough," explaining that Demna conducted extensive "fashion therapy" to understand the brand's identity after Alessandro Michele's maximalist era had flooded the market with too many disparate product categories and brand faces. Demna's solution was to clarify Gucci's positioning as a brand for people seeking extra glamour and boldness while remaining practical about styling. However, Williams notes that while the vision is compelling, the actual product hasn't necessarily caught up—bags and other pieces still feel like obvious evolutions of competitor offerings rather than declarative, proprietary statements.
At Dior, Jonathan Anderson faced the challenge of refreshing an overexposed brand without completely alienating its audience. Williams notes Anderson successfully toned down grandiosity and updated the brand image through campaigns and styling, but his experimental, asymmetrical silhouettes on the runway felt overcomplicated and difficult for customers to project themselves into. Ready-to-wear sales and bags have reportedly improved, but menswear pricing remains challenging. Williams found the most recent collection more cohesive and "refreshingly pretty," though fashion critics were divided on whether it was editorial exciting or simply wearable.
Celine and Loewe present more successful transitions following respected designers. Michael Ryder at Celine maintained the brand's French, Parisian, style-focused identity while opening it up with more playfulness, variety, and Gen Z appeal without losing mature customers. At Loewe, Jack McAuliffe and Lázaro Hernández (from Proenza Schouler) preserved Jonathan Anderson's craft and cultural curation pillars while shifting focus to the body and senses through vibrant colors and sensorial imagery, successfully reviving the iconic Amazon bag while expanding product range.
Sarah Burton at Givenchy faced an entirely different challenge—the fourth creative director in a decade following confused strategic ping-ponging between various aesthetics. Williams notes Burton wisely wiped the slate clean and focused on precise silhouettes and dialogue with women's bodies, initiating a new cycle based on her strengths rather than trying to build on previous conflicting visions.
Williams also discusses expected upcoming changes, particularly at Balenciaga, where Pierpaolo Piccioli's year-old appointment is reportedly ending. Williams argues this was a strategic misfire—the brand kept Demna's diverse product mix (demi-couture, streetwear, sneakers) but completely changed the message to humanism and less tribalism, creating confused positioning that made the product assortment feel purposeless without the original authorial vision. He suggests they may have gotten the puzzle backward by keeping merchandising while changing messaging.
Finally, Williams discusses Anthony Vaccarello's expected departure from Saint Laurent after a decade. He describes Vaccarello's tenure as a laser-focused vision of elevated, dressed-up fashion rooted in late 70s and 80s Saint Laurent history—a purist approach that avoided bags and sneakers and maintained crystal-clear silhouettes. The challenge for successors will be expanding this narrow but successful identity into broader lifestyle positioning while preserving the brand's well-established prestige among people who still prioritize dressing up.
About this episode
<p>Fashion's biggest wave of creative-director musical chairs is now a year or so in, and the early read is starting to emerge. Over a dozen major houses have brought in new leadership, and while the broader luxury market is still sluggish, the areas designers can actually move — product, image, storytelling — are showing real signs of life. On a global scale, Chanel is seeing an immediate commercial payoff under Matthieu Blazy, Gucci looks to be stabilising under Demna, and at Dior, Jonathan Anderson's vision is starting to take shape.</p><br /><p>In this episode, senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young is joined by BoF's Chief Luxury Correspondent Robert Williams, who has spent the last few weeks on the ground in Milan and Paris covering the shows. Williams runs through the designer reboots at Chanel, Gucci, Dior, Celine, Loewe, Givenchy, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent — and separates the resets that are paying off from the ones still searching for a formula.</p><br /><p><strong>Key Insights: </strong></p><p><br /></p><ul><li>Williams calls Chanel's revamp under Matthieu Blazy the standout of the cycle, with sales up around 16 percent in the first half of the year. "It's very easy to understand, to digest. It's very visually him, it's very Chanel," he says. The house’s next challenge, Williams says, is balancing the consistency Blazy has established with newness and innovation: :"There needs to be some kind of a formula... at the same time, they need to always make sure they're investing in having new ideas."</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>After a polarizing debut in February, Demna's September show for Gucci clicked. "He was able to bring what he's really good at, which is documenting the way people dress in real life," Williams says, though he's candid that the product left a bit more to be desired: "I'm not sure that the product has caught up with the vision... the collection still has a little bit of a ways to go."</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>At Dior, Jonathan Anderson has sharpened the brand's image quickly, but the clothes are proving trickier to land. Where previous collections felt overcomplicated to some, he sees progress this season: "It felt more cohesive to me and it felt refreshingly just pretty."</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>At Celine, Michael Rider has taken a more evolutionary approach to the house after Hedi Slimane. Williams says Rider has brought “something looser, more playful … a bit more of a focus on design.” Loewe’s JackMcCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, meanwhile, also resisted a wholesale reinvention after Jonathan Anderson: “They've managed to keep the brand pillars going, but rather than the focus being so much about innovation and intellect, they've moved it to the body, to the senses,” Williams says.</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>At Balenciaga, as reports mount that Pierpaolo Piccioli could already be on the way out, Williams argues the house got its strategy inverted: "They kept a lot of the merchandising plan, but they changed the message, the values."</li></ul><p><br /></p><ul><li>At Saint Laurent, with Anthony Vaccarello reportedly exiting after nearly a decade of laser-focused vision, Williams calls it one of the most compelling stories to watch: As luxury fashion became obsessed with relatability and lifestyle, “Vaccarello was running in the opposite direction" The opportunity, and the risk, lies in broadening that identity: "How to build on that without upsetting the apple cart is going to be really risky but also hugely interesting to watch."</li></ul><p><br /></p><p><strong>Additional Resources:</strong></p><ul><li><strong><em><u><a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/briefings/luxury/fashions-designer-reset-kind-of-worked/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Fashion’s Designer Reset (Kind of) Worked | BoF</a></u></em></strong></li><li><strong><em><u><a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/briefings/luxury/luxurys-mid-year-review/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Luxury’s Mid-Year Review | BoF</a></u></em></strong></li><li><strong><em><u><a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/reviews/fashion-week/demna-gucci-spring-summer-2027/?recommId=1e53e9426c0b9a5429abcf0a29ca42e3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Has Demna Solved Gucci’s Identity Crisis? | BoF</a></u></em></strong></li></ul><hr /><p style="color: grey; font-size: 0.75em;"> Hosted on Acast. See <a href="https://acast.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: grey;" target="_blank">acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
Key Insights
- Williams argues that creative direction is essential to luxury brands but cannot solve business problems alone—organizational-wide strategic moves across all levels are equally critical to success.
- Chanel's success stemmed not just from Blasi's new silhouettes but from making the brand feel less status-focused and more integrated into customers' daily lives while emphasizing visible, tangible craftsmanship that justified pricing.
- Demna approached Gucci's creative reset as extensive "fashion therapy," interrogating the brand's identity and archive to move beyond Alessandro Michele's kitchen-sink approach that had diluted Gucci's positioning through too many disparate product categories.
- Jonathan Anderson at Dior successfully refreshed the brand's overexposed image through campaigns and styling but struggled to translate his conceptual approach into silhouettes that customers could easily project themselves into compared to competitors like Chanel.
- Successful creative transitions like Celine and Loewe preserved core brand pillars and values while adding new elements, rather than either changing everything or keeping everything the same, striking a balance between evolution and continuity.
- Balenciaga's strategic misstep was keeping Demna's diverse product assortment (demi-couture, streetwear, sneakers) while completely changing the brand message from radical coolness and cynicism to humanism, creating confusion about what the products meant.
- Saint Laurent under Vaccarello succeeded as a purist brand for people who still dress up and prioritize fashion, maintaining crystal-clear silhouettes and avoiding bags and sneakers, creating a narrow but highly respected identity.
- The challenge for successor brands is expanding successful but narrowly-defined brand identities without upsetting the established positioning that resonates with current customers—requiring careful navigation between evolution and preservation.
Topics
Transcript
Being a serious business owner takes hard work, patience, and a drive to keep moving forward. So it's important to find a serious business card that goes the extra mile. With the VentureX Business Card from Capital One, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase. And with big purchasing power, you can spend more and earn more. This is your sign to take your business to the next level. The Capital One VentureX Business Card. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details. This episode is brought to you by Macy's. I've got to say, one of my favorite things about autumn is finally being able to properly dress again. And for me, that means layers, and…
Full transcript available for MurmurCast members
Sign Up to AccessMore from The Business of Fashion Podcast
Marc Jacobs: 'I Don't Think That The Creative Is to Blame'
Marc Jacobs discusses his transition away from LVMH and reflects on the fashion industry's structural problems, arguing that creative designers are not to blame for the sector's challenges. He emphasizes that hiring new designers cannot solve systemic issues like overproduction and poor retail distribution, and expresses optimism about creative voices finding opportunities through redefined measures of success.
Luxury’s Italian Supply Chain Reckoning Isn’t Over
Two years after investigations revealed exploitative labor conditions at Italian factories supplying major luxury brands like Armani and Dior, the industry has implemented audits and supply chain controls, but labor advocates argue fundamental business practices remain unchanged and worker conditions have not significantly improved.
Feed Me's Emily Sundberg on How Fashion Underestimates Its Customers
Emily Sundberg, founder of Feed Me newsletter, discusses building an independent media business from scratch on Substack with a paywall from day one. She covers how she curates content about New York's business and cultural landscape, why fashion brands underestimate their consumers' intelligence, and the challenges of running a multi-revenue business while maintaining editorial integrity.
Fashion’s Latest Obsession: The Grocery Store
Fashion brands are increasingly partnering with gourmet grocery stores like Erewhon, Meadow Lane, and Happier Grocery to create experiential marketing activations that blend food, wellness, and lifestyle. These collaborations offer brands a way to engage consumers in sensory, tangible environments amid digital fatigue, though success requires authentic brand-store alignment and meaningful community connection rather than surface-level photo opportunities.
Christopher Kane: Mulberry’s Heritage Is a Foundation, Not a Limitation
Christopher Kane discusses his return to fashion as Mulberry's creative director for womenswear after closing his independent label. He explains how he views Mulberry's heritage as a foundation rather than limitation, drawing inspiration from British subcultures, his Scottish upbringing, and the strong women who influenced him, while maintaining his signature approach of sourcing ideas from unexpected sources.