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Demna, who in 2021 ceased using the surname Gvasalia, is without question one of the most original, innovative and influential designers of our time. Gucci, meanwhile, is Italy’s largest luxury fashion house by revenue. Despite a slump from its €10.5 billion peak in 2022, in 2024 it reported revenues of €7.65 billion, a sum more than double the €3.56 billion reported by Prada, financially its closest fellow Italian competitor.
The challenge (and adventure) facing Demna at Gucci starts with deciding how to integrate the house’s codes and spirit to shape a freshly accented manifestation of his design language. Between Vetements’s foundation and his most recent show at Balenciaga, Demna has always paid as much attention to the streets as he has to fashion’s rigmarole of celebrity and status. This democratic and socially pragmatic impulse should be to his advantage at a house built on a foundation of small leather goods, and which enjoys a far broader reach than the house he is now preparing to exit.
Gucci’s chaotically human backstory might also prove a richly dramatic seam of material. And while it has not been communicated to what extent Demna will be based at Gucci’s recently established and expanded Milan studios, it seems likely that he will look to bring a freshly global outlook as only the second non-Italian to lead design at the brand since the days of Tom Ford’s transformational part in its story.
How Demna came to Gucci
Prior to today’s announcement, Kering’s deputy CEO in charge of brand development, Francesca Bellettini, hosted a briefing meeting alongside Cantino to share the story behind Demna’s appointment. While the meeting was declared off the record, they retrospectively consented to the below to be included in this report.
Cantino revealed that Demna was first approached several months ago. Bellettini added: “We went out for dinner. I said: ‘we would really love to talk about this opportunity’. And after a second of thinking he was very excited, and said: ‘Yes! I have it in my mind — let me put together the project for you. He worked on that, and when Stefano and I received it for the first time, we were both: ‘Let’s accelerate!.’”
Although still formally engaged by Balenciaga, Demna has already travelled with Cantino to Florence to commence his immersion within Gucci’s immaculately kept archive. During the trip, “I kept getting incredible messages from both of them,” said Bellettini. She added of Gucci: “It’s a company which, whenever you light up that spark of creativity and of artistic vision, performs.”
