Alessandro Michele to leave Gucci
The designer changed the way we think about fashion, luxury and creativity.
Alessandro Michele is exiting Gucci after nearly eight years as creative director, it was confirmed today.
Speculation from unnamed sources about his departure was reported in fashion business publication Women’s Wear Daily on Tuesday.
Michele was appointed to the role by Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri in 2015 as a relatively obscure hire plucked from the accessories department where he had worked under Tom Ford since 2002.
Michele’s magpie instincts, unabashed romance and exuberant maximalism is credited with changing Gucci’s fortunes, and moving the needle on fashion. His vast and eclectic collections fostered conversations around inclusivity, philosophy, art and history. His work unpicked ideas around ‘androgyny’ in fashion, mixing codes of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ and expressions of gender fluidity.
His first collection was pulled together in just five days and debuted his first hit, the kangaroo fur-lined mules. His final show in Milan in September made waves with its casting of 68 sets of identical twins.
In 2021 Gucci, considered Kering’s marquee brand, earned nearly 10 billion Euros in revenue.
Michele’s arrival into the creative director role coincided with the trend toward fantastical shows in far-flung places with Gucci hosting cruise collections in Westminster Abbey in London and the Capitoline Museum in Rome, among others.
His first live show post-pandemic, Gucci Love Parade, shut down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles in November 2021.
Michele found ardent fans among the likes of actor Jared Leto, Rihanna, Billie Eilish, Dakota Johnson and particularly Harry Styles, one of many artists Michele collaborated with throughout his tenure. Styles’ collaboration with Michele, Ha Ha Ha, has just launched.
In a statement Bizzarri thanked Michele for his service to Gucci.
“I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet Alessandro at the end of 2014, since then we have had the pleasure to work closely together as Gucci has charted its successful path over these last eight years. I would like to thank him for his 20 years of commitment to Gucci and for his vision, devotion, and unconditional love for this unique House during his tenure as Creative Director.”
In an Instagram post Michele thanked Gucci, “his adopted family,” and urged his followers to remain faithful to their values and passions.
“There are times when paths part ways because of the different perspectives each one of us may have. Today an extraordinary journey ends for me, lasting more than twenty years, within a company to which I have tirelessly dedicated all my love and creative passion. During this long period Gucci has been my home, my adopted family. To this extended family, to all the individuals, who have looked after and supported it, I send my most sincere thanks, my biggest and most heartfelt embrace. Together with them I have wished, dreamed, imagined. Without them, none of what I have built would have been possible. To them goes my most sincerest wish: may you continue to cultivate your dreams, the subtle and intangible matter that makes life worth living. May you continue to nourish yourselves with poetic and inclusive imagery, remaining faithful to your values. May you always live by your passions, propelled by the wind of freedom.”
Michele’s departure comes amid a renewed round of fashion house musical chairs. Earlier this week Raf Simons, also co-creative director of Prada, announced the closure of his influential eponymous label after 27 years. Earlier this month Tom Ford, who is also credited with turning Gucci into a powerhouse, sold his namesake label to Estée Lauder, while in September Riccardo Tisci stepped down from Burberry after his postponed fashion show finally went ahead. Daniel Lee, the former creative director of Bottega Veneta, was announced as his replacement.
Earlier this month Gucci Garden Archetypes, an immersive exhibition of Alessandro Michele’s campaigns for the fashion house opened at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum.
In a media preview of the exhibition, in what may have been his final press conference as creative director, Michele spoke of his affinity for collecting objects in his work.
“[T]he idea of living, collecting and accumulating objects, and that campaign, was designed because I have a special relationship to objects and I think that my work also means having a relationship to the physical objects surrounding us”.
Of his inspiration and creativity he said, “Creativity is like air, like gas—it’s difficult to describe. It is, of course, an immersive process.”
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