Who Was Fashion Without Its Designers? 2025 Tried to Find Out in the Year of the Shake Up
In 2025, every major fashion house seemed to ask, ‘Who are we without the person who dresses us?’—and then promptly changed the answer the next week. Creative leads were switched, and the industry wobbled like heels on cobblestones. The business reached a drastic turning point, unlike any other in fashion history, where nothing was the same again.
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What began as a mild tremor in 2024—Alessandro Michele exiting Gucci—became a full-scale tectonic shimmy the following year. His departure shocked the industry with an emotional force. The man’s fingerprints were so tightly wound into Gucci’s persona that his exit felt like a personality transplant. And then, in a twist, he marched straight into Valentino.
But that was only the overture to a dizzying ballet of appointments and departures. Pierpaolo Piccioli slipped into Balenciaga’s helm while Demna glided toward Gucci after Sabato de Sarno’s brief stint wrapped early. Their worlds behaved like a family that decided to swap bedrooms without warning the guests. As press releases multiplied, the public watched creative directors migrate across maisons as if carried by migrating birds who took every turn possible.
The mood of the year hovered somewhere between curiosity and exhaustion. You couldn’t tell whether fashion was reinventing itself or simply spinning a roulette wheel and hoping for coherence. But that’s the entertaining part: But that’s the entertaining part: chaos in couture tends to stride with confidence, even when it’s misplaced.
The Identity Paradox: Who Owns the House, the House or the Human?
The mass rotation forced fashion to confront a question it usually dodges with impressive athleticism: Is a heritage brand built on fixed codes, or is it a costume trunk that reinvents itself depending on who has the keys?
The confusion was real with Michele’s two houses—critics joked that Gucci and Valentino looked like long-lost identical twins. When creative directors carry their visual signatures from one house to another, the question becomes unavoidable: is the brand shaping the designer, or is the designer repainting the brand according to their own worldview? And in this business, perspective isn’t seasoning; it’s the entire recipe.
Jonathan Anderson’s move from LOEWE to Dior amplified anxiety. Taking over the terrain of Maria Grazia Chiuri—who now leads FENDI after its centennial—he introduced surrealist touches to the classics. Enough to prompt comparisons with his own label, JW Anderson. It was an exciting and welcome change to the storied house, especially if one is familiar with Christian Dior himself.
Elsewhere, houses recalibrated their own definitions of “womanhood”. Bottega Veneta placed its future in the hands of Louise Trotter, the only woman to debut a major collection for Spring/Summer 2026, and surprisingly, became a critical darling. Mugler under Miguel Castro Freitas softened its usual sexual ferocity into a more sophisticated palette, while Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez breathed fresh promise into LOEWE, reshaping the brand’s codes without fracturing them.
With so much seismic change, disappointment was inevitable. Jean Paul Gaultier’s appointment of Duran Lantink—the first permanent successor after years of guest collections—leaned the audience towards the negative side. In fairness, Gaultier has always thrived on calculated rebellion, and Lantink certainly delivered the provocation.
But the season’s uproarious triumph belonged to Matthieu Blazy at Chanel. His modern interpretation of the Chanel woman—fresh without erasing the icons—offered a rare balm in a year of tectonic shifts. It proved that a house can evolve without shedding its soul, provided someone at the helm knows how to read the room, the archives, and the future all at once.
The Price Tag Escalator
A reset year should, in theory, lead to introspection. Instead, it produced retail sticker shock.
As creative directors hopped between fashion houses, price tags sprinted ahead of them. Versace under Vitale became the prime example. The audience was up in arms, not out of malice, but because the numbers on the tags seemed to leap several tax brackets higher than anyone’s emotional preparedness.
Then, after only one season—polarizing at best, bewildering at worst—Vitale exited the house. Buyers weren’t ready to commit to pieces from a designer they were still trying to understand, especially when Donatella’s imprint lingered like a familiar perfume. She shaped Versace’s gaze for over thirty years, and Vitale became the first non-family figure to steer the ship. Expectations ballooned, and the sticker shock matched it.
By midyear, retail escalated into an extreme sport, as if the numbers themselves were testing whether the audience could keep pace.
Did the Reset Work? Depends on Who You Ask
Some houses found clarity. Others wandered the metaphorical corridors with the lights flickering. The audience filled in the gaps with speculation and memes because nothing galvanizes the public quite like a fashion house publicly redefining its personality, especially now, when personality, and not micro/macro trends, take precedence.
Fashion was in confrontation with its own mythology. Designers had to reassert their voices; brands had to decide whether to embrace their histories or fling themselves headfirst into reinvention. Sometimes the reinvention sparkled. Sometimes it limped. But at least it entertained.
There was something strangely poetic about watching beloved labels rewire themselves. The process lacked grace, but it produced an honesty that fashion rarely admits: heritage is fragile, loyalty is volatile, and reinvention demands risk.
For all its noise, 2025 functioned as a purge—a clearing of old narratives so new ones could find space to breathe. Houses held their breath, audiences held their receipts, and designers held their reputations like priceless ceramics.
It wasn’t harmonious, but it was necessary. Renewal rarely looks glamorous up close. Sometimes it looks like a frantic game of musical chairs orchestrated by boardrooms with very expensive taste.
Looking ahead, 2026 is sure to have its own share of fanfare and suspense. Meryll Rogge takes over Marni, Rachel Scott will hold the reins at Proenza Schouler, Grace Wales Bonner will imprint her vision on Hermès Men’s, and wild card Kim Jones looks to the luxury Chinese market with Bosideg’s sub-brand AREAL; Demna, already having presented two collections, will also have his runway debut for Gucci. On the other hand, these renowned creatives remain available: Hedi Slimane, John Galliano, Luke and Lucie Meier, Francesco Risso, Véronique Nichanian, and most recently, Olivier Rousteing.
Fashion emerged with a sharper sense of who controls the storytelling. The old guards passed their crowns; the new ones discovered how heavy the gold can be. And if they can’t handle the weight, then just leave it where it belongs.
Photos: CHANEL, GUCCI, VALENTINO, BALENCIAGA, MUGLER, CELINE, MARGIELA, VERSACE, JEAN PAUL GAULTIER, LOEWE, and GETTY IMAGES
The post Who Was Fashion Without Its Designers? 2025 Tried to Find Out in the Year of the Shake Up first appeared on MEGA.
Who Was Fashion Without Its Designers? 2025 Tried to Find Out in the Year of the Shake Up
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