The white-man musical chairs of 2024

A lot has happened since January, so let’s take a look back.

They call it “white man musical chairs”. Or, that’s what I heard a prominent stylist-editor refer to it as. It’s the Schengen-style freedom of movement that creative directors have that enables them to hop from fashion house to fashion house with relative ease. And it was the case that this time last year, all of the creative directors of Kering-owned brands were white men.

So, I couldn’t help but wonder, as 2024 draws to a close, how are things looking on the white man front compared with then? Well… they’re actually looking worse. The only women who received major appointments were Veronica Leoni, Sarah Burton and, as of yesterday afternoon, Louise Trotter. Virginie Viard has officially been replaced by Matthieu Blazy and Maria Grazia Chiuri is likely to be booted out to make way for Jonathan Anderson. How did we get here?