Who's Where: Your Creative Director Cheat Sheet for 2025

The Citizen

10 months ago

It may be a brand new year for fashion, but the industry’s latest game of creative director musical chairs won’t be left in 2024.

Last year began with Moschino tapping Adrian Appiolaza as its new creative director, Alessandro Michele arriving at Valentino and Dries Van Noten announcing his departure from his eponymous brand. The door kept revolving throughout 2024, culminating in a series of high-profile December announcements, with John Galliano leaving Maison Margiela, Michael Rider replacing Hedi Slimane at Celine, Matthieu Blazy heading to Chanel and Louise Trotter taking the reins at Bottega Veneta.

And yet there are still plenty of yet-to-be-announced hires to anticipate in 2025. Last year’s shuffling has left multiple luxury labels without creative directors, including (at press time): Maison Margiela, Fendi, Helmut Lang, Carven and 3.1 Phillip Lim.

There are also several high-profile designers without high-profile jobs, including Galliano, Slimane, Pierpaolo Piccioli (rumored to be Fendi-bound), Virginie Viard and Lim. Others are down one job but remain employed: Kim Jones exited Fendi but remains at Dior Homme; Glenn Martens left Y/Project but remains at Diesel; and Peter Do left Helmut Lang but still has his namesake label.

Since keeping track of all these comings and goings is a full-time job, we’ve compiled a guide to who’s where in 2025 (including when new hires will make their runway debuts). We’ll continuously update this creative director cheat sheet as announcements are made — keep scrolling to see who has creative control at each house.

Alberta Ferretti

In September 2024, The Aeffe Group appointed Lorenzo Serafini as the brand’s creative director following Alberta Ferretti‘s exit from her eponymous label the month prior. Serafini — who has helmed his namesake label Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini since 2014 — will present his debut collection for Alberta Ferretti in February for Fall 2025.

Blumarine

Following Walter Chiapponi‘s exit in March 2024 (after only one season), Blumarine brought on David Koma as the new creative director in July. His first collection debuted for Pre-Fall 2025. His designs also debuted on the red carpet at the 2024 Fashion Awards, where he dressed stars like Ashley Graham and Lily McMenamy.

Bottega Veneta

Louise Trotter is replacing Matthieu Blazy as Bottega Veneta’s creative director starting at the end of January 2025. Since 2023, Trotter helmed the Parisian luxury label Carven (which has not yet named her successor). Her appointment as Bottega Veneta’s creative director makes her the only woman running a Kering-owned brand. The timing of her debut collection for the Italian luxury brand has yet to be announced.

Bulgari

Bulgari appointed Mary Katrantzou as its first-ever creative director of leather goods and accessories in April 2024. She previously designed a capsule collection of leather handbags and jeweled minaudières for Bulgari in 2021, and her first pieces as creative director arrived in the LVMH-owned brand’s stores in August of 2024.

Calvin Klein Collection

Following Calvin Klein‘s revival of its Collection, Veronica Leoni is taking the reins as the label’s creative director. Calvin Klein Collection was put on pause after Raf Simons left the brand at the end of 2018. Leoni most recently served as The Row‘s design director and was a 2023 LVMH Prize finalist with her brand Quira. She will make her Calvin Klein debut with Fall 2025 at New York Fashion Week on Feb. 7.

Celine

Following Hedi Slimane’s exit from Celine in October, Michael Rider is returning to the French fashion house as artistic director. Rider previously worked at Celine under Phoebe Philo (who served as creative director from 2008-2017) as the brand’s ready-to-wear design director from 2008 to 2018. He was more recently creative director of Polo Ralph Lauren women’s. Rider’s appointment as Celine’s artistic director goes into effect in early 2025.

Chanel

Virginie Viard shocked the industry in June 2024 when she abruptly departed Chanel after five years as creative director and nearly 30 years at the company. Her successor wasn’t announced until six months later, when Matthieu Blazy was officially named Chanel’s new artistic director of fashion activities. Blazy most recently held the top spot at Bottega Veneta, and his resume also includes design positions with Raf Simons, Maison Margiela Artisanal, Celine and Calvin Klein. He will make his Chanel runway debut in October of 2025 during Paris Fashion Week.

Dries Van Noten

After months of wondering who would replace its namesake founder as creative director, Dries Van Noten finally announced in December 2024 that it had promoted someone from within: Julian Klausner, who has been with the house (working alongside its founder) since 2018, will present his first women’s runway collection as creative director on March 5.

Gap Inc.

Zac Posen is Gap Inc.‘s newest creative director as well as Old Navy‘s chief creative officer. He succeeds Len Peltier, who exited in August of 2023. With more than 25 years of design experience and a talent for creating red carpet gowns, Posen founded an eponymous line (which later closed in 2019) and served as creative director of womenswear for Brooks Brothers. In December, Posen and his design team introduced GapStudio, a line offering “elevated pieces” available in stores and online in Spring 2025.

Givenchy

Sarah Burton announced her departure from Alexander McQueen — after 26 years at the house, including more than 10 as creative director — back in September of 2023. (Seán McGirr is now at the helm.) It wasn’t until one year later that her next gig was announced: She succeeds Matthew Williams as the new creative director at Givenchy (where McQueen, her late mentor, also once worked), and will present her first collection for the LVMH-owned house in March 2025.

Lanvin

Coming from Balenciaga as its former head of couture, Peter Copping is Lanvin‘s new artistic director. The British designer — who also held positions at Louis Vuitton, Nina Ricci and Oscar de la Renta — replaced Bruno Sialelli. Copping began overseeing Lanvin’s womenswear and menswear in September 2024, and he will make his debut for the brand in January 2025 with a co-ed show in Paris.

Moschino

Early in 2024, Adrian Appiolaza was named Moschino’s creative director. He replaced the late Davide Renne, who was appointed following Jeremy Scott‘s exit in 2023 and unexpectedly died just days after starting the job. Appiolaza most recently worked under Jonathan Anderson at Loewe as the design director of women’s ready-to-wear. He debuted his first collection for Moschino in February 2024 during Milan Fashion Week.

New Era Cap

New Era Cap named Dao-Yi Chow as its creative director and vice president in May 2024. Chow oversees the design, merchandising and marketing of the brand’s apparel line Brand New Era, which launched Chow’s first collection called “Inaugural Season” in three capsules in September. Chow previously served as creative director for Sean John and co-creative director at DKNY. He also co-founded Public School with Maxwell Osborne, which won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and the Woolmark Prize.

Sergio Rossi

Italian luxury footwear brand Sergio Rossi tapped Paul Andrew as its new creative director. The British designer held the creative director position at Ferragamo from 2019 until 2021, and previously worked at Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Narciso Rodriguez and Alexander McQueen. Andrew’s debut Sergio Rossi collection will be for the Fall 2025 season.

Tomboyx

Designer Willie Norris is Tomboyx‘s first-ever chief creative director. Norris joins the intimates brand from Outlier, where she was the design director, as well as her own eponymous label. Norris plans to introduce the Tomboyx Futures Initiative, which will feature new designs inspired by her personal apparel desires.

Tom Ford

Last summer, Peter Hawkings exited Tom Ford just over a year after his appointment to the top creative role. In September, the Estée Lauder-owned brand hired Haider Ackermann (who is also the current creative director of Canada Goose) for the position. Ackermann previously worked for Maison Ullens, Fila and Jean Paul Gaultier, in addition to operating a namesake line. Ackermann’s first collection for Tom Ford will be for the Fall 2025 season set to show during Paris Fashion Week in March.

Uniqlo

Following her success with elevated sub-label Uniqlo: C, Clare Waight Keller joined the Japanese retailer as its creative director in September. Waight Keller built up her fashion resume as Chloé‘s artistic director and Givenchy‘s first female artistic director of haute couture and ready-to-wear. The British designer will oversee all of the brand’s main collections in addition to Uniqlo: C.

Valentino

Plenty of rumors swirled as to where Alessandro Michele would land after leaving Gucci in 2022, and we finally got our answer in March of 2024 when Valentino named the Italian designer as its creative director. Michele succeeded Pierpaolo Piccioli, who unexpectedly departed after more than 20 years with the luxury brand. Michele debuted a surprise Resort 2025 collection for Valentino that included 171 looks in June, and later showed his Spring 2025 collection on the Paris Fashion Week runway in September.

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Source: Fashionista.com