IIt was therefore not enough to thank his creative director to resolve the problem. In November 2022, Gucci, flagship of the Kering group, said goodbye to the baroque years by parting ways with Alessandro Michele, the eccentric Roman stylist with the appearance of a Californian hippie, who had sprinkled his collections with floral bags and pants Elephant feet.
The recipe, which had spectacularly revived the Italian brand, no longer worked. We must recognize that, more than a year later, the recovery is not there. Kering announced on Tuesday March 19 that its sales were expected to fall by 10% in the first quarter of 2024. News which caused a 12% collapse in the stock price the next day.
The group may blame the slowdown in the Chinese market and the luxury market in general, but its commercial and stock market performances now diverge from its peers. According to Morgan Stanley analysts, the 10% slide in Kering’s sales at the start of the year should be matched by an increase of 2% in LVMH’s fashion and accessories division, 12.5% for Prada and 16. 6% for Hermès. And even within Kering, its subsidiaries Yves Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta are doing much better.
So there is a Gucci problem. It is she who is causing the group to plunge with a 20% drop in sales, even though she represents half of the group’s turnover and two thirds of its profits.
Reassuring classicism
However, in January 2023, Kering appointed Sabato de Sarno as head of creation. Former fashion boss of Valentino, he presents himself as the wise man of the group. To the waking and multicolored dreams of his predecessor, he opposes a classicism that aims to be reassuring. His first collections bear witness to this. But these have only just appeared on the catwalks at the start of the year, and no one is sure that this will be enough to bring back the Chinese customers who have suddenly deserted their stores.
Kering finds itself once again confronted with a divide as old as time and which affects each of us, that of the opposition between tradition and modernity. Translated into the world of the rich, this pits luxury against fashion. The first is a status symbol which reassures about the permanence of things, the second refers to the ephemerality of creativity and youth. Very sensitive to the status of the brand, wealthy Asian consumers today take refuge in icons of the sector, such as Hermès or Chanel. Fashion today seems to be out of fashion. And Gucci is the first victim in a luxury sector which is suddenly becoming more selective. Which is in his nature.