On Thursday, just as the fashion world was gathering in New York for its ready-to-wear shows, Gucci added yet more uncertainty to an already tumultuous industry by announcing that the designer Sabato De Sarno was leaving. He had been at Gucci only two years and was scheduled to unveil his spring collection in Milan on Feb. 25. No successor was named, and the collection would be, the brand said in the announcement, designed by the studio.
The news comes only five days before Kering, the parent company of Gucci as well as Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and McQueen, announces its 2024 annual results. In October, Kering reported that Gucci’s third-quarter sales fell 26 percent in 2024, the worst results in its stable of fashion houses and among the worst in the industry. Presumably the full-year numbers will follow the same trend — a repudiation of recent industry wisdom that “quiet luxury” was the answer to consumer anxiety.
“The writing was on the wall,” Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at Bernstein, said in an email. “The connection between the Gucci DNA and Sabato’s aesthetics was not really there. A brand cannot change into anything it likes, the same as a zebra cannot turn into a lion and vice versa.”
Mr. De Sarno was brought on with much excitement (and his own mini-documentary) in 2023 to reinvent Gucci as an Hermès-like luxury brand focused on timeless offerings that transcend fashion cycles. Gucci’s previous designer, Alessandro Michele, had transformed its fortunes by remaking the label as a more-is-more home for fashion geeks and freaks rather than a gilded leather go-to for the nouveau riche jet set, but sales had begun to plateau.
Mr. De Sarno, who had previously been the design director at Valentino, stripped away the excess of the Michele era and introduced a new color, Ancora red, but he never managed to give Gucci a new identity. His work, which seemed tepid, was tepidly received.
In a news release, Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy chief executive in charge of brand development, said (somewhat tepidly), “I sincerely thank Sabato for his loyalty and professionalism.”
Gucci’s decision to part ways with Mr. De Sarno, the first major move of Stefano Cantino, its new chief executive, comes at a time when overall luxury spending has fallen in the wake of global economic and political uncertainty. That decline has led to an unprecedented number of designer changes, as brand managers try to reignite consumer excitement by offering more and more new stuff.
Mr. De Sarno’s departure after such a short tenure also reflects the perhaps unrealistic expectations of owners and investors when it comes to fashion turnarounds. Though it is possible for a designer with a crystal clear sense of the general mood to make over a brand seemingly overnight, it is rare.
Nevertheless, 10 new designers will make their debuts at familiar fashion houses this year, including Calvin Klein, Chanel, Tom Ford, Givenchy and Bottega Veneta, another Kering brand. Fendi and Maison Margiela have yet to name new creative directors, while speculation continues to roil the fashion world (which loves nothing more than a bit of gossip on the front row) that Dior is about to change its creative team.
The Gucci announcement will further fuel the guessing games, which have already focused on Hedi Slimane, the former designer of Celine.
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