Gucci To Part Ways With Creative Director Sabato de Sarno

As the flagship of the Kering group prepares to publish its annual results on 11 February, this announcement marks a major change in the artistic direction of the Italian fashion house. The departure of the 40-year-old Italian, who took over as creative director after the departure of Alessandro Michele at the end of 2022, comes suddenly. ‘Gucci's creative studio will present the autumn-winter 2025 show on 25 February in Milan. The new artistic director will be announced in due course’, the house said in a statement.

By appointing Sabato de Sarno as artistic director in 2023, the Florentine fashion house had opted for a more ‘commercial’ aesthetic, breaking away from the exuberance and audacity of Michele's collections, hoping to boost sales. However, success was not to be, and despite the goodwill of the designer - who had cut his teeth at Valentino, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana - the house's results continued to fall: in the third quarter of 2024, its sales fell by 25% to €1.6 billion. The house, which alone accounts for 50% of Kering's sales, has finally become a thorn in the side of the group, bearing the full brunt of the difficulties in the Asian market, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Dragged down by the fall of Gucci, François-Henri Pinault's group also saw its sales fall by 15% in published figures for the third quarter of 2024.

‘I would like to express my deep gratitude to Sabato for his passion and dedication to Gucci. I sincerely appreciate the way in which he has paid tribute, with such commitment, to Gucci's craftsmanship and heritage,’ said Stefano Cantino, Gucci's Chief Executive Officer.
Sabato de Sarno has not had time to imbue the brand with a strong new identity in just two years and five collections. In recent years, Gucci has faced a problem of positioning itself in relation to a more international, younger, and more price-conscious clientele. Despite a number of strategic changes at the company, including the appointment of Stefano Cantino as CEO at the beginning of the year, Gucci's performance has fallen short of expectations.

What does the next artistic direction hold in store? Could the sobriety of Sabato de Sarno's style, which in the end did not correspond to the image built up by Gucci in recent years, once again make way for a more audacious creation? The news is not far off.