The debut of new Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno is considered one of the most anticipated events of Milan Fashion Week. Not least because the fashion industry had to wait for almost eight months to finally get a glimpse of the vision of the man who will succeed Alessandro Michele. De Sarno’s first performance for the Italian luxury fashion house will take place on the catwalk on Friday, but the first indications of the potential journey of the brand as a whole are numerous – not least thanks to fundamental changes within Gucci’s parent company Kering.
An anniversary year marked by changes
“We are by no means in a year of transition,” Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault told trade magazine Vogue Business in February after the release of fourth-quarter results. Nevertheless, the year has so far proven to be quite transformative for the French luxury goods group. While at the beginning of the year it was emphasized that the then Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri did not have to leave the fashion house with the designer he had once chosen, Alessandro Michele, Kering reversed this decision in July and so Bizzarri vacated his position – immediately after De Sarno’s debut to September 23rd.
His position – unlike Michele’s – will be filled immediately, even if only temporarily. Jean-François Palus, the current managing director of Kering Group, is taking on the role to “strengthen Gucci’s teams and operations as the fashion house regains influence and momentum and prepares the leadership and organization for the future,” according to a statement in July. The manager, described by Kering CEO Pinault as his right-hand man and daily sparring partner, will move from Paris to Milan and run the business locally.
But that’s not all, because not only at Gucci, but also at the top of the parent company, a lot is changing in this historic year for the group. More than 60 years ago, the group, then called Établissements Pinault, was founded by François Pinault, the father of the current CEO, and specialized in the timber trade. Two years later, after the acquisition of the French department store chain Printemps and a stake in the mail order company La Redoute, the group became the retail company Pinault Printemps Redoute (PPR), transforming itself into a luxury conglomerate. The name change to Kering came in 2013 – a milestone that the company celebrated this year with, among other things, a thirty percent stake in Valentino, its own illustrated book and numerous events. The anniversary also brought with it some changes at the top, which was particularly evident in the appointment of co-CEOs. Francesca Bellettini, the head of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, was named deputy CEO of Kering, as was Kering’s chief financial officer Jean-Marc Duplaix.
“We are building a more robust organization to take full advantage of the growth of the global luxury market,” Pinault said in July.
Gucci as the epitome of luxury?
With these words, Pinault not only defines the future of Kering, but also of Gucci in particular. It seems logical that the luxury conglomerate wants to fully exploit the growth of the global luxury market, but that is exactly where the problem lies, because although Gucci was once considered one of the industry’s biggest success stories, the label recently struggled under Michele to capitalize on the post-pandemic upswing to beat.
Under the leadership of Michele and Bizzarri, Gucci achieved arguably one of the most successful turnarounds in the history of the luxury industry from 2015 to 2019, driven by maximalist rebranding and nostalgia. The brand’s sales doubled to almost 10 billion euros during this period, while Gucci’s profits quadrupled – but with the pandemic this success story came to a halt and 2022 results fell short of expectations. The designer’s maximalist vision had seemingly reached its zenith.
Now there is a lot at stake for Kering – but especially for Gucci – because continuing to lag behind the competition, especially the French luxury goods group LVMH, is hardly a permanent situation for the company and so it is the chosen creative director De Sarno who is the one to give the Italian fashion house a new lease of life.
De Sarno: Gucci is the opportunity to fall in love with fashion again
Since Michele’s abrupt departure last November, Gucci has been kept running by an in-house design team. This practice is not uncommon and is often seen as a kind of fashionable transition before the arrival of a new creative director, especially if the latter is supposed to make an aesthetic U-turn – and there are plenty of indications of this.
De Sarno’s job is to “write the next chapter of Gucci, strengthening the fashion authority of the house while benefiting from its rich heritage,” said outgoing Gucci CEO Bizzarri at the end of January. At the same time, Pinault emphasized that under its new creative director, Gucci will “influence fashion and culture through desirable products and collections” and offer “a unique and contemporary vision of modern luxury.” Between the lines, when the new designer was announced, one could already read the desire for a more luxurious and timeless positioning after years of excess and extravagance under Michele.
The first steps in this direction have already been taken with the introduction of “salons” – exclusive boutiques for the super-rich of the brand’s clientele – as is also the case with traditional brands such as Chanel and Hermés. The brand’s Instagram account has also been stripped of Michele’s eccentricities, as well as his muses such as singer Harry Styles. What remained on social media was a message from De Sarno himself, because Gucci was “the opportunity to fall in love with fashion, ancora”. Ancora, a versatile Italian word that can mean both “continue” and “once again,” appears to be the designer’s first direct message to the industry and the brand’s disciples. However, it is now also up to him that fashion “ancora” falls in love with Gucci.
Who is Sabato De Sarno?
Similar to Michele, Gucci did not choose De Sarno as a media-effective name, but rather an industry insider. Now the designer, who grew up in Naples and was previously one of the quiet creators in the background, will step into the spotlight himself for the first time. His CV should not be ignored, because with positions at Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and most recently Valentino, where he was responsible for the creative direction of women’s and men’s clothing under creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, the fashion designer has already worked through three of the most renowned Italian fashion houses .
Under De Sarno, who will be responsible for the women’s, men’s, leather goods, accessories and lifestyle collections, Gucci will probably focus on a classic identity, but he doesn’t seem to be completely free of nostalgia either. The few insights he has given so far into his vision for Gucci are strongly reminiscent of the Gucci of the past, not the most recent one under Michele, but of the Tom Ford era. In an interview with Vogue Business, De Sarno reminisces about the first Gucci piece he ever owned – a dark red velvet jacket from the American designer with a black collar. His first jewelry campaign for the Italian fashion house was also reminiscent of Gucci in the early 2000s. The reason for this is, on the one hand, the return of top model Daria Werbowy, who is synonymous with Phoebe Philo’s Celine for many after numerous campaigns, but was still the face of the Florentine fashion house’s autumn/winter 2004 collection, but also the modern, high-gloss look of the photographer David Sims and the simple but unmistakable sensuality of the staging of the product – the first that De Sarno presented.
Some designers are artistic, others are technically skilled. De Sarno, unlike his predecessor Michele, belongs to the latter category, as Vogue Business reported. According to the industry magazine, the designer chose to study at the Istituto Secoli in Milan because the school was the most technically demanding and he wanted to learn practical skills. This knowledge eventually led to an internship at Prada, which in turn led to a full-time position at the company, where she was responsible for patterns for a while. Coats were highlighted in the designer’s profile, and the publication reveals that they will likely be featured on the runway as well. His Gucci debut is expected to begin with a coat that is minimalist in cut and construction, writes journalist Nicole Phelps, who visited De Sarno in his atelier, also promising the already prominent comeback of the brand’s Jackie bag, albeit in soft leather , “to make it more suitable for everyday use”, as well as the classic bamboo bag.
It’s a creative direction that, although not yet officially confirmed, would fit well into the intended vision of Gucci as a timeless luxury brand and so it’s reasonable to assume that it’s consumable luxury and timeless fashion that De Sarno is embracing in his Gucci debut will be served on Friday.