Luxury Italian brand, Gucci, has appointed Alessandro Michele as its new Creative Director following the arrival of a new CEO for the house, Marco Bizzarri, at the beginning of this month.

 

The new duo replace former Gucci CEO, Patrizio di Marco, and Creative Director, Frida Giannini [who departs at the end of next month] after long tenures of six and almost nine years respectively.

Gucci, the mainstay of parent Kering Group’s luxury division, has been struggling to perform in 2014. In the three months to September, Gucci’s sales slipped by -1.6% to €851m ($983.5m) against the positive growth trend of the division as a whole which was up +3.7% to €1,677m. Leading that charge were Saint Laurent, up +27.6%, and Bottega Veneta, up +10.4%.

Kering says that Gucci had seen “exacerbated market headwinds” in Q3 last year and, while a brand elevation strategy has seen some success in North America and Japan, Western Europe was impacted by weaker tourism flows in certain countries.

TOTAL CREATIVE CONTROL

Michele, like his predecessor, will have total creative responsibility for all of Gucci’s collections and its brand image. His first collection in the new role [he was formerly Associate to Giannini] will be for women’s ready-to-wear for Autumn/Winter 2015-16 to be presented on 25 February, in Milan.

Gucci CEO Bizzarri comments: “Alessandro and I are fully aligned on the new contemporary vision needed by the brand and we will be continuously inspired by that new identity in our respective roles and duties.”

Bizzarri – who will support Gucci’s brand elevation strategy and strengthen its international growth – joined Kering in 2005 as CEO of Stella McCartney and was appointed CEO of Bottega Veneta in January 2009 where, during his tenure, sales and profit of the house increased dramatically.

Since April 2014, he has been the CEO of Kering’s Luxury – Couture & Leather Goods division. Bizzarri reports directly to François-Henri Pinault, Chairman and CEO of Kering, who says: “I am fully confident that Marco will build on Gucci’s extraordinary legacy to have the 93-year-old house enter a new momentum and continue to write bright chapters of its exceptional history.”