Can Demna Be Gucci's Hero?
Balenciaga’s provocateur is next in line to lead Kering’s cash cow. Can he bring Italy’s largest luxury fashion label back to its former glory?
“What’s Gucci at Gucci?” Hypebeast’s editorial Slack channel queried this morning while fashion Twitter tussled over rumours about who would claim the much-coveted top seat at Italy’s largest luxury house. One colleague believed Hedi Slimane was a shoo-in for the role, his rockstar fashion the perfect serving for the cult craving his former Celine magic under a new banner. Another rightfully wished for anyone but a white man, as diversity remains on the back burner for high-profile fashion hires, before offering up the brilliant Grace Wales Bonner.
In any case, the fact of the matter was that the brand was left without a lead designer in the wake of Sabato De Sarno’s exit last month and with a massive sales slump: Gucci reported a staggering 24% revenue decrease in the fourth quarter of last year, while De Sarno’s more practical design aesthetic struggled to drive consumer demand amid a luxury slowdown.
As the debate heated, The New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman dropped a bombshell headline: “Gucci Taps Demna, Balenciaga’s Creative Director, as New Designer.” Talk about a curveball.
The 43-year-old Georgian designer is set to take over the heritage House in early July, after he takes his final bow at Balenciaga’s couture show on July 6. He’ll work alongside Gucci CEO Stefano Cantino to return the label to cash-cow status while inserting his provocative Demna-isms into the storied brand. “Gucci stands for fashion authority,” said Cantino. “This is what we want to bring back.”
“I am truly excited to join the Gucci family,” Demna added. “It is an honor to contribute to a House that I deeply respect and have long admired. I look forward to [sic] writing a new chapter of Gucci’s amazing story with Stefano and the whole team.”
Not all heroes wear capes, but we didn’t expect Gucci’s to sport Triple S sneakers.
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When you step back, though, the appointment isn’t all that surprising. Balenciaga — which Demna has overseen for almost a decade — and Gucci are both owned by Kering, making Demna a relatively simple internal hire. In 2021, he also let Gucci’s then-creative director Alessandro Michele manipulate key Balenciaga silhouettes and motifs in the House’s “Hacker Project,” which fashion critic Anders Christian Madsen called the “most bullet-proof merchandise of the social media-driven fashion era.” And Demna is known for his shock value, so don’t be surprised when whatever he does at Gucci makes your jaw drop.
At Balenciaga, Demna rewrote the script for building a fashion brand’s identity. He’s widely celebrated for his fashion week spectacles — be they windstruck snowstorms, murky mud baths, or dystopic stock exchanges — as well as the needle-pushing wardrobes and all-star front-rows that accompany them, which, altogether, often stake a claim as the most talked-about show during any fashion week. Demna mastered the craft of capturing the luxury fashion industry’s attention as well as that of the consumers on its outskirts — health-obsessed Erewhon shoppers and sporty Under Armour wearers included. Love him or hate him, Demna turned Balenciaga into one of the most coveted labels on the contemporary market.
Those who dislike the designer, however, are not without their own reasons. You cannot properly examine Demna’s reign at Balenciaga without discussing his defaming campaign scandals — one showcasing children with BDSM-inspired teddy bear bags and another that included SCOTUS documents regarding child pornography laws — that dominated the internet at the tail end of 2022. The designer issued several expertly articulated apologies and promised a “more mature and serious approach” to his work going forward, but once the dust settled, Demna largely returned to his usual provocation.
“Demna has revolutionized modern fashion whether you like it or not.”
—Kim Russell
It’s no secret that the fashion industry tends to have a bad memory regarding such incompetence; just look at all the raving reviews of Dolce & Gabbana’s (a brand with a history of racism and homophobia) “Paparazzi” Fall 2025 show for proof. In the case of Demna at Gucci, it’s clear that Kering is willing to look past the designer’s former unruliness and bet on his creative risk-taking to make a profit. He’s proven he can do it: when he left Vetements for Balenciaga almost a decade ago, analysts estimated Balenciaga’s revenues would reach roughly €200 million EUR in his first year on the job, per Vogue. By 2021, industry forecasts climbed to approximately €1.76 billion EUR.
“Demna’s profound understanding of contemporary culture, coupled with his extensive experience in conceiving visionary projects, has established him as one of the most influential and accomplished creatives of his generation,” said Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy CEO. “His appointment as artistic director is the perfect catalyst to reignite Gucci’s creative energy.”
Fashion commentator and stylist Kim Russell (aka @thekimbino) believes Demna’s appointment was “much needed.” In a quick back-and-forth DM exchange just after the news broke, she wrote, “Demna has revolutionized modern fashion whether you like it or not. He’s famous, he has a cult-following, and for a long time, he was ahead of the pack.” Still, she admits that the decision is “polarizing,” stating that it will be “interesting to see how he navigates this massive undertaking while still on the back foot of his own drama at Balenciaga.”
Gregoire Avenel
It’s difficult to imagine Demna’s cheeky design codes blending well with Gucci’s more elevated styles while avoiding a total identity crisis. “I don’t think anything Demna has ever done reminds me of Gucci, aside from that ‘Hacker Project,’” said fashion analyst Ashantéa Austin (aka @mustbemargiela). “But I do think that he’s incredibly talented and innovative.” Demna’s industry-shifting abilities are indisputable, but with such a distinct fashion identity, he’ll need to avoid the snare of his former successes so that Gucci doesn’t look completely Balenciaga-ified come his debut. Belletini, for her part, told Vogue that Demna is “ready to change and to have a new creative challenge,” adding that he’s “really eclectic in his creativity.”
Controversial or not, Demna fans want Demna to be Demna — and it appears the higher-ups at Gucci desire the same. “We were looking for a strong and opinionated designer,” Stefano Cantino, the chief executive of Gucci, told The New York Times. “Demna is one of the few.” In addition to his design skills, Mr. Cantino added that Demna brings “an understanding of contemporary culture, of what is luxury today and a deep understanding of the new generation.”
It’s a win-win: Gucci is the clean slate that Demna requires, and he’s the provocateur the brand needs. After his last Balenciaga ready-to-wear show on Sunday, the designer, knowing his Gucci plans, told reporters, “Maybe what I want to do now is just make great clothes for my customer, for someone who likes what I do and relates to that aesthetic, and who understands clothes through wearing them, not speculating about them.”
If Demna can flip Gucci into a moneymaker once more, he’ll lead the kind of extraordinary career that aspiring fashion designers dream of. In retrospect, of course, he’s focused on making great clothes for his customer. That’s what sells — and for Demna, it’s what will make history.
