As the ongoing luxury slowdown continues, luxury brands are continuing to shake up their creative and executive leadership in hopes of finding some way out of the spiral of declining sales.
The latest brand to replace its top creative role is Fendi. The brand announced on Friday afternoon that Kim Jones is stepping down from the brand after a four-year run as its artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women. A joint statement from Jones and Fendi said his work “reinvented [Fendi’s] ready-to-wear and couture collections, offering an inclusive and innovative approach to fashion that constantly renewed Fendi’s Italian codes.”
Jones joins several luxury creative directors and executives who have left their brands in recent months. In the last two weeks, Hedi Slimane was replaced at Celine by Michael Rider and Stefano Cantino took over as the new CEO of Gucci. Zooming out further, Burberry, Mulberry, Alberta Ferretti, Chanel, Missoni, Dries van Noten, Balmain, Selfridges and Victoria Beckham have all lost or replaced creative directors or CEOs in the last six months. Some of those brands, most notably Chanel, are still without a new creative director.
What’s driving this ongoing upheaval? Luxury experts told Glossy it’s because brand leaders are contending with the ongoing industry slowdown and looking for ways to shake their companies out of the funk that has affected the rest of the sector. Gucci, which makes up more than a third of parent company Kering, for example, has seen its sales sharply decline. In the second quarter of the year, Gucci’s sales fell nearly 20%, significantly eating into Kering’s profits. Even the mighty LVMH saw its sales drop in its most recent earnings report.
“[The leadership turnover] is a response to the macro,” said Ian Schatzberg, founder of the creative brand agency General Idea which has worked with major luxury brands like Prada and Louis Vuitton. “Luxury was on a huge uptick the past couple of years. Now that has cooled. There’s a softening of the appetite for luxury in markets like China, so we’re seeing luxury brands reconfigure themselves to prepare for whatever comes next.”
That sentiment was echoed by Nguyen Tran, founder and CEO of luxury brand Le Reussi.
“The luxury market has been grappling with declining sales over the last year, a trend many brands have been forced to address,” Tran said. “Leadership changes reflect these concerns. Brands are looking for fresh ideas and strategies to revitalize growth, as staying the same is simply not an option in this competitive space.”
Some in the luxury industry believe we’re currently at the bottom point for luxury brands. Breitling CEO Georges Kern said he believes a slowdown in China is the primary culprit in luxury’s slump, which he expects will bounce back soon. China made up about 16% of all luxury spending last year, and the slowed growth of its economy has made luxury investors nervous about the sector’s ability to recover quickly.
“The sector has always shown resilience during tough economic times because demand among high-net-worth individuals tends to remain strong,” said David Miskin, a branding expert who has consulted numerous brands across the luxury sector. “We’re experiencing a temporary dip, not a long-term decline.”
One clear trend in the luxury leadership shakeup is the move toward a more timeless style. Hedi Slimane, known for his bold and edgy takes on womenswear, was replaced at Celine by Michael Rider, a designer with a more traditional background. The same has happened at Gucci, where Alessandro Michele’s maximalist style gave way to Sabato de Sarna’s more subdued looks.
“The pendulum is swinging back toward timelessness,” Schatzberg said. “In exuberant times, people embrace timelier styles. But we are not in exuberant times.”
