Why Are Fashion Houses so Slow to Hire Creative Directors?
On October 2, CELINE did something incredible. I'm not talking about how it hired Michael Rider, creative director Polo Ralph Lauren, to replace outgoing creative director Hedi Slimane mere days after Slimane's Spring/Summer 2025 runway show. I'm talking about how quickly it announced Rider.
Slimane was confirmed to be exiting CELINE a little before 7 a.m. EDT. Before 10 a.m., Rider was announced as Slimane's successor.
This is unprecedented. And entirely welcome.
A handful of high-profile luxury label turnovers have gone down over the past year, including Alessandro Michele joining Valentino, Sarah Burton replacing Matthew Williams at Givenchy, and Peter Copping taking over Lanvin.
And the majority of them took an agonizingly long time to resolve.
Michele's new gig was the swiftest of them all, announced a mere three months after former creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli stepped down. But Burton wasn't assigned to Givenchy for six whole months after Williams departed and Chanel's throne has been vacant since Virginie Viard left in June (though Slimane may be about to plug that leak).
Meanwhile, Lanvin took a full year to select Copping and, perhaps most memorably, Louis Vuitton spent nearly two years deliberating on Virgil Abloh's successor before landing on Pharrell (which, to be fair, was prompted by an unexpectedly abrupt tragedy).
Not all creative directors are hired with such painful patience. Simone Bellotti took over Rhuigi's position at Bally in mere weeks and Seán McGirr filled Burton's seat at Alexander McQueen within 30 days.
But the trend of larger fashion establishments patiently picking out new design heads has become an unpleasant trend, leaving awkward gaps in seasonal collections that must be filled by valiant in-house design teams.
These teams are obviously talented — they're responsible for the bulk of the heavy lifting, with or without a creative director — but a creative director is responsible for ensuring a distinct, recognizable vision.
Creative directors are to fashion houses as directors are to movies. Can they function without? Of course. But someone has to lead.
At labels as established as Chanel and Louis Vuitton, the lack of a recognizable perspective quickly becomes clear.
Further, it's an extra strain on the design team, which already has its hands full in actually creating the collections, let alone dreaming them up.
And while it might draw some buzz to briefly delay the process of hiring a creative director, the recent lengthier waits feel more exhausting than exciting.
There are mitigating factors to consider. Some creative directors make sudden departures that leaves their prior employer without time to sub in fresh talent. And it's logical that executives might want to take time to find the correct candidate given creative directors' import.
Still, CELINE's super-fast switcheroo, which appears to have been in the works since Rider left Ralph Lauren in April, feels terrifically purposeful. And exactly how things ought to be.
