Take a Bow: Alessandro Michele Is Officially Leaving Gucci

After a near-eight-year stint at the Italian fashion house, it has been announced that Creative Director Alessandro Michele will be leaving Gucci. The news was confirmed by Gucci’s parent company Kering on Wednesday, and Michele took to Instagram shortly afterwards to release a statement.

Speaking on the decision, Michele said: “There are times when paths part ways because of the different perspectives each one of us may have. Today an extraordinary journey ends for me, lasting more than twenty years, within a company to which I have tirelessly dedicated all my love and creative passion. During this long period, Gucci has been my home, my adopted family.”

During his tenure, Michele managed to inject new life into the house, which played its own part in shaping the fashion landscape as we know it today. Having joined the Gucci family in the early 2000s designing accessories under the watchful eyes of Tom Ford and Frida Gianni, Michele went on to helm the fashion house in 2015. Over the course of his time there he presented countless critically acclaimed collections, and also helped mastermind a number of collaborations including the Gucci x Balenciaga Hacker Project, Gucci x adidas and several Gucci x The North Face collections; as well as collections with Gucci Ghost and Dapper Dan. He also managed to cultivate quite the Gucci family, with Billie Eilish, Jared Leto and Harry Styles all regularly representing the brand, and the latter even launching his own collaborative collection: Gucci HA HA HA.

However, all good things have to come to an end, and in a business as fickle as fashion, the ending can often come even when collections continue to look strong. According to sources at WWD, Gucci’s sales had begun to slip, and Michele was asked to initiate a “strong design shift” at the house. As other Kering businesses continue to grow, Michele’s departure calls into question the idea of who might succeed him, with Matthieu Blazy (Bottega Veneta) and Anthony Vaccarello (Yves Saint Laurent) having been mooted. Other names suggest Ricardo Tisci or Pheobe Philo, or perhaps even the return of Tom Ford, who recently sold his eponymous brand to Estée Lauder. In terms of Michele’s future, it's worth noting that there just so happens to be a spot open at rival conglomerate LVMH’s Louis Vuitton, which is still yet to confirm who will be taking over from the late Virgil Abloh.

This a developing story, so be sure to stay locked to The Sole Supplier for more as it comes in. In other news, Raf Simons has closed his eponymous brand after 27 years.