There is a continuous major reshuffle in the creative and management personnel in the luxury goods industry.
Givenchy, under LVMH, has poached the creative director of its rival Kering Group.
French luxury brand Givenchy announced today that Sarah Burton is the creative director, filling the position that has been vacant for nearly a year. She served as the creative director of Alexander McQueen, a luxury brand under Kering Group, from 2010 to 2023.
Sarah Burton, who has just passed the one-year non-compete agreement restriction period, will become the eighth designer of Givenchy and the second female fashion designer after Clare Waight Keller. She will take office in the studio on Avenue George V in Paris this week, and her first collection will be released at Paris Fashion Week in March 2025.
This appointment also implies that Givenchy will return to the haute couture route from the street style under the former creative director Matthew M. Williams.
Since Matthew M. Williams stepped down in December last year, the brand has not announced a successor, triggering widespread speculation in the market. Former Dior creative director and former Givenchy director John Galliano, Jacquemus brand founder Simon Porte Jacquemus, and Sarah Burton have all been potential candidates expected by the market.
Sarah Burton worked with the founder of Alexander McQueen for 14 years. After the latter’s death in 2010, Sarah Burton was appointed as the creative director of the brand.
A year later, Alexander McQueen was chosen to design the wedding dress for Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge in the UK, and Sarah Burton became famous as a result.
Based on the sumptuous tone and exquisite tailoring of Alexander McQueen, Sarah Burton infuses a feminine touch into the brand while enhancing the practicality of ready-to-wear. She has also expanded and strengthened important commercial categories for the brand, such as footwear and accessories with higher profit margins. In 2016, Alexander McQueen’s “little white shoes” caught the wave of athleisure fashion and became the hottest item since the skull scarf.
Although the once radical doomsday sentiment has been replaced by a feminized one, the industry generally believes that Alexander McQueen is one of the most successful brands in balancing the brand’s DNA and the individual talents of the new creative director.
Although not as large as Gucci and Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen has gradually grown into a star brand under Kering Group, on par with Balenciaga. According to analysts’ estimates, the brand’s annual turnover is between 700 million and 800 million euros.
However, in recent years, the brand’s growth has stagnated. Under the increasing pressure of market performance, Alexander McQueen announced Sarah Burton’s departure in September 2023, and quickly appointed a newcomer, Seán McGirr, as the new creative director a month later. The latter was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1988 and previously served as the director of the ready-to-wear department of the JW Anderson brand.
It is worth noting that the former Creative Director of Givenchy, Clare Waight Keller, also found a new employer last week. After launching the first UNIQLO:C women’s autumn and winter collection in collaboration with Uniqlo in September last year, Clare Waight Keller will officially become the Creative Director of Uniqlo, fully responsible for the creative direction of Uniqlo’s mainline series.
As the competition for talents in the industry becomes white-hot, whether John Galliano, who is rumored not to renew his contract with Maison Margiela, will return to Dior as the creative director is filling the market with imagination.