With the departures of Dries Van Noten and Pierpaolo Piccioli, a page in fashion is turning

Are we witnessing a profound reconfiguration of luxury? In the space of a few days, several news shook the sector: on March 19, Dries Van Noten, 65, announced that he would sign his latest collection for the house that bears his name in June 2024 and that he founded in 1986; Friday March 22, Pierpaolo Piccioli and Valentino announced the end of their collaboration, which had lasted for twenty-five years. Monday March 25, the specialized site Women’s Wear Daily suggested that Alessandro Michele, former artistic director of Gucci, would succeed Pierpaolo Piccioli, without the person concerned nor the company confirming this information for the moment.

As for Dries Van Noten, this decision, although it left many fans inconsolable, is not very surprising. In 2018, the Spanish group Puig – owner of Rabanne, Nina Ricci and Jean Paul Gaultier – took a majority stake in the brand. A way of gradually slowing down for the Belgian designer, who has managed to build customer loyalty for almost forty years and whose shows during Paris fashion week are always very popular.

In December 2019, he confided to World : “I can work for another five or ten years, continue as long as I consider my work relevant. If I feel like I’m starting to repeat myself, if my clothes no longer make sense, if I’m asked to redo a certain product because it worked well, then I’ll stop. On the other hand, I am not against the fact that my brand continues to live without me. I don’t find it necessary for me to design the collection. »

Trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, from which he graduated in 1981, Dries Van Noten stood out as a member of the “Antwerp Six”. These six designers – including Ann Demeulemeester and Marina Yee – helped shape a dark, minimalist and unstructured aesthetic in the 1980s and 1990s, and thus placed Belgium on the fashion world map, with the help of Martin Margiela.

Over the years, Dries Van Noten has asserted itself by accentuating the femininity of its creations and by deploying tremendous work on colors, prints and materials, always harmonious and yet sometimes confusing. More than clothes, he created a style. If his successor is not yet known to date, we can easily imagine that one of his close collaborators would take up the torch, thus ensuring stylistic continuity.

Presumed arrival of Alessandro Michele

If the departure of Dries Van Noten was predictable, that of Pierpaolo Piccioli, 56, surprised even Valentino’s internal teams. The Roman designer had been with the house since 1999: he had climbed the ranks to head of artistic direction, first in tandem with Maria Grazia Chiuri, then alone when she joined Dior in 2016. With his numerous men’s, women’s, ready-to-wear and haute couture shows, he had left his mark on his style, making Valentino synonymous with a refined wardrobe, built on large volumes and often monochrome silhouettes.

Pierpaolo Piccioli also distinguished himself by his taste for bright colors, which he aptly combined, going so far as to create in 2022 a shade of pink in partnership with Pantone, Pink PP: his entirely fuchsia fashion show, from the decor to the clothing, had caused a sensation well beyond the circle of fashion week insiders, flooding social networks and opening the brand to a younger audience. She also appreciated his effort to make the luxury house more inclusive, by choosing models or muses who were not always tall and thin.

Beyond a need for creative renewal at Valentino, it is perhaps Pierpaolo Piccioli’s desire to address a wide audience that precipitated his departure. Since 2012, the label has been majority owned by Mayhoola, an investment fund of the Al Thani family, which rules Qatar; Kering has taken a 30% stake in 2023, with an option to acquire 100% of Valentino no later than 2028.

“The large luxury groups want at all costs to seduce the ultra-rich, the famous 1% of the population. We see this in the communication of Kering in particular, which has spoken in recent months of an “uplift” strategy for its houses. We must understand by this that the group wants to attract a wealthy clientele, who tend to turn towards very sophisticated and expensive products, the famous “discreet luxury”, analyzes Eric Briones, luxury consultant and co-founder of the Paris School of Luxury. L’” elevation “ of Kering has already been in operation for several months at Gucci and Saint Laurent; it consists in particular of restricting their presence in multi-brand points of sale as well as increasing the prices and quality of products.

The presumed arrival of Alessandro Michele to replace Pierpaolo Piccioli would defy industry predictions: the former artistic director of Gucci had been seen in recent months in the Parisian premises of LVMH, avenue Montaigne, and was tipped to take over one of the Roman houses of the group, Fendi or Bulgari.

If Alessandro Michele arrived at Valentino and the house came under the Kering flag by 2028, the Roman designer would return to the group he left under stormy circumstances in 2022. From a creative point of view, however, we can quite imagine that Michele’s unbridled imagination would find fertile ground for expression in Valentino. The Roman brand has in any case made it known that it will not organize shows during the men’s and haute couture fashion weeks in Paris in June. The year 2024, which promises to be economically difficult for luxury players, risks seeing the designer transfer window prolong.