New creative directors bring chaos for in-house designers

We spoke to employees at luxury brands like Givenchy, Bottega, and Celine to understand the toll these ever-more regular changes take.

2024 was an absurd year for luxury fashion. Let’s take a moment to remember the number of creative director changes: Moschino, Valentino, Canada Goose, Calvin Klein, Lanvin, Blumarine, Ports 1961, Sergio Rossi, Givenchy, Tom Ford, Celine, Dries van Noten, Bottega Veneta, Chanel and Loewe. At this moment, Carven, Margiela and Fendi are all without new appointments, and changes at Jil Sander and Versace beckon.

For most of us, this was little more than the subject of idle chit-chat at fashion week. For the in-house design teams at many of these brands, however, the changes have brought chaos. When the exciting news breaks of a creative change for a brand, the impact on the larger workforce is rarely considered: redundancies, insecurity, layoff survivor guilt, increased workload, and lack of vision often become the reality. This is hardly a new phenomenon, but with creative directors moving more and more frequently, a culture of fear is becoming the norm.

Over the past three months, we have spoken with 20+ current and former designers of all levels across brands including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Givenchy, McQueen, Bottega Veneta, Celine, Chloé, as well as industry professionals in talent acquisition, recruitment and psychology. We spoke with the designers on the basis of anonymity, allowing them to talk freely about their experiences. The resulting story illuminates a systemic issue much bigger than just one brand or group.

“They kept the young people, especially boys who are good-looking. It was just too much of a coincidence.”