(Paris) Alessandro Michele leaves Gucci, after seven years as creative director during which he “greatly contributed to making Gucci what it is today”, but without succeeding in recent years in boosting sales with the same vigor as its competitors.
“There are times when paths diverge due to the different perspectives that each of us may have,” said Alessandro Michele in a statement from the Kering Group, owner of the Italian brand which alone accounts for 55% of 17.6 billion euros in group sales posted in 2021.
“Today ends for me an extraordinary journey that lasted more than twenty years,” he continued. “Gucci has been my home, my adoptive family”.
“His passion, his imagination, his fantasy and his culture have contributed to putting Gucci back on the front of the stage, where it belongs”, greeted the CEO of the luxury group, François-Henri Pinault.
No replacement has been announced, and Gucci’s design studio will “continue to assume creative responsibility for the House until a new organization is announced. »
Alessandro Michele, who will turn 50 on Friday, succeeded Frida Giannini in 2015 when he had already worked for the brand for 12 years.
“A risk-taking at the time, since he was completely unknown,” Serge Carreira, lecturer at Sciences Po Paris in the Fashion and Luxury Master’s, told AFP. For him, Alessando Michele “has embodied the new chapter of the Gucci house, engaging on societal issues, inscribing the brand in its time. He revived the heritage of the house by giving it a modernity”. His departure is a “surprise”.
During the Spring-Summer 2023 show in Milan, Alessandro Michele was still amazed when, at the end of the presentation of 68 models, a wall had risen in the center of the catwalk revealing that another audience had watched the same spectacle of the other side…on identical twins. Or by displaying anti-extreme right slogans on certain outfits in a fashion show which took place on the eve of the election of Giorgia Meloni’s party in Italy.
After a jump in sales between 2015 and 2019, Gucci has stalled compared to competitors, slowed down in particular by COVID-19 and its heavy dependence on the Asian market (44%).
“Observers consider that after a thunderous start and fairly rapid growth, we are reaching a leveling effect which can create a feeling of impatience with the need for a new impetus”, analyzes Serge Carreira, recalling that Gucci “is one of the three, four biggest brands in the luxury industry”.
“The brand is not in crisis”
Wednesday morning, after the announcement of the departure of Alessandro Micheleque by the site specializing in the world of luxury Women’s Wear Dailyciting anonymous sources, financial analysts did not hide their satisfaction.
“Very good news”, underlined a note from Bernstein: “Gucci suffers from brand fatigue and Alessandro Michele has been doing the same for seven years”. According to RBC bank, “institutional investors seem to agree that a new approach is needed to relaunch the brand”.
Questioned by financial analysts, the financial director of Kering, Jean-Marc Duplaix, had defended himself in October. “You know that in luxury what you have to consider is the long term […] In recent years, the growth of the Gucci brand has been very consistent with that of our main competitors, regardless of the outperformance of these competitors over the past two, three years,” he said.
In 2021, Gucci achieved a turnover increase of 31.2% compared to 2020, against an increase of 41% for Prada and 49.6% for Chanel. LVMH does not communicate on its brands, but sales of its fashion and leather goods section (largely dominated by Louis Vuitton) rose by 47%.
Serge Carreira nuance: “its growth is weaker than that of its competitors, but it is not a drop in turnover. The brand is not in crisis”.