Creative director musical chairs: What’s going on in the world of fashion now?

At the fall couture 2024 collections recently, Chanel presented its best collection in five years. Elegantly styled, and severely edited of all its jangly and clumsy bits, the artisans of the couture atelier had prevailed: The capes swooped majestically, the bows swept back in triumph, and the beaded jackets marched resolutely on. Except that no designer took the bow at the top of the cold marble stairs. Virginie Viard, the creative director of Chanel, had left the building, just three weeks before the couture show, in a surprise announcement by the house confirming “the departure of Virginie Viard after a rich collaboration of five years as artistic director of fashion collections.”

The role remains vacant at Chanel.

In the same week, Dries Van Noten, bowed out with a beautiful last show, his men’s spring 2025 collection. It was a showing that capped 38 years of graceful, sensual, and cerebral fashion from his eponymous label. How Spanish luxury conglomerate Puig, which bought the brand from Van Noten in 2018, will bring the brand forward is now in question. How does one fill such enormous, specific, and creative shoes? How does one fill a role created by a once-in-an-epoch talent?

The short answer is: You can’t. Part of the problem that constitutes the vacancy at Chanel, is that it is a vacancy created when its lifetime creative director Karl Lagerfeld died at 85, in 2019. You could say that the iconic Lagerfeld, an absolute master of the metier, created the genre of the “designer as god” when he revived Chanel (founder Coco Chanel died in 1971) from its tweedy slumber in 1983, into the fashion behemoth that Viard lately – and briefly – inherited. Viard’s hasty and unexplained exit, prompting hotly swirling speculation, reflects how Lagerfeld can’t be so readily replaced. That fashion must plug these designer black holes, has come to signify one of the broader issues in fashion today.

Creative directors are spun on the fashion wheel for various reasons – death, or dismal sales, for instance – but in recent years, the cycle has spun faster. Seemingly every month, there is a new announcement about a designer leaving or joining a major brand.

In April 2024, Alessandro Michele succeeded Pierpaolo Piccioli as the creative director for Valentino; the latter left the brand after 25 years. The much-lauded Piccioli, who modernised Valentino with swooningly, sumptuously-coloured couture creations, is now without a platform. Hopefully, not for too long – can the fashion industry truly afford a great talent to lie fallow?

Michele, (he left Gucci in 2022, where he was the brand's creative director from 2015) was succeeded by Sabato De Sarno in 2023, with still uncertain success. Ironically, De Sarno, 41, had come to Gucci from Valentino, working under Piccioli, and before that at Prada. His four collections for Gucci so far were well-received by critics for his move from the magpie maximalism of his predecessor, and for blending contemporary cuts and traditional craftsmanship, meticulous tailoring and innovative fabric. But it remains to be seen how this quiet luxury aesthetics can last in a world addicted to noisy, clickbait fashion. As for Michele, he has already released a capsule collection for Valentino that strongly recalls his best work for Gucci. If you think flounces, frills, florals and fauna – in one floofy blouse – is too much, Michele has added rhinestones.

No one can think of Gucci without invoking Tom Ford. Ford is to Gucci what Lagerfeld was to Chanel. When Ford joined the dusty Gucci brand in 1990, he revitalised the Italian house, transforming it into a globally recognised luxury brand. His designs – sleek, sexy, and glamorous – significantly boosted Gucci’s sales and cultural relevance. Ford’s tenure ended in 2004 due to alleged disputes with the Gucci Group, creating one of those vacancies impossible to fill, because his enduring impact on Gucci’s identity and relevance.

Ford launched his eponymous label in 2005, and in 2022, sold his brand to Estee Lauder Companies, and stepped down from his own brand. Peter Hawkings succeeded Ford as creative director of the Tom Ford brand in 2023. Hawkings, who had been with Ford for 25 years, has presented two collections since, both praised for their reverent adherence to the brand’s ethos. But can Hawkings take the brand out of those time-bound parameters to greater heights?

Over at Alexander McQueen, the beloved Sarah Burton, stepped down as creative director after 13 years at the helm. She was hastily succeeded by Sean McGirr in the fall of 2023, who showed a wobbly debut collection last March. McGirr comes from overseeing the ready-to-wear operations at JW Anderson, and is a JW Anderson doppelganger, in person if not talent.

At Burberry, Daniel Lee, is the new creative director, having replaced Riccardo Tisci, in 2022. Throughout Tisci’s five years at this quintessentially English brand, it was felt that there was a sense of disconnect between his designs and the brand’s heritage. It was hoped that Lee, who came from just three years as creative director at Bottega Veneta, and was credited with revitalising the brand with modern, minimalist designs, and bestselling It bags, could do the same for Burberry. Alas, Lee’s collections at Burberry so far, have been somewhat lacklustre. We shall see, in the upcoming September shows if his Burberry will take hold – and will he come up with a prized purse.

After Lee left Bottega Veneta, Matthieu Blazy, took over the creative director role. Blazy, the French designer who cut his teeth working under Raf Simons, Martin Margiela and Phoebe Philo, is thriving at the brand, and has added fashion fizz back into the Milan fashion scene with his exciting exploration of traditional global handicrafts enriched with new technology and a romantic explorer’s vision of nomadic dress – think a palm leaf sandal, or Bottega Veneta’s signature weave – in raffia.

Quieter new appointments include Peter Copping, who joins Lanvin as creative director, a vacancy filled only one year after Bruno Sialelli left in 2023. Sialelli had struggled valiantly for four years to regain the success created by Lanvin’s late, longtime designer Alber Elbaz. Last month, Veronica Leoni was named the new creative director of Calvin Klein Collection, the line that shuttered in 2019 after Raf Simons exited the label. Leoni is an Italian designer (previously at Jil Sander, Moncler, The Row, and Celine) that is tasked with resurrecting the American fashion label.

And round and round the fashion carousel goes. This revolving door of talent has reshaped the fashion landscape, creating a sense of unpredictability and instability as this constant flux of designers also raises questions about the long-term impact on brand values and identities. As a measure, Karl Lagerfeld was the creative director of Chanel continuously from 1983 until his death in 2019, a total of 36 years. He was at Chanel longer than its founder, Coco Chanel was (she had founded Chanel in 1910, and was only active for less than 30 years including her post-war comeback). Lagerfeld had plenty of time to recreate house codes and burnish his own legend.