PARIS — Gucci has named Demna its new artistic director, selecting an era-defining fashion provocateur from within parent company Kering’s own creative ranks to fuel its next chapter.
Georgia-born Demna has been creative director of Kering’s Balenciaga brand since 2015. There, his penchant for oversized, Goth-inflected sportswear collided with the house’s couture codes to spark a renaissance for the Parisian house.
For years, Demna set the fashion agenda with bold, subversive propositions that sought to redefine luxury for a new era, from sculptural couture to bedazzled rubber clogs, as well as a singular perspective on post-internet culture. Demna has consistently infused Balenciaga’s collections and communications with dystopian, cheeky and conversational statements that both commented on — and exploited — the luxury industry’s convergence with mass media, consumerism and art.
According to analyst estimates, Balenciaga’s sales roughly quadrupled in the first 5 years of Demna’s tenure, topping €1.5 billion by 2021. His final outing for the brand will be July’s haute couture show, after which he will officially begin his new position, senior Kering executives said to a small gathering of fashion press at the tail end of Paris Fashion Week.
At Gucci, Demna will be tasked with reasserting the fashion authority of Italy’s biggest luxury label, juggling a push to reignite excitement around the brand with continued efforts to elevate and stabilise its brand positioning.
In recent years, Gucci’s sales have stagnated, then slipped as enthusiasm waned for the nostalgic, magpie styling of Alessandro Michele (its creative director from 2015 to 2023) and after successor Sabato De Sarno’s polished, more understated vision struggled to spark an emotional response from consumers.
“The priority is giving fashion authority to the brand, because this would drive even more elevation,” Kering’s deputy CEO Francesca Bellettini said.
Demna honed his craft in the studios of Louis Vuitton and Maison Margiela, then co-founded the buzzy mid-2010s brand Vêtements before beginning his star turn at Balenciaga. His latest nomination breaks with Kering’s practice of elevating behind-the-scenes talent to its top creative posts, as it has done for most major appointments over the past decade across Gucci, Bottega Veneta and McQueen. This time, the group controlled by France’s Pinault family is betting on an A-list artistic director: one with wide-ranging experience and a demonstrated track record of crafting a convincing narrative across not just collections but branding, shows, store concepts and more.
Still, Demna will need to prove he can recapture the zeitgeist in a way that’s right for Gucci, a much larger brand, in a different era than Balenciaga at its fashion peak.
While Demna’s Balenciaga has steadily grown its business in high-end ready-to-wear and couture, excitement for the brand among a broader audience has cooled in recent seasons. A 2022 public relations crisis accelerated the onset of consumer fatigue with both its provocative social media exploits and entry-level merch (particularly logoed streetwear and sneakers), both of which had driven surging brand awareness and sales for Balenciaga.
Industry sources say Balenciaga’s business has climbed back from the brink thanks to devotees in Asia — where its PR scandal was a mere blip — as well as hit launches like the Rodeo bag, a slouchy, punk reinterpretation of classic pocketbooks like the Hermès’ Kelly, accessorised with cheeky beaded keychains and other swag.
While losing an authoritative fashion voice at its helm creates uncertainty for Balenciaga, Demna’s transition to Gucci will also provide an opportunity for the brand to freshen its image after years of consistency. New creative leadership at the brand will be announced in due course, Kering said.
Gucci, too, has suffered growing pains in recent years. Sales boomed under Michele and CEO Marco Bizzarri, more than doubling in three years from 2016 to 2019. But the coronavirus hit the brand hard in 2020 due to its hefty dependence on travel retail, outlets and wholesale boutiques. In subsequent years, revenues bounced back as stores and travel reopened, but growth remained anaemic compared to the record expansion enjoyed by upmarket rivals like Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Dior.
Since Michele and Bizzarri exited the brand (in late 2022 and mid-2023, respectively), Gucci has prioritised elevating its product offering and cleaning up distribution (cutting exposure to wholesale and outlets) while transitioning to a more universal — if less differentiated — brand image under De Sarno and interim chief Jean-François Palus. But the shift coincided with a sector-wide slowdown in 2023 and 2024, which made it even trickier to compete with blue-chip heritage brands.
Gucci’s sales fell 23 percent last year, on top of a 6 percent dip in 2023. The brand accounts for roughly two-thirds of Kering’s profits, which tumbled 46 percent last year. Stefano Cantino, an established operator from Prada and Louis Vuitton who has held roles steering communications, merchandising, strategy and more, was named CEO in October.
With a new chief in place and new creative vision on the way, Gucci will need to reclaim its place in the fashion conversation without scrapping recent progress on cultivating a more stable, high-end image.
“Elevation means exceptional execution but also exceptional creativity,” said Cantino. “Demna is able to interpret contemporary culture and define what is luxury today for a young generation and the future. His vision for Gucci is not going to be anything that has been done for Balenciaga. His intention is to do something that is right for Gucci.”
When the brand will start to feel the impact of the new appointment — and whether the fashion industry, financial analysts and wider market will come on board — remains to be seen.
Gucci hasn’t set a date for Demna’s debut show, but it isn’t expected to come before September. That means Gucci’s next big moment on the fashion calendar — a May 15th cruise show in Florence, the brand’s birthplace — will be another studio-designed affair.
Kering reports first-quarter sales April 23.