Fashion's great designer reshuffle
“From December 2024 to October 2025 Blazy went to Chanel, Demna to Gucci, Piccioli to Balenciaga and Anderson to Dior, each showing a first collection in Milan or Paris between 22 September and 6 October.”
Between December 2024 and October 2025 the head designers of four of the best-known fashion houses all changed. Matthieu Blazy left Bottega Veneta for Chanel. Demna left Balenciaga for Gucci. Pierpaolo Piccioli, who had left Valentino in March 2024, took Demna's place at Balenciaga. Jonathan Anderson left Loewe for Dior, where in June 2025 he was given women's wear, men's wear and haute couture together: the first person to lead all three since Christian Dior himself, according to the house. Other houses changed designer in the same months, among them Bottega Veneta, Loewe and Versace, and CNN counted more than a dozen first collections in London, Milan and New York before Paris Fashion Week even began.
Money explains the speed. Kering, which owns Gucci and Balenciaga, saw its yearly sales fall from 19.6 billion euros in 2023 to 17.2 billion in 2024, and in the first half of 2025 Gucci's revenue dropped another 26 percent, to about 3 billion euros, while its operating profit roughly halved. Gucci ended its work with Sabato De Sarno on 6 February 2025, after two years, and Kering moved Demna over from Balenciaga. At LVMH, Dior was seen as a weak spot, and Maria Grazia Chiuri left it in May after nine years. Chanel, privately owned and not forced to publish quarterly figures, had been without a head designer since Virginie Viard left in June 2024.
Each step was announced by the companies themselves. Chanel named Blazy, and Kering named Louise Trotter to replace him at Bottega Veneta, on the same day, 12 December 2024. Gucci announced Demna on 13 March; Anderson left Loewe four days later; Bernard Arnault said on 17 April that Anderson would make Dior Men's June collection; Kering named Piccioli on 19 May; and on 2 June LVMH gave Anderson the whole house. The first collections then came in a rush: Dior Men on 27 June, and between 22 September and 6 October Gucci, Versace, Bottega Veneta, Dior, Loewe, Balenciaga and, last, Chanel at the Grand Palais.
Most newcomers began by reading the archive. Anderson's first women's show for Dior opened with a white dress that echoed the New Look of 1947 and was full of miniskirts. Piccioli's first look at Balenciaga was a long black dress in the loose 'sack' shape the house made famous in the 1950s, shown in the chapel of Kering's own headquarters, where a Demna retrospective had been held three months earlier. Blazy turned the Grand Palais into a solar system and reworked Chanel's tweed jackets. Demna skipped the runway: Gucci erased its Instagram feed, posted a 37-look lookbook on 22 September and premiered a short film, The Tiger, the next day.
The wave kept moving after the debuts. Blazy and Anderson both showed their first couture collections in January 2026, Demna staged his first runway show for Gucci in Milan in February 2026, and Chiuri was named chief creative officer of Fendi on 14 October 2025. Not every change lasted: Versace's Dario Vitale, who showed one collection, left on 4 December 2025, two days after Prada Group completed its purchase of the brand. The reshuffle shows how far the big luxury groups bet their recovery on the name of a single designer.
What happened
- 2024
Chanel names Matthieu Blazy, 40, artistic director of fashion activities, in charge of all its haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories, from 2025; he is only the fourth head designer of the house since 1910. He leaves Bottega Veneta, where he had been creative director for three years.
Chanel, 31 rue Cambon, Paris: Gabrielle Chanel's first couture house, still a Chanel address; Blazy is based in ParisOn the same day Kering names Louise Trotter, then at Carven, creative director of Bottega Veneta; she is to join at the end of January 2025.
- 2025
Kim Jones leaves Dior Men after seven years, a week after his last show, announced in Instagram posts by Jones and Dior. No successor is named.
Gucci ends its work with creative director Sabato De Sarno after two years. The Fall-Winter 2025 show of 25 February will be presented by the Gucci design office, and a new artistic direction is promised 'in due time'.
Kering names Demna, artistic director of Balenciaga since 2015, artistic director of Gucci from early July 2025. Chairman Francois-Henri Pinault says his 'creative power is exactly what Gucci needs'.
At Versace, Donatella Versace becomes chief brand ambassador and Dario Vitale, until then design director at Miu Miu, is named chief creative officer: for the first time the creative lead is not a member of the family.
Jonathan Anderson announces on Instagram that he is leaving Loewe after eleven years, during which he turned the Spanish house into one of the most sought-after brands.
Loewe names Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the founders of Proenza Schouler, who left that brand in January, as its creative directors.
At LVMH's annual shareholders' meeting Bernard Arnault says Anderson will make the June collection for Dior Men, succeeding Kim Jones.
Kering names Pierpaolo Piccioli creative director of Balenciaga from 10 July, with his first collection due in October; Demna is moving to Gucci. Piccioli had left Valentino in March 2024 after 25 years.
Maria Grazia Chiuri shows her last collection for Dior, the Cruise 2026 show, in the gardens of the Villa Albani Torlonia in her home city of Rome.
Villa Albani Torlonia, Rome: Maria Grazia Chiuri's last Dior show (Cruise 2026), 27 May 2025Dior announces that Chiuri is leaving after nine years as the first woman to lead its women's collections; Delphine Arnault thanks her for her feminist perspective.
LVMH names Jonathan Anderson creative director of Dior's women's, men's and haute couture collections: the first person since Christian Dior himself to lead all three. Dior will skip the July couture shows for the first time in its history.
Anderson's first show for Dior, the men's Spring-Summer 2026 collection, takes place at the Hotel des Invalides in a room modelled on Berlin's Gemaldegalerie, hung with two Chardin paintings. The Bar jacket comes back in Donegal tweed, and Rihanna and Sabrina Carpenter sit in the front row.
Hotel des Invalides, Paris: Anderson's first Dior Men show, 27 June 2025Demna shows his last collection for Balenciaga, the Fall 2025 couture show 'La Bourgeoisie', after ten years; Piccioli is in the audience. A retrospective of his work was on show at Kering's Paris headquarters.
Piccioli takes over at Balenciaga on the date set by Kering; Demna starts at Gucci in early July.
Gucci erases its Instagram feed and presents Demna's first collection, La Famiglia: 37 looks in a lookbook shot by Catherine Opie, each model playing a family type such as the contessa or Miss Aperitivo.
Gucci premieres the short film The Tiger, directed by Spike Jonze and Halina Reijn and starring Demi Moore, at the Palazzo Mezzanotte in Milan instead of a runway show; the collection goes on sale on 25 September.
Palazzo Mezzanotte, Milan: premiere of Gucci's film The Tiger, 23 September 2025Dario Vitale shows his first Versace collection on a Friday night in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, a gallery with works by Caravaggio and Raphael; the collection is built on stripes and bright colours. Guests include Bianca Jagger and Romeo Beckham.
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan: Dario Vitale's first Versace collection, 26 September 2025Louise Trotter shows her first runway collection for Bottega Veneta in Milan; many saw it as a woman's view of the house.
Anderson's first women's collection for Dior, Spring-Summer 2026, shown in the Jardin des Tuileries: a short film of the house's archive, then a white dress echoing the New Look, miniskirts, bows and echoes of the Bar jacket. Brigitte Macron sits between Bernard and Delphine Arnault.
Jardin des Tuileries, Paris: Jonathan Anderson's first women's show for Dior, 1 October 2025Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez show their first collection for Loewe in Paris, with bright colours and clean lines, building on the Anderson years, as FashionUnited puts it (continuity and heritage).
Piccioli's first Balenciaga show takes place on Saturday evening in the chapel at Kering's headquarters, where Demna's retrospective had been held three months before. The opening look is a long black 'sack' dress; Meghan Markle and Anne Hathaway are in the front row, and he gets a standing ovation.
Chapelle Laennec, Kering's headquarters at 40 rue de Sevres, Paris: Pierpaolo Piccioli's first Balenciaga show, 4 October 2025Matthieu Blazy closes Paris Fashion Week with his first Chanel collection, Spring-Summer 2026, at the Grand Palais, under giant planets, in front of Margot Robbie, Penelope Cruz and Pedro Pascal. He opens with a cropped suit and has the models move to a 1990s dance track.
Grand Palais, Paris: where Matthieu Blazy showed his first Chanel collection on 6 October 2025
