After his Autumn/Winter 2025 show for Balenciaga, creative director Demna told Vogue’s Sarah Mower that all he wants to do is design clothes for his customers. “Fashion has become like this giant rumour mill — which is fun too, because people like the guessing game. But I think in that fog of rumours, what is important?” he said. “Sometimes, I read more about rumours, and about who is going where than what we really want from fashion now.”
It makes sense that the rumour mill was top of mind for Demna. Three days later, Kering announced that he had been appointed to the vacant creative director position at Gucci. He’s starting in June.
Demna was an eleventh-hour entrant into the hotly discussed debate about who would lead Gucci next, following Sabato De Sarno’s January exit. Other vacancies lasted much longer: who would replace Virginie Viard at Chanel became a gossip frenzy as months dragged on following her departure. When Bottega Veneta’s Matthieu Blazy was appointed to the role in December, triggering a chain of further announcements, it was already a known prophecy among fashion insiders. Jonathan Anderson’s exit from Loewe, announced last Monday, inspired a rush of “I told you so” Instagram posts from commentators, many of whom began discussing his departure last year. If the much-rumoured predictions about where he’s headed next are to be trusted, well, then we already know that, too. And just this morning, it became official that Anderson’s successors would be Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez — a rumour that was published shortly after the designer-founders announced they were leaving Proenza Schouler in January.
As Luke Leitch wrote for Vogue Business in February, fashion’s gossip supply is a direct cause of the industry slowdown, which has prompted some executives to change creative direction in hopes of turning around sales. That’s provided fresh fodder for gossip and rumours, which drive bursts of engagement online — even if what’s posted about ends up not being true. “It’s normal that things change. But this is the first time in my professional life that I’ve seen such designer turnover at this level,” says PR guru Lucien Pagès. “It’s disturbing but as well, fascinating. We’re all shaken a bit about all the news and the gossips.”
Fashion gossip has become a commodity for which an apparently endless supply meets an insatiable demand. This is fashion gossip’s golden age. But why?
When it’s a lot for outside spectators, what must it be like for those inside the houses in question? The gossiping does take a toll on those working in the design teams as they wonder about their futures. Some employees at a fashion house with a recent designer departure tell Vogue Business they experienced an uncertain work environment as it became apparent the designer was leaving, yet no announcement had been made. One employee says the impact was more from the media chatter, than internal handlings. Employees report the inability focus on long-term projects without a clear succession plan, and fears that sales will fall with the departing designer. They worry about their jobs, too. Designers are also known to have loyal teams that follow them from post to post; as the door revolves, it’s not uncommon for some to clear house and install their people.
As fashion’s creative leadership froths, how should brands navigate the rumour mill and handle creative director transitions to minimise disruption? “Brand leaders tend to forget that there’s so much friction for existing teams when there’s a sense that one person is not going to make it, but you have to follow their direction until there’s a change,” says Karen Harvey, a fashion headhunter and founder of Karen Harvey Consulting. “It’s really hard for people to be in limbo.”
Readjusting PR strategies to the new normal
Being a fashion fan means more today than it used to: TikTok commentators and Instagram accounts dedicated to fashion news gain followings by sharing ‘insider’ knowledge. It’s not enough to influence or consume any more; content creators today earn clout by how much they can inform, even if that information isn’t vetted.
Harvey says that fashion brands should modernise their communication strategies when creative directors change over. The norm, as KCD global CEO Rachna Shah notes, is to say nothing and let the news cycle move on. Harvey says there’s fear that if a statement is released before a designer is appointed, it could be taken out of context, only feeding the flame it was meant to put out. But she adds this might be out of step today. “There needs to be a conversation around looking at a new way of how you deal with this in modern times. For the most part you have traditional houses, traditional leaders, doing things very traditionally — but in an untraditional environment. The designer changing every two years is not tradition.”
Harvey suggests brands at the centre of much gossip re-emphasise how these decisions take time. “It doesn’t mean you sidestep the process. Mitigating the rumour mill can be done by saying, ‘We want to pick the right person for longevity. We know it’s not easy waiting, but we want to be thoughtful.’ It’s obvious, but I’m not sure that these conversations are taking place,” explains Harvey.
Pagès says he’s seen the amount of noise surrounding appointments have the adverse effect: whereas one sharp anonymous report in the right publication in the past might have triggered an earlier announcement, lots of speculation and more voices in the mix have cancelled out the need to respond at all. “Gossip used to accelerate an announcement. Now, because there’s too much gossip, brands are sticking to their agenda. The noise overwhelms,” he says.
Managing transitions
Still, beyond the media cycle, it’s the internal teams that can bear the brunt of uncertainty and indecision. Harvey says more communication helps here, too. “An environment where people are kept up to speed with the way that changes are evolving and why is needed. More attention needs to be paid to this — a sense that these people also matter.”
Pagès agrees that it’s a personnel issue that brands need to tend to, but sharing any information across teams makes it more likely that the latest update will make its way to the media or Instagram. And as rumours begin as soon as an initial meeting is set, or a designer changes their Instagram profile, brands are more paranoid than ever before about word getting out too soon, well before a deal is signed.
“Large brands are very used and ready to navigate in such a context [of rumours and gossip],” says Floriane de Saint Pierre, the founder of her eponymous consulting firm. “Today, more than ever, transitions need to be well prepared in advance and confidentiality protected.”
Once the designer hire is made, retention strategies can help to reduce fears around jobs being lost under new creative directorships. One pragmatic solution is to promise severance packages if a team member chooses to leave or is let go, at least three months to a year in most cases, Harvey says. But executives can also encourage incoming designers to spend time with the current team before deciding to make drastic cuts. “The codes of the house are embedded in this team, and that could be very valuable, even if the designer does choose to walk away from those codes. Understanding the historical foundation is essential,” she says, adding that it’s typical for new creative director hires and executives to hash out team details and specific hires as well as changes in negotiation deals. This gives leadership teams space to ensure a transitional strategy is intact.
“A wise executive team will make sure to create an environment where they recognise from a retention perspective that this [transition] won’t be easy,” says Harvey.
Where do we go from here?
One way to lessen the disruption inside fashion houses and quieten the rumour mill is to give creative directors time to grow into and succeed in their new jobs.
Experts say that, considering the mounting pressure on designer debuts, executives must hold firm and stand by the creatives they’ve hired, even if they get off to a slow start. The nature of the creative director job today spans more than just designing collections, and actualising a vision for a brand takes time. “Management has to make a good choice [in hiring], but they also have to support and get behind the creative team. Designers are arriving at a new brand, cracking the DNA, translating that to commercial success, aligning the store, service and advertising,” Pagès says. “Even though designers arrive with very precise visions, they need time to train the team.”
Harvey agrees. “That executive who’s making that choice, or those groups of executives, have to own it and help make it work. I don’t ascribe to this idea of hiring a very important creative leader and then leaving them to just go do it,” she says. “They need to hold that space for them to find their way a little bit. There doesn’t seem to be that communication when things are going south. We owe it to the creatives to not ruin their careers over an abrupt change. In a world where transparency is more desired, there are ways to do that.”
This season, two designers proved that good things take time. Daniel Lee at Burberry (now in his fifth season) and Seán McGirr at Alexander McQueen (in his third) received positive reviews for their most recent showings, after both got off to tepidly received starts. “Creativity in design has become a questionably disposable commodity at so many buffeted-in-business fashion houses lately. This Burberry collection demonstrated the virtues of weathering the storm,” Leitch wrote of Burberry AW25 in his review for Vogue. McGirr, meanwhile, showed his AW25 collection to audible cheers.
Ultimately, designer decisions are business decisions. What does this all mean for the customers? Pagès says that today, anyone with a phone and an interest in fashion is likely being served content about the designer carousel, thanks to the algorithm. He says brands’ top customers are usually faithful to their favourite designer houses, even as creative directors change, because they’ve built a relationship there. Others are more loyal to the designer than the house. This emphasises the importance of customer relationship teams in times of transition. “Take care of them, listen to them,” Pagès says of top clients. “It’s a very important part of fashion houses now.”
With so much noise surrounding designer departures and appointments, not losing sight of the customer is paramount, as Demna expressed following his most recent (and final) Balenciaga show.
“My fear is that brands aren’t being given an opportunity to communicate with their customer, because we’re getting so far ahead of ourselves in terms of what may or may not change,” says KCD’s Shah. “It does a disservice to the customer. It is such a disservice to the creatives who are involved. You can’t even function with that kind of pressure.”
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