Fashion keeps asking for a new direction and never waits for it to land.

This is the longest musical chairs game of our lives. With the recent news of Seán McGirr exiting McQueen - after merely nine collections to date, if counted correctly (math class, go figure), from Fall 2024 Ready-to-Wear to the recent Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear, across two and a half calendar years - we found ourselves asking: how can change be translated into a vision when the timeframe is so short, and the pressure to make diamonds collides with capital stress on the same stage? Sorry, same runway? Great question. A question we would probably leave alone if we hadn’t seen this happen one too many times in recent history. Or is it the latest round of the game, and we’re still in it, right? Take your seat for this one.

Immediately, our minds traveled to Italy, thinking about Sabato De Sarno, who stayed at the house of Gucci for about two calendar years. His vision was clear and the clothes were great, though very safe, which is a problem after you step into the shoes of a great designer and theatrical artist such as Alessandro Michele, let alone at a heritage house like Gucci, where through multiple eras experimentation was encouraged. Not the case here. But that’s the past, right? In a fashionable way, of course.

So where are we headed next? The latest trend online is creative director movement rumors. The crazier they are, the more we love them. Vaccarello to leave Saint Laurent? PPP to leave Balenciaga after one year? Other guesses anyone? Maybe since we consume everything in a shorter timeframe, we now expect results in a shorter timeframe as well. Can a fashion house give a creative director only a short time to implement a new design language, and still expect to drive a lot of sales, especially when the whole industry is seeing its numbers go down as far as shopping goes?

So, 2027 is ahead of us. What is going to happen? And how much of the lost sales can be attributed to the designer? How much of the pricing do they actually control? All of those and more lead to one question - was it too early to let Seán go? Kering got its answers, and with restructuring and closing shops, it didn’t add any time in his favor to turn the tables and the numbers… Ruthless industry? Not so fast. Around the same time, Matières Fécales presented Spring 2027 Ready-to-Wear, with Steven Raj Bhaskaran telling Vogue, “This one is for the 99%.” An unreal show, in current times, daring, experimenting, and more than anything seems to be more McQueen than McQueen itself. What’s next in this game? We’ll have to wait for the second round of the musical chairs we are witnessing. As to Saint Laurent? Hopefully Chemena Kamali will take the reins, and we will get to see the first woman running the house. Can you imagine how beautiful it is going to be? All we can do is hope…

Cover Image by Getty.