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Shortly after becoming CEO of Kering, Luca de Meo dove headfirst into the whirlwind of fashion month. The executive, who was previously CEO of automotive company Renault Group, attended the Gucci film screening, the Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and McQueen shows, plus the Valentino show (which Kering has the option to acquire no later than 2029). He also dropped by the brands’ showrooms for a closer look at the collections.
“It was an incredible opportunity to be at the shows for the first time,” he says during an interview at Kering HQ. “I went in with a lot of curiosity, to understand how it works, meet clients, journalists… I was hopping from one thing to another throughout the week — something you [fashion editors] do with ease because you’re used to it. And I found it all quite spectacular, the setup behind the fashion shows — so many professionals from various fields: artisans, photographers, stylists, etc. It’s really a well-oiled machine, which is quite impressive and nice to watch in action.”
De Meo has also had his introduction to the backstage scrums. I spotted him backstage at the Balenciaga show, patiently waiting to congratulate the house’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, while the photographers snapped their pictures of Piccioli and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. “My celebrity was Pierpaolo,” he says with a smile.
For a wide-ranging interview on his strategy for the group, we’ll have to be patient. De Meo is expected to share his roadmap in spring 2026. In the meantime, he offered some thoughts on his introduction to fashion, which you will find in the edited conversation below.
Vogue: You have lots of experience in the automotive industry. What’s one of the clearest connections you see between that and fashion?
One of the connections I clearly see between cars and fashion is really the passion people have for brands and products. When you see the crowds waiting outside the shows, it’s clear that this isn’t just about selling something mundane.
Similar to a motor show, a fashion week is a moment for brands to connect with their audiences — it’s a physical experience. Each event brings in buyers and press from all over the planet; in that way, they fuel the economies of the cities that host them. Protecting all of this is important.
Vogue: What are your takeaways from the shows?
Forgive me, but I don’t approach this from a creative standpoint — that’s not my area of expertise at this stage. On the other hand, I asked the team for a quantitative analysis to assess the visibility and impact of our shows and of our competitors’ shows. I’m simply looking at the data objectively.
Two things stood out to me. One is the huge contribution from social media when measuring the impact of a show. Secondly, our houses performed quite well overall. Whether it was Gucci with its slightly unconventional film concept, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and McQueen, they were all on the sunlit bank, so to speak.
This is only the beginning of a much longer journey, but it’s clear that each of them delivered. It also highlights how much influence a creative director can have on the entire organisation. You can see the Pierpaolo effect at Balenciaga, the Demna effect at Gucci and so on. It’s a reminder of how central creativity is to this industry.
Vogue: You recently held a leadership meeting and reportedly made comments on the weight of the runway collections in the total revenue of fashion brands. Can you fill us in?
Coming from another sector, what I see is that across the luxury fashion sector, the weight of the runway collections typically amounts to 10 to 20 per cent of a brand’s annual revenue, which holds true across the board. What we all think is that mathematically and conceptually, the runway collections weigh much more than that because they have a very strong halo effect. Just look at the instantaneous shift in perception around Gucci when ‘La Famiglia’ was presented. From a perception, branding and image perspective, that’s where the magic of fashion lies.
I think we’re among the few groups that genuinely prioritise creativity in our business. And that has to remain, because our raison d’être is to push creativity and ensure that the work of a creative director drives everything. Our new tag line is ‘Creativity is our legacy’. So we will keep that focus. That being said, we should also remain aware that 80 per cent of the business may not be coming directly from the show itself, but from what is built upon the work done for it.
Then, you need to provide support and expertise around the creative director in the different functions — across merchandising, marketing, retail… That allows you to create the platform on which you place this bodywork that’s creativity. I believe that business is a team sport and you need to build a team that performs in every area. Obviously, the creative director in our world is the player who scores goals, and celebrates with the fans once they’ve won. But it’s not an individual sport. It’s not running or tennis.
Vogue: Shall we keep going with the sports metaphor?
Yes, we have a line-up of high-level creative directors, an elite team. Kering has propelled many creative directors who went elsewhere and have driven the success of other brands. The most recent example is Matthieu Blazy [who left Bottega Veneta for Chanel]. We have always given creatives the space to express their talents, and it will continue to be that way.
Vogue: Gucci hosted a film premiere to present its new collection La Famiglia, instead of a traditional fashion show. What are your thoughts on the format?
I’m not judging the film — I’m not a film critic — but I thought it was a clever way for Demna to mark his arrival and signal a turning point for the Gucci brand. I liked how he managed to draw the media’s and the fans’ attention back to the house with something genuinely fresh. Personally, I have always been more in love with the future than with the past. When it comes to creativity, our job is to build what’s next, to push innovation forward. Whenever I see someone trying to do something different, something new, I appreciate it. And looking at the numbers, it’s clear that Demna and the Gucci team were right to take that approach. It worked.
Vogue: You’ve attended the shows of all the houses in the group, plus Valentino. How has that informed your vision for the group’s portfolio?
I think I’ll have the answer to that in a few months. We are a group, and we have some of the most prestigious brands in the fashion world — not all, but a few — and we’re not a monobrand operation. The brands evolved based on their heritage and the creative director’s vision. I think we now have a responsibility to lay all our cards on the table and organise them properly, asking ourselves: how do we maximise each brand’s potential? We need to ensure there’s no cannibalisation between them, and strategically target different types of clients with each brand based on what we’ve achieved so far. I think there’s some potential for a more strategic brand portfolio approach.
What I’ve seen so far is that each show has its own distinct identity. McQueen, for example, brings something younger and edgier. Everyone did their job very well. I found this quite clear, which is an advantage: with five or six different brands, you can recognise each one immediately. This gives you relatively clear markers or ‘cards’. The challenge now is: how do we orchestrate these different instruments to play a perfect symphony?
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