2024 A Year of Major Leadership Shake-ups: 5 Key Trends Defining the New Era of Luxury 2025 Part 2

Changes in Management Are Accompanied by Shifts in the Design Team

It’s clear that brands in urgent need of transformation to salvage declining performance are making more sweeping changes in their leadership. Along with changes in management, there is often a shift in the creative team.

For example, after Fendi announced Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou as its new CEO in May, it quickly followed up in October with the departure of Creative Director Kim Jones. It’s said that Angeloglou, having previously worked at L’Oréal Group, could signal a move for Fendi to explore more opportunities in the beauty sector.

Givenchy followed a similar pattern. After Alessandro Valenti was appointed CEO in July, the brand immediately announced Sarah Burton as the new Creative Director in September. Valenti’s appointment was an internal move within LVMH, where he previously served as President for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at Louis Vuitton.

It's worth noting that LVMH’s fashion division also saw changes this year. In January, the LVMH Fashion Group appointed the former CEO of Louis Vuitton as the new Chairman and CEO, replacing Sidney Toledano.

After Gucci’s management overhaul, the design team also saw fresh faces. Sabato De Sarno, the new Creative Director, appointed Ian Waller to manage men’s leather goods design, Giovanni Battista Orsi to oversee men’s collections and collaborations, and Michele Romano to manage the women’s design team.

Poaching Talent from Competitors Has Become the New Norm

The fashion and luxury industry has long been known for poaching executives from the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and tech sectors. For example, former Gucci CEO Robert Polet came from Unilever, LVMH’s former Chief Digital Officer Ian Rogers came from Apple, and LVMH Group Managing Director Antonio Belloni came from Procter & Gamble. These kinds of cases were abundant. However, in 2024, we’re seeing a new trend where luxury brands are increasingly poaching talent directly from competitors, particularly those with proven success.

On one hand, this highlights the impatience of fashion luxury companies under market instability, eager to quickly replicate success. On the other hand, it provides a great opportunity for talent to "jump ship" and seek better opportunities.

For instance, Burberry not only poached its CEO from Coach but also brought Jonathan Kiman, Gucci’s current Chief Marketing Officer, to take the same role at Burberry. Gucci, in turn, has poached many senior executives from LVMH, including Davide Buzzoni, who previously held the global public relations role at LVMH’s Loro Piana, and Stefano Cantino, who was LVMH’s PR head and is now Gucci’s new Deputy Managing Director.

The most eye-catching poaching recently occurred when Dior directly recruited Miu Miu’s CEO. Miu Miu, one of the few luxury brands still maintaining high growth, has drawn the attention of many industry competitors. In addition to poaching the Miu Miu CEO, Miu Miu’s design talent is also being targeted. It’s rumored that Miu Miu’s design head is leaving and could be recruited by another big company. Meanwhile, Prada also poached an executive from Dior, with their current CEO having previously been Dior’s President for the Americas.

Market Turbulence Accelerates Creative Director Turnover in Independent Designer Brands

2024 is also the year that saw a wave of independent designer brand founders leaving their namesake labels.

In March, Belgian designer Dries Van Noten announced that his Spring/Summer 2025 collection would be his final season at the helm of his own brand, after 38 years of leading it. Similarly, American-Chinese designer Phillip Lim announced that he would step down as Creative Director of his eponymous brand 3.1 Phillip Lim, with co-founder Zhou Xuanwen taking over.

As founders leave their namesake brands, more and more independent designer brands are facing leadership vacuums after both the Creative Directors and CEOs depart. In addition to these two designers, Peter Hawkings also left Tom Ford in July, after having held the Creative Director position for just one year.

In September, Glenn Martens, who had led Y/Project for 11 years, also announced his departure. Martens joined Y/Project in 2013 and developed the brand into a unique street style brand under his leadership.

Peter Do, who joined Helmut Lang in 2023 to much anticipation, also left the brand after just over a year, marking a rapid turnover in the avant-garde designer label.

5 Patterns Behind Personnel Changes: A New Era of Luxury Brands on the Horizon?

Compared to the frequent changes in creative directors in recent years, fashion luxury groups now realize that it’s the leadership in charge of guiding a brand or group’s commercial development that should undergo personnel reshuffling.

It is apparent that, during times of market turmoil, fashion luxury groups are more inclined toward a flexible and immediate personnel appointment strategy. They no longer strictly adhere to the so-called long-termism, and are even willing to pay the cost of breaking non-compete agreements to poach managerial talents. The era of "artisan craftsmanship" lasting for decades is fading.

Whether it’s a CEO or a creative head, in the face of the market, they have become professional managers who must deliver immediate benefits to the group.

Moreover, as market segmentation intensifies, luxury groups like LVMH are eager to secure steady growth for their first-tier brands, widening the gap between themselves and competitors. For example, they poached the CEO of Miu Miu to join Dior. But at the same time, LVMH is more urgently focused on accelerating the development of their second-tier brands, such as Fendi, Givenchy, and Celine. For LVMH, when first-tier brands like Louis Vuitton and Dior are seeing their growth trend temporarily peak, second-tier brands will become the new growth drivers.

Meanwhile, family influence continues to shape the entire luxury goods industry. Even the largest luxury group, LVMH, retains very clear family traits. The succession and competition for family power is influencing the group’s personnel appointments. This year, LVMH appointed Alexandre Arnault, Bernard Arnault’s second son, as the head of the Wine & Spirits division, and Frédéric Arnault, his third son, as the head of the Watch division. The Prada Group also hired veteran luxury industry executive Andrea Guerra as CEO to help his son, Lorenzo Bertelli, smoothly take over.

Though Chanel hired a professional manager, Leena Nair, from the fast-moving consumer goods industry to lead Chanel’s transformation, decision-making still remains firmly in the hands of the Wertheimer brothers, Gérard and Alain.

Especially during an economic downturn, the control of luxury goods groups by family forces becomes even more evident. However, looking at it from another angle, we’re surprised to see that luxury companies with deeper family penetration are often better able to navigate economic cycles and achieve counter-cyclical growth, such as Prada, Chanel, Hermès, and Zegna.

It’s clear that, under increasing family control, the freedom for managerial and creative talents to exert influence is continually shrinking. In fact, to some extent, some professional managers have become “training partners” for the family members’ succession path. This means that in luxury companies with highly concentrated power, executives and creative directors are merely tools to maximize the family’s asset interests.

One of the most noteworthy developments is that Bernard Arnault altered the shareholding structure of Financière Agache last year. The new structure allows the family to maintain control for the long term, with shares being non-transferable or saleable for the next 30 years unless all five children agree.

Similarly, Kering Group has been tightening family control over its brands. It’s worth noting that this company was once famous for giving its brands significant autonomy, but this model is now under question. According to The Wall Street Journal, Kering’s owner, Pinault, has been more deeply involved in every aspect of his brands’ strategies in recent times, including real estate investment, marketing, and product development. He wants to ensure that every action increases the brand's value.

In other words, for luxury groups controlled by family members, the interests of the family come first. Creativity and commercial development must serve the family’s interests, with each family applying its own set of rules and priorities. This raises another crucial issue: when a brand underperforms or faces significant management decisions that go wrong, luxury groups controlled strictly by family forces, like LVMH, Kering, and Prada, can have their performance failures blamed on professional managers and creative directors.

At the same time, these companies are publicly listed capitalized groups. When facing investor pressure and skepticism, their primary goal becomes how to quickly generate profits and secure the investors' “wallets.” In this case, rapidly changing the management team seems like a good response measure.

As former Gucci Group vice president Mimma Viglezio once said, Kering’s strategy over the past five years has been more focused on responding to existing market crises and issues rather than formulating long-term development strategies. This “short-sightedness” may be a root cause of some of the problems currently plaguing the luxury industry.