Who Will Come Out on Top in Fashion’s Latest Creative Director Shuffle?

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John Galliano is reportedly leaving Maison Margiela. Peter Hawkings is out at Tom Ford. Chanel’s top seat remains vacant, following Virginie Viard’s departure from the House last month. Givenchy still needs a leader after Matthew Williams’ distant adieu. Industry chatter suggests change could be coming for Dior and Fendi. Former Alexander McQueen creative director Sarah Burton needs a new home.

How do you make sense of this mess?

Well, according to “several sources familiar with the matter,” Galliano really is leaving his post at Margiela when his contract expires in October, after a 10-year stint that has (for the most part) put him back in society’s good graces. In case you need a quick refresher, Galliano assumed Margiela’s top seat in 2014, a mere three and a half years after he was fired from Dior for two drunken, antisemitic rants in Paris cafés, for which he was convicted of “public insults” based on origin, religion, race or ethnicity.

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But after a decade of expertly purveying Margiela’s artistic fashion language, years of repopularizing the House’s adored Tabi silhouette, and a 2024 Artisanal show that stopped the industry in its tracks, incited a doll-like beauty revolution and earned a glowing review from The New York Times’ chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman, who called it “the sort of immersive show that hasn’t been seen in more than a decade,” it seems that Galliano’s powerful vision has overshadowed any remnant of his former unruliness.

Margiela owner OTB Brands offered the following statement on Galliano’s stance at the House: “As you know – and it is normal in our industry — there are always a lot of rumors when creative talents are concerned. We never comment on them. All we can say is that relations between John Galliano, Maison Margiela and our group chairman Renzo Rosso, are very good.”

Nonetheless, the rumor mill is working overtime, and it’s not all that unlikely that Galliano might want to bow out from Margiela on the highest note, return to his old stomping grounds at Dior and reclaim his former glory under a replenished light — if they’ll have him. Miss Tweed, a subscription-based fashion publication, has close sources that allege Galliano is going back to the French fashion house, which is currently led by Maria Grazia Chiuri for women’s and Kim Jones for men’s. Plus, both Galliano and Jones have wiped their Instagram pages, and the brand’s footwear designer, Thibo Dennis, has just exited the brand after six years (and is said to be moving to Louis Vuitton) — all common signs of a forthcoming shift in direction.

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Anna Wintour, a longtime advocate for Galliano who reportedly intervened in the aftermath of his conviction to secure him a guest designer role at Oscar de la Renta in 2013, is again said to be behind his proposed move to Dior, having convinced LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and his daughter Delphine, Dior’s CEO, that he’s the proper candidate, per Miss Tweed. Still, those who watched the recent documentary, High & Low: John Galliano, have a better memory of the designer’s poor behavior during his tenure at the House, and backstepping on its original decision to let Galliano go may not be the best look for the brand.

Fashion Network’s insiders believe Galliano is headed to Fendi, where Jones presently leads womenswear and Silvia Venturini Fendi handles men’s. The theory here is that Galliano would replace Jones, whose output at Dior Men’s is considered to be stronger than his work for Fendi Women’s. The Italian label recently appointed a new CEO, Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, a move that has historically preceded a change in creative direction for top fashion houses. The House could benefit from Galliano’s design sorcery; though it is important to note that a brand like Fendi puts on far more fashion shows than Margiela per year, and Galliano’s wizardry takes time to enchant.

According to Vogue, more industry whispers predict Galliano will land at Chanel, as the brand is currently operating without a creative director in the wake of Virginie Viard’s departure last month. However, since the brand is owned by a prominent Jewish family, Galliano’s past actions will likely stifle those conversations. Outside of Galliano, the most common theories for the French brand, formerly led by the late Karl Lagerfeld, include Hedi Slimane, Jeremy Scott, Marc Jacobs and Haider Ackermann.

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“All of the names that have been thrown into the hat so far are pretty predictable,” esteemed fashion critic Tim Blanks told Imran Amed on The Business of Fashion Podcast earlier this month. “I don’t think it’s going to be any of them.”

Perhaps, the House, known for its tweed sets and signature handbags, could benefit from a female perspective. Amed, BoF founder and CEO, tossed out an idea: Sarah Burton, the prolific designer who bowed out from Alexander McQueen last September. “She was always a person that Karl talked about,” Blanks responded. It’s true: Lagerfeld himself was a fan of Burton’s: “She is fantastic and what she’s doing at McQueen is truly haute couture. Actually, when I photograph couture collections, I always ask for McQueen dresses,” he once told Vogue, adding that he believed she should shuffle over to Dior at the time.

Burton’s McQueen legacy is enough proof of her expert craftsmanship, though her ability to exit the McQueen mindset, one she operated under for 25 years, and lead a brand with a different identity, history and scale is one that still needs testing. But, as Lagerfeld always said, “all you need is a little padding.”

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Regardless, the latest reports, thanks to Miss Tweed’s sources, state that Burton is headed to Givenchy, an LVMH brand in much need of new leadership after Matthew William’s lackluster three-year stint at the helm. The House recently named a new CEO, Alessandro Valenti, who spent the last 10 years overseeing Louis Vuitton — another sign that change is on the horizon. Should Burton take the Givenchy job, she would be tasked with reinvigorating the House’s fallen image, an assignment that has proven to be difficult for the brand’s more recent leaders, each of whom have bid adieu after short attempts at rebuilding. Ackermann and Simon Porte Jacquemus are two other names being tossed around for the role. So nothing is final just yet.

With all this tittle-tattle, Friedman raises a good point: “As fashion itself has become entertainment, designer turnover has itself become a spectator sport.” Fashion’s game of musical chairs is most enjoyed — and much more heavily discussed online — when the debate centers those already in the public discourse, leaving little room for new talent to break through at the top level while C-suite executives consider the consumer’s wishes. Amidst all the cries for Galliano at Dior and Burton at Givenchy, Friedman added that there is likely a legion of unknown, highly-talented designers that could assume the thrones at these larger brands and drive them into entirely new directions that shoppers don’t even know they want just yet. “The familiar names are the safe names. They’ve shown what they can do. But that doesn’t mean they are the only names.”

Brands have taken chances on those hiding in the wings before. Burton was once one of them, operating under Lee Alexander McQueen’s arm for several years before assuming the creative director position. She rose to fashion stardom, and the brand found financial success under her leadership, but that is not always the case. Peter Hawkings, for instance, worked alongside Ford for more than two decades before taking creative control over his namesake label last year. Despite understanding the label almost as well as Ford himself, Hawkings announced his exit last week, less than one year after his debut show, in the wake of so-so reviews from critics and while Zegna Group, the label’s owner, looks to expand the Tom Ford brand’s womenswear division, one in which Hawkings is less experienced.

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Vogue’s José Criales-Unzueta connected the dots, calling creative directors like Burton, Hawkings and even Viard “bridge designers,” the lesser-known talent responsible for conducting the in-between period after a brand’s big-name leader departs. He wrote, “Operating under the shadow of their former bosses, they can’t rely on stardom or the mystery or the promise of novelty. We know what to expect, and while that is a comfortable place to be, it is neither the most exciting nor the most auspicious.”

In order to go the distance, new-name designers must subscribe to the modern notion of constructing their own identity with a distinct language, embedding themselves in the brand’s new era, if you will, without taking away from its history. It’s a quite challenging task, especially while being left out of the rampant rumor run ahead of their appointments and while being intently surveilled by the industry’s louder-than-ever online fandoms with often strong allegiances to former designers. But it’s the key to injecting excitement into a label and subsequently reinvigorating it.

Maybe we’ll see the Gallianos and Slimanes of the world swap places once more, or perhaps this really is the moment to give more underdogs the spotlight. With the frequency at which designers are hopping and skipping between labels, it’s important that fresher faces and established names alike are granted the time to take a proper stroll in a House’s big shoes before the industry — and even moreso, the general public — jumps to conclusions.

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