The news of the separation between Valentino and Pierpaolo Piccioli is not just the news of a farewell, of a new course for an iconic fashion house (“A new creative organization will be announced soon”, they say) And it doesn’t matter so much where Piccioli goes (gossip tells wants from Chanel) and who will arrive in Piazza Mignanelli, the historic Roman headquarters of the atelier. Behind this farewell there is the wind of a perfect storm that is hitting the world of luxury fashion (and not only). An announcement that is a piece of a complex puzzle, and which cannot fail to be linked to what happened a few days ago, i.e. the choice of the Kering group to communicate, with an unexpected sales warning, to expect sales to decline by 10 percent hundred in the first quarter of the year due to the slowdown in the Asia-Pacific area with Gucci, the house’s “star” brand, down by as much as 20 percent (a brand that alone generates half of the group’s revenues). And then we need to rewind the tape to last autumn when the Kering group entered with a minority share in Valentino, until then, in total control of Mayoola for Investment, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. The agreement includes an option in favor of Kering to acquire 100% of Valentino’s share capital no later than 2028, and the transaction is part of a broader strategic partnership between Kering and Mayhoola, which could lead to Mayhoola becoming a shareholder of Kering. And so this separation can be read as an acceleration of the project, with Francois Hentry Pinault, founder and CEO of the luxury group, who wants to do some spring cleaning before jumping in. And in a world of fashion that today is governed by the rules of finance rather than creativity, a free agent like Piccioli, for whom fashion is a dream and an artistic expression, would not be considered suitable. Like Alessandro Michele, also removed from the Kering group, where he was creative director of Gucci, embroidering his unique style with inclusive messages. However, he had moved away from the main road of archives, which are increasingly important today, a guarantee of recognisability and therefore of sales.
On the other hand, with Finance reigning supreme, the old logic no longer matters. The world where Giorgio Armani, Gianni Versace, Valentino, Gianfranco Ferrè built their companies is just a memory, an unrepeatable period. Today capital wins over talent and creatives do not find space for a personal path, and go to work for large groups, where their creativity is compressed by “numbers”, especially in a complicated moment like this, where Fashion does not see clearly a future. Sales are falling not only due to the unfavorable geopolitical situation, but also due to a commercial policy that has seen the prices of luxury goods double, now the prerogative only of the world‘s very wealthy who are often not even the people who manage to guide opinions and tastes. Dreams, as fairy tales teach us, start from the bottom. The possibility of fulfilling them creates aspiration. But if a kid can no longer afford to buy even a wallet from a luxury brand, why should he continue to dream of it? And the disinterest ultimately infects even those who can afford those goods. Being exclusionary is never a good idea.
Piccioli entrusts his farewell to Instagram: “Not all stories have a beginning and an end, some live a kind of eternal present that shines with an intense light, so strong that it leaves no shadows. I have been in this company for 25 years, and for 25 years I have existed and lived together with the people who with me have woven the threads of this beautiful story that is mine and ours. Everything existed and exists thanks to the people I met, with whom I worked, with whom I shared dreams and created beauty, with whom I built something that belongs to everyone, and which remains immutable and tangible”.