Fashion
Discover how these two luxury power houses are battling for relevance and profitability in a rapidly changing industry, balancing artistic vision and commercial success.
Updated 10:28 pm EDT, July 14, 2025
Published 10:19 pm EDT, July 14, 2025
Special Thanks: Gin Burns (The Lobby)
So why has there been so much tumultuous change in the egregiously successful fashion houses of Europe these past two years? The stench of worry with its dingy, grey, brown shadows lurks in the streets of Paris and Milan. Does one not remember Karl Lagerfeld clutching with his skeletal white claws the reins of three houses for decades? Or Yves Saint Laurent delicately holding his brand even through his inevitable shivering decline?
At one time, we could close our envious eyes and picture the clothes and styles that were created at Givenchy and Gucci. You could pick out the muted or, in some cases, riotous colors, hemlines, and silhouettes that each house traditionally designed. But time is our master; it gallops in sweaty, breathless anxiety for some while it strolls with an insouciance for others.
For Gucci and Givenchy? In very different ways, “Time” has come to collect its due, and the companies are sweatily trying to avoid the fundamental horror of fashion: irrelevance.
Hubert James Taffin de Givenchy was born on 20 February 1927 in Beauvais, Oise, into a French noble family that surprisingly escaped the guillotine. His older brother’s family still holds the title of Marquis de Givenchy. So, it is not a surprise that the label, founded in 1952, was rooted in a blend of elegance, sophistication, and tradition. But Hubert added his personality to the brand by focusing on clean lines and reinterpreting classic styles with a contemporary twist. Although Givenchy dabbled in avant-garde, he would shudder in distaste at the more outré-monde styles that diverged from his aesthetic.
I suspect he would have quaffed out toile if Hubert had known that Matthew M. Williams took on this mantle in 2020. Matthew is an excellent designer, and he brought a streetwear edge to Givenchy and had successes with certain products. But was Matthew a true son of the House of Givenchy? There was a mixed critical reception to Williams. There was praise for collaborating with contemporary artists with the Audrey Hepburn schtick, but many others questioned his ability to balance between streetwear and traditional couture.
Apparently, enough was enough for LVMH, its owner. As evidenced by the polite but firm expulsion of Williams in December 2023, a creative reset was required. In the last year, projections suggest an almost complete halt to revenue growth, ranging from zero to only 5%. The suits at LVMH could not have been terribly pleased.
Over at Gucci, the situation is just as grim. Sabato De Sarno was appointed 2 years ago, and now he has been abruptly asked to exit in March 2025. Here at AVESSA, we respected de Sarno’s abilities, but we also had doubts about his longevity at the famously operatic Gucci.
Alessandro Michele, de Sarno’s predecessor, more than doubled Gucci’s sales to over €10 billion during his seven-year tenure, but Michele exited as the hyper-growth began to slow. One has to lend sympathy to de Sabato, who was quite different from the, at times, outlandish Michele. De Sarno’s Gucci was about practical fantasy. “I like real clothes, I like when clothes are desirable for people,” De Sarno said.
To his credit, De Sarno was starting to harness the cultural heat that is desperately desired by any luxury brand today. However, as we suspected, the parent company, Kering, had limited patience. Gucci sales tumbled 25% in the third quarter of 2024, adding to a 21% downturn in the first nine months of the year. In the face of an industry-wide luxury spending slowdown, De Sarno’s polished daywear didn’t break through, and Kering abruptly refused to be patient.
As you can see, there is a definitive pattern in this swirling turmoil—cash dolla. Today’s fashion is not purely about artistic vision, as wide-eyed, pretentious fashion graduates all huffily state. Luxury fashion is about both money and leading-edge design, but without scaring the heffas who live in the suburbs and countryside.
Gucci is especially problematic with its outsized reputation and its deliciously campy internal company politics. Hubert de Givenchy, like Emilio Pucci, was an aristocrat raised to practice disinterest and display cavalier attitudes to hide their ambition. The Gucci family was a relative arriviste and hungry for the golden riches of success and social acceptance. Yet they both find themselves in a similar, tar-like dilemma. How to stay ahead of the fashion curve while still making bank. Champagne does not buy itself, even at LVMH and Kering.
Burton’s hiring in late 2024 represented a shift in course for the brand. Burton was a protégé and second-in-command to Lee Alexander McQueen, the enfant terrible of the British avant-garde. Burton is best known to the general public for her attention to tailoring and architectural yet diaphanous pieces during her time at Alexander McQueen. It also helps that Catherine, Princess of Wales is a fan and has elevated Burton’s delectable mix of design, textiles, and color.
Burton is also already on the right track of Hubert de Givenchy’s original vision. In her first collection, Burton discovered vintage patterns found literally behind wallpaper and white plaster in Hubert de Givenchy’s archive. Burton has an attention to tailoring, slim silhouettes, and artisanal flourishes.
Demna Gvasalia, or just Demna for short, is a Georgian (think Tbilisi, not Atlanta) fashion designer who was recently, or rather scandalously for some, named the new artistic director of Gucci in March 2025.
He is also the former creative director of Balenciaga and co-founder of Vetements. Demna is known for his outré sensibility and designs that often verge on the outrageous. For Balenciaga, Denma created apparel that combined unapologetic streetwear with exaggerated silhouettes, deconstruction, and statement-making designs like tennis shoes so large and cumbersome that one simply cannot help but stare at the ways consumers and models limp around. But they sold and sold and sold. To his credit, Denma also resurrected haute couture at Balencia after a 53-year sabbatical.
“I am truly excited to join the Gucci family,” said Demna in a statement. “It is an honor to contribute to a House that I deeply respect and have long admired.”
He is expected to introduce an experimental and stimulating interpretation of Gucci’s codes. It doesn’t take a Greek augur to see that Demna will combine his in-your-face style with Gucci’s heritage of demanding to be noticed while avoiding vulgarity. His approach will likely involve using fashion as a form of social commentary and increased use of social media. Integrating Demna’s disruptive design philosophy with Gucci’s legacy of glamour and opulence will be crucial for success.
Both Sarah Burton and Demna have outrageously proven successful track records, and frankly, they don’t need their new appointments to be considered successful.
Sarah Burton worked with Lee Alexander McQueen for 14 years, from the year after she graduated from fashion college until his suicide. Despite maintaining her cool, quiet dignity as she continued to make clothes under her mentor’s name, her star rose meteorically. Her reputation and ethereal designs blossomed in the glare of public attention. Her clothes are succulent, but more importantly, Sarah insists that they allow the wearer to breathe and be at ease as they get the hell in and out of 7-figure events in Paris and New York for hours at a time. Over the last year, they were seen on red carpets at the Oscars, the Met Gala, Cannes, and Windsor Palace.
Of course, like every other overachiever, she is ready for a new, more challenging, creative mountain to climb. Re-establishing Givenchy as the standard-bearer of glamour and haute couture would be a very good goal.
Demna, on the other hand, has already had his fair share of both commercial and artistic success. During his time at Balenciaga, he experienced a massive financial windfall, with sales reportedly going from $350 million to $2 billion. He has also already enjoyed international adoration, winning awards such as the CFDA International Award and the British Fashion Council’s Leader of Change in Creativity. Aesthetically, Demna is, of course, a long way from the refined, elegant work of Sarah Burton, but, more importantly, he is absolutely right for Gucci.
Demna saw the new role as an opportunity to “build on the brand’s history but also to bring his own vision to the house.” The injection of newness that Demna brings to Gucci isn’t just in the clothes; it’s in the DNA of the way the clothes are constructed. Demna likely also saw the role as the chance to restore the brand’s creative edge and help to guide its future in a way that would continue to speak to modern culture. Demna is the latest in a long line of supremely theatrical Gucci designers that has pushed the brand to ever more shocking levels of success—Tom Ford, Allesandro Michele, and now, perhaps, Demna.
Time, like in Shakespeare’s play The Winter’s Tale, will tell whether Gucci and Givenchy ultimately succeed, but the new designers seem well-suited for their respective brands. Their selection seems serendipitous for both brands, but AVESSA wishes them all the success possible. Fashion is synonymous with change and reflecting the moment of now.
We are lavishly excited to see the fabric and unique clothes these two designers will create. We close our eyes and sigh in sensual pleasure as garments emerge with colors such as peridot, magenta, lilac, amber, mint, and other shades. They will create beauty, outrage, and shocking designs, and the world is drooling with anticipation.
Recovering from an obsession with Italian-designed menswear, Alfonso decided to take a deeper look into women’s fashion to see how our relationship among clothing, society, and business has changed. Educated as an economist with an MBA, he travels between Chicago, Miami, and Mexico on a search to see what happens next to fashion.
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