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This week, fashion’s biggest headlines covered runway shows, financial reports, retrospective exhibitions and heartfelt farewells to designers at top fashion brands.
Leading the list, Pierpaolo Piccioli shocked the fashion world on Friday, announcing his exit from Valentino after 25 years at the brand’s helm. Earlier in the week, Dries Van Noten similarly saddened fashion fans, revealing that his final collection for his namesake brand would walk the runway in Paris this June.
Elsewhere, Ralph Lauren announced that he would stage a Fall/Holiday 2024 runway show in New York next month; Kering’s shares plummeted after warning that Gucci sales would fall 20% in Q1 2024, and LOEWE opened its Crafted World retrospective at the Shanghai Exhibition Centre.
Below, Hypebeast has rounded up the top fashion stories of the week so you can stay up to date on trends in the industry.
Pierpaolo Piccioli Exited Valentino
Pierpaolo Piccioli announced his departure from Valentino on Friday, after serving as the Italian fashion house’s creative director for 25 years.
Piccioli offered the following statement to WWD: “Not all stories have a beginning or an end, some live a kind of eternal present that shines so bright that it won’t produce any shadows. I’ve been in this company for 25 years, and for 25 years I’ve existed and I’ve lived with the people who have woven the weaves of this beautiful story that is mine and ours.”
He continued, “Everything existed and exists thanks to the people I met, with whom I worked, with whom I shared dreams and created beauty, with whom I built something that belongs to all, and that remains immutable and tangible. This heritage of love, dreams, beauty and humanity, I carry it with me, today and forever.”
Read more here.
Ralph Lauren To Stage Fall/Holiday 2024 Show in New York Next Month
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Ralph Lauren will present his Fall/Holiday 2024 collection with a runway show in New York City next month, according to WWD.
The event will take place on April 29 at a location that has not yet been announced. Per the outlet’s sources, the show will be “small and intimate and will reference the city in which the designer still finds much of his inspiration.”
Lauren’s most recent U.S. fashion show took place in September of last year at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where the designer transformed a warehouse into an artist’s loft for his Spring/Summer 2024 collection. The show marked Lauren’s grand return to NYFW, after he had not shown on the official calendar since September 2019.
Kering Shares Fell After Warning Gucci Sales Will Plunge 20% in Q1 2024
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French luxury conglomerate Kering’s shares dropped 14% on Tuesday, after the company revealed that Gucci sales are set to fall 20% year-to-year in the first quarter of 2024, according to Bloomberg.
“In a first half that Kering expected to be challenging, current trends lead the Group to estimate that its consolidated revenue in the first quarter of 2024 should decline by approximately 10% on a comparable basis, from last year’s first quarter,” Kering wrote in a statement. “This performance primarily reflects a steeper sales drop at Gucci, notably in the Asia-Pacific region. Gucci comparable revenues in the first quarter are expected to be down by nearly 20% year on year.”
The warning slumped Kering’s market capitalization by approximately €7.9 billion EUR ($8.6 billion USD) in early session trading, negatively affecting the stock prices of neighboring luxury companies, including LVMH and Hermes, per Reuters.
Kering will release its Q1 2024 financial report on April 23.
Dries Van Noten Stepped Down From His Eponymous Label
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After 38 years at the helm of his namesake brand, Dries Van Noten announced on Tuesday that he was officially stepping down as creative director. The designer will exit the brand in June, after taking his final bow on his Spring/Summer 2025 runway in Paris.
“In due time, we will announce the designer who will continue the story,” the designer said to WWD. “I have been preparing for this moment for a while, and I feel it’s time to leave room for a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the brand. [The next Dries Van Noten women’s collection] will be made by my studio team with whom I have been working very closely during all these years. I have full confidence that they will do a great job.”
Hermès Facing Class-Action Lawsuit Over Birkin Sales Model
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On Tuesday, two California shoppers filed a class-action lawsuit against Hermès, alleging that the French luxury label’s Birkin buying practice is “unfair.”
In the anti-trust suit, plaintiffs Tina Cavalleri and Mark Glinoga allege that Hermès unlawfully requires customers to purchase ancillary products before offering them the opportunity to purchase a Birkin bag, in an illegal practice known as “tying.”
“The tying product, the Birkin Handbags, is separate and distinct from the tied products, the ancillary products required to be purchased by consumers,” the suit reads. “Plaintiffs have alternative options for the ancillary products and would prefer to choose among them independently from their decision to purchase Birkin handbags.”
Learn more about the details of the lawsuit here.
Jean Paul Gaultier’s Next Guest Couturier Will Be Courrèges Designer Nicolas Di Felice
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Jean Paul Gaultier named Courrèges designer Nicolas Di Felice its next guest couturier.
Di Felice, who has injected new life into Courrèges since becoming creative director in 2020, will become Gaultier’s seventh guest couturier, following Simone Rocha, Rabanne’s Julien Dossena, Haider Ackermann, Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing, Y/Project and Diesel’s Glenn Martens, and Sacai’s Chitose Abe.
“I find Nicolas to be bold and creative from the beginning of his career,” Gaultier told WWD. “Choosing him aligns perfectly with the idea of seeing what a designer can bring to my style.”
“I am grateful to get the chance to work with this legendary couture atelier and I cannot wait to dig into the archives,” Di Felice told the outlet. “Even if I work on some more exceptional pieces for my own show, I mostly try to focus on a certain practicality and wearability at Courrèges, so it’s quite exciting for me to let that go for a bit.”
LOEWE Opened Its Crafted World Retrospective at Shanghai Exhibition Centre
Loewe
Spanish luxury fashion house LOEWE has touched down in China, with a playful retrospective inside the Shanghai Exhibition Centre, titled Crafted World. Open from March 22 through May 5, the brand’s first major showcase chronicles the House’s 178 years in business through six chapters, curated by creative director Jonathan Anderson.
With set design from OMA, the exhibition offers a centuries-spanning look at LOEWE’s best work. The brand’s artifacts, like its 20th-century iron tools and a visitor book featuring Ernest Hemingway’s signature, are shown next to more contemporary feats, like Rihanna‘s custom red suit for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show and the trompe-l’oeil bodysuit Beyoncé wore during her Renaissance tour.
Explore the full exhibition here.
SKIMS Revealed Men’s All-Star Campaign for March Madness
Skims
After dropping off its first made-for-TV commercial, Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS returned this week with a men’s March All-Star campaign, starring six college basketball players set to shake the court during the NCAA basketball tournament this month. The sartorial delivery, which centers the solutions-oriented brand’s performance-ready Terry collection, fronts Caleb Love (Arizona), Donovan Clingan (UConn), Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), Jared McCain (Duke), Robert Dillingham (Kentucky) and Paxson Wojcik (UNC).
“March is the most exciting and unpredictable month in college basketball, and millions of fans are tapped into the news, players, and games now more than ever,” said SKIM co-founder and CEO Jens Grede. “Expanding upon our partnership with the NBA and establishing a SKIMS March All-Star team for college players is an unexpected yet timely approach to further connect with the next generation of basketball fans.”