For months now, the fashion rumor mill has been running rampant about creative directors taking over major brands. Today, a clue finally came: Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are stepping down from their namesake brand. While it has not been announced, they’re presumed to be heading to Loewe. And, again, it’s just a rumor that the current Loewe designer, Jonathan Anderson, is headed to Dior, where Maria Grazia Chiuri has been the creative director since 2016. But these speculations were only fueled yesterday when the New York Fashion Week calendar came out and Proenza Schouler (arguably the most anticipated show in New York) was noticeably absent from the list: Does that mean our homegrown boys are already working away in Paris? What we do know is that McCollough and Hernandez have been interested in doing something in Europe, mainly for their own creative growth, and to do it while they are still young. They’ve been looking for a new opportunity for some time and the decision to step down from their brand indicates that they’ve had discussions. It gives them more freedom to concentrate on something else.
As for Anderson, the Cut’s fashion critic Cathy Horyn stated last season that her bet was on him heading to Dior, LVMH’s crown jewel. The general feeling is that Dior could use a change. Last September, it seemed like a final bow after what felt like an anniversary show where Anderson’s celebrity friends and high-ranking officials from the fashion conglomerate were present. The rumors are so intense that they include Anderson has even set up an off-site studio in Paris.
The Loewe speculations were sparked last summer in part when Louis Pisano, a fashion commentator based in Paris, tweeted a screenshot of a text he received about Jonathan Anderson leaving Loewe, “confirmed from jw himself.” But when nothing happened for months, people seemed to forget about it. This week, Puck’s Lauren Sherman reported the shuffle among Proenza, Loewe, and Dior through several anonymous sources but couldn’t get any of the brands on the record about the shift.
What set off this most recent shift in the fashion industry was that in June 2024, the most coveted position in fashion — creative director at Chanel — became available when Virginie Viard left. Suddenly, everyone who’d ever made clothing with mass appeal and a gargantuan price tag to match had their name tossed into the ring: Jeremy Scott of Moschino fame (after a conversation in which he appeared “nervous” talking about Chanel with a fashion writer went viral), Pierpaolo Piccioli, Hedi Slimane, Sarah Burton, Marc Jacobs, Haider Ackermann, John Galliano, Phoebe Philo, and Simon Porte Jacquemus were all in the rumor mill. In October 2024, Matthieu Blazy was named creative director of Chanel, and on that same day, it was announced that Carven creative director Louise Trotter would take over at Bottega Veneta.
So where does this leave us now in designer musical chairs? The brands that don’t have creative directors are Fendi (where Kim Jones left in October of last year and is an opportunity for LVMH to bring in young talent); Margiela (where, in December of last year, Galliano announced his exit after 10 years and a final, monumental performance at Paris Couture Week), Carven, and, as of today, Proenza Schouler. Among the obvious big names swirling around who are not currently in a role are Hedi Slimane (who left his post at Celine in October after seven years), Pierpaolo Piccioli (who left Valentino in March), and Galliano.
Who does all of this shifting and reconfiguration benefit? There has been a sentiment that the rate in which designers are expected to churn out new collections (read: yield results to their parent companies’ bottom line) has become too dizzying and a notable lead to burnout. Alessandro Michele talked about this at Gucci for years before heading to Valentino. In 2022, backstage, he told Cathy Horyn that “clothes are not enough today,” and “I’m a slave to objects,” and that “trying to do things in a significant way requires a lot of passion.” But if these brands can get it right, and the rumor mill has these placements pegged, perhaps this is the passing of the baton that fashion needs — something fresh, new, and exciting that sits just beyond the horizon.
The Cut has reached out to representatives at both Dior and Loewe for comment.