Breaking News: Demna Takes Gucci, Versace Enters a New Creative Chapter

The Business of Fashion Podcast

The Business of Fashion

Fashion & Beauty, Business, Arts

4.6 • 770 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Demna's move to Gucci, announced after weeks of feverish speculation, stunned industry observers and sent shockwaves through financial markets, with Kering shares dropping sharply by more than 12%. While some hail this as an opportunity for Demna to reinvent Gucci through his distinctive cultural lens, others question his ability to break free from his Balenciaga legacy.. BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed posits, “The really big question here is, can Demna do something different?”

Meanwhile, Donatella Versace’s transition from Chief Creative Officer to Chief Brand Ambassador marks the end of a storied era and the beginning of a new chapter under Dario Vitale. Highlighting Donatella’s cultural impact, BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks notes, “Versace was one of the few names that registered with people who didn't know anything about fashion.”

Fresh off a stellar tenure at Miu Miu, where he helped to ignite record growth, Vitale faces the ambitious task of balancing Versace's iconic legacy with a renewed contemporary relevance. With whispers of potential acquisition by Prada Group swirling, Versace stands at the precipice of transformation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the Business of Fashion.
0:08.1	Welcome to a special breaking news episode of the BOF podcast.
0:13.3	It's Friday, March 14th.
0:15.8	Yesterday, news broke that the disruptive designer Demna has been named as artistic director of Gucci,
0:23.1	bringing him to the creative helm of Carring's most important fashion brand,
0:27.3	a brand that drives more than half of revenues and two-thirds of profits for the French luxury group.
0:34.4	So Demna is going from a single-digit billion-dollar business to a double-digit
0:40.7	billion-dollar business. You feel the smaller business is, in a funny way, less constraining than the
0:46.1	big business. Meanwhile, Donatella Versace is stepping down as chief creative officer of Versace,
0:53.5	making room for Dario Vitale, formerly of
0:56.3	Mew, to take the creative lead. With so much breaking news and so much change happening in fashion,
1:03.3	it felt like a good time for Tim Blanks and I to catch up on what it means and what to expect.
1:08.4	So here's Tim Blanks on a very special breaking news episode of the
1:13.6	B-O-F podcast. Tim, thank you for taking time to join me to discuss some breaking news in the
1:24.0	industry this week. Yesterday, we're recording this on Friday, the 14th of March at 10 a.m.
1:29.8	London time. Yesterday was quite a monumental day, another monumental day in breaking fashion news with the
1:38.1	announcement that not only is Donatella Versace stepping down as chief creative officer at her brand, Versace,
1:47.2	but also perhaps the even more surprising news that Demna has been appointed the new
1:54.2	creative director of Gucci. I thought given the importance of this news, that it would be good
2:00.7	to chat through with you, your reactions.
2:03.4	Just as a bit of context, the Demna Gucci news was broken last night after the French markets closed.
2:16.0	And the reaction this morning from the markets has not been great.
	...

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