In the months that followed the Spring/Summer 2026 season, we have seen a series of new hires in the communications, marketing and design departments of all major houses. Our new series ‘Fashion’s Real Reset Starts Now’ looks at all these changes and how they will redefine the fashion industry in the years to come.

The year 2025 marked a major creative reset, ushering in new creative directors at a dozen fashion houses, most of them millennials, and all characterized by a collaborative spirit. Their appointments carry big expectations.

As the industry emerges from a two-year slowdown, designers are more than ever seen as key drivers of brand turnarounds. “Maintaining an artistic direction at the helm of a brand — or choosing to change it — is one of the most important governance issues for a CEO, a board of directors, or a shareholder,” says Floriane de Saint Pierre, founder of the advisory firm for major luxury brands Floriane de Saint Pierre & Associés, whose expertise includes organization and talent strategy as well as artistic director executive search.

Determining the scope of the role is also an important governance decision for the CEO or the owner of the business. “You need to fully understand the stakes of social media communication, including the whole celebrity component. You are expected to know what will sell, how it will sell, and to be able to work effectively with the commercial, merchandising, marketing and image teams, to have a vision for scenography, for retail, for customer experience. You also have to handle the relationships with a CEO and executive committee,” says Alice Bouleau, founder of The Arrow, a talent agency representing designers including Collina Strada’s Hillary Taymour, Serge Ruffieux and Louis-Gabriel Nouchi.

She continues: “The role becomes almost that of a managing director, even though most creative directors come from fairly traditional design backgrounds. Yet, even with such a broad scope, your level of autonomy is more limited in big organizations due to the numerous stakeholders.”

Creative directors are also navigating a shift in positioning as the “star designer” era comes to an end. Many brands came to feel overly dependent on individual designers, prompting the pendulum to swing the other way: the house now comes first. Recent appointments and customer demand also show that the product remains king. “You can be a great marketer, but at the end of the rainbow, there has to be a great product,” says Lanvin deputy CEO Siddhartha Shukla. What’s important for designers is to be able to create a product with outstanding quality and meaningful design.

But creatives can’t only be heads-down in product — in a celebrity-driven era, it’s also important that they bring their existing relationships and cultivate new ones with culturally influential actors, directors, musicians, and athletes, while maintaining their own public personas in the spotlight.

“Today, the industry is seeking designers who feel more relatable, in contrast to the distant mega-divas of the past,” says Bouleau.

They are being asked to perform a balancing act: court celebrities but don’t supersede the brand, be across everything but focus on product, be highly innovative and creative but enjoy less autonomy; they’re the ones held responsible if results aren’t there. Only exceptionally smart, nimble, and talented people can overcome these contradictory expectations.

Caution and integrity

Macroeconomic challenges and geopolitical uncertainty have led to a reality check for fashion. Whether the times and the market have changed, or they have seen some of their elders get their wings burned and it served as a cautionary tale, designers need to appear somewhat more down to earth — even when posting to millions of followers.

“Celebrity — whether it’s through ambassadors or through the designers themselves — is often a critical tool of amplification, and can allow for a powerful incarnation of a brand value in the public sphere. But it is just one of several mechanics at work in minting success. For me, product integrity and the clarity and consistency of vision are paramount,” says Lanvin’s Shukla. In 2024, Lanvin chose Peter Copping, a soft-spoken seasoned couturier with technical expertise, to be its artistic director. Copping doesn’t stage his personal life on Instagram. Instead, he shares his work and, at times, his daily commute.

A recent Vogue story highlighted the contrast between Chanel’s longtime artistic director Karl Lagerfeld and Blazy: “And where Lagerfeld was a monarch butterfly of excess — moving with an entourage; augmenting his Paris mansion with a separate, nearby Paris mansion for eating in; and filling these premises with books and the spoils of what André Leon Talley called his “Versailles complex” — Blazy’s taste is distinctly lower-key. He travels alone, often on foot, and prefers beer to Champagne.”

Karl Lagerfeld at the FW12 Chanel show.

Photo: Getty Images

Sidney Toledano, special advisor to LVMH chair and CEO Bernard Arnault, who previously helmed the LVMH Fashion Group and before that Christian Dior Couture, says: “Today’s creative directors aren’t chasing fame. They’re looking for creative recognition. And the way they communicate has completely changed. Back then, even inside fashion houses, you couldn’t just walk into the designer’s studio. You had to call their assistant, who would ask what time you wanted to come. Now we just text each other. They sit in on meetings — even ones about organization or business.”

“They don’t have the rockstar status that the previous generation had, with some exceptions,” Sullivan notes. Mathias Ohrel, founder of Paris-based recruitment firm m-O, agrees: “There is a generational factor that makes them more cautious, and given the scale of the houses today, they need to be reasonable to minimize the risk.”

That said, experts caution against creative directors disappearing into their ateliers entirely. With more eyes on them than ever, fans and audiences will follow. Miguel Castro Freitas didn’t have an official Instagram account before he was appointed creative director at Mugler in March. Dario Vitale had less than 4,000 Instagram followers before the announcement of his appointment as chief creative officer of Versace; by the time he left in December, he had nearly 62,000 followers.

“I don’t think you can be a sort of shy, nervous creative spirit hiding in a mansard doing your sketches anymore. You’ve gotta be out there,” says Nick Sullivan, creative director of Esquire.

You also have to hire highly capable directors responsible for celebrity relations to help you. “We have never had so many requests from clients looking to recruit directors of celebrity relations with a true vision,” one headhunter, who wished to remain anonymous, says.

The celebrity factor

Even if creative directors aren’t the same level of celebrity they were in the past, who they surround themselves with matters more than ever. Three days before Chanel’s Métiers d’art show, the house announced A$AP Rocky as the latest house ambassador, sending the Internet abuzz, not least because Chanel doesn’t do menswear. “Musician, actor, father, friend... he brings so much to the table and always delivers with kindness,” Matthieu Blazy said of A$AP Rocky in a statement.

The multi-hyphenate collaborated with Blazy when he was creative director of Bottega Veneta, notably on the paparazzi campaign in 2023, as well as the Father’s Day campaign featuring Rihanna’s husband at home with their two sons in 2024.

The Bottega Veneta campaign, featuring A$AP Rocky, was a pre-Spring 2024 marketing effort that used authentic, licensed paparazzi photos of Rocky in his daily life.

Photo: Courtesy of Bottega Venetta

A$AP Rocky and Margaret Qualley are seen on the set of a Chanel commercial.

Photo: Getty Images

Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson brought to Dior a group of celebrities, including Greta Lee, Luca Guadagnino, and, most recently, Josh O’Connor, all of whom he had collaborated with in his previous role as creative director of Loewe.

Meanwhile, Anne Hathaway and Meghan Markle attended Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut show at Balenciaga. Piccioli had collaborated with Hathaway and Markle in his previous role as creative director of Valentino, and they attended the show to support him.

Setting aside any existing ambassadorship agreements, one could imagine Lewis Hamilton in attendance at Wales Bonner’s debut show for Hermès in January 2027 — particularly given that she dressed him for his role as a Met Gala co-chair in 2025. Kylie Jenner, meanwhile, seems a natural fit for Antonin Tron’s first outing at Balmain in March 2026. “I’m a huge fan of his intricate draping and layering,” Jenner told Vogue at the launch of the 2024 collaboration between her label, Khy, and his own brand, Atlein.

Evidently, building authentic relationships with celebrities and other cultural figures that a creative director can carry over from one house/job to another is crucial, as it communicates values and a sense of a designer’s personality that consumers can relate to as well as aspire to. Having the right celebrity aligned with the brand values translates into visibility, cultural relevance, and ultimately profit for the brand. As Sullivan puts it, this is “gold dust” for brands.

Market forces

Adding to the uncertainty is what Sullivan calls “a buyer’s market”, meaning the talent supply is higher than demand. Plus, brands are probably more mindful of budgets. Some designers’ requests — like moving the design studio to a different city — might not be taken into consideration anymore.

More importantly, their tenure can be short-lived if expectations aren’t met. Today, creative directors are often given just a few seasons to prove commercial success, even when the odds are stacked against them. And it’s not easy to find a new job.

“It’s currently a very competitive market for designers. Thousands of fashion school graduates enter the job market every year. There are many very good designers and very few open jobs. The more senior you become, the rarer the opportunities are,” says Bouleau.

And while the designer pool is larger, there are no new sizable luxury brands emerging, since the barriers to entry are higher than ever, driven by steep marketing and retail costs and the absence of wholesale channels to provide support.

De Saint Pierre notes: “Which creator or designer, based in Europe, will be able in their lifetime to build a brand with the economic scale of Armani, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, or Jil Sander? In France, among the new generation, Jacquemus is an absolute exception. The underlying question is: how will young designers be able to create long-lasting brands?”

Simon Porte Jacquemus is the founder and creative force behind the independent luxury brand Jacquemus.

Photo: Getty Images

This means designers are seeking new opportunities. Asia attracts well-known artistic directors who worked for major European luxury brands. Kim Jones has been appointed creative director of China’s Bosideng’s sub-brand, Areal. Kris Van Assche has collaborated with Chinese activewear giant Anta and Clare Waight Keller with Japanese retailer Uniqlo. Most recently, Francesco Risso was appointed creative director of GU, Uniqlo’s sister brand, after helming Marni for nearly a decade.

“Asia’s premium brands are a good alternative platform for designers, and the brands that hire them get the allure of their creations and the uplift in terms of image,” says Mario Ortelli, managing director of Ortelli & Co. These companies have the kind of financial firepower that smaller European heritage houses don’t have. “And at the same time in Europe, we like to find new faces,” says Bouleau.

New faces can come from the East. Kering announced in November a partnership with Shanghai Fashion Week to launch the Kering Craft initiative, identifying promising Chinese designers who will participate in a residency program spanning Milan, Paris, and Shanghai.

Chinese fashion designer Mark Gong showcased his SS26 collection at Shanghai Fashion Week.

Photo: Jia Cheng Ou/ Courtesy of Markgong

The creative director of 2035

Thinking ahead also inevitably brings AI to mind. “If creative directors don’t use AI in the future, they will have to justify the added value — if there is any — of working in a traditional way,” says Paul Billot, an independent designer who graduated from Institut Français de la Mode with a master’s degree in fashion design in 2025.

The role of the creative director will continue to evolve as younger designers score new roles. It may sound cliché, but Gen Z truly values work-life balance. And so, Bouleau anticipates a change in mindset when Gen Z takes the creative helm. “Most of the time, their approach is: we’re not saving lives with fashion. This is my dream job, but I’d still like to go home at 7pm if possible. So ultimately, if this has a kind of trickle-down impact on the entire industry in the future, it could also lead to a healthier relationship with fashion overall.”

The big change will come with Gen Alpha, says Billot. “What’s being asked of Gen Z designers today is to look at Gen Alpha,” he says. “There’s something more polarized about Gen Alpha, more polymorphic. This could lead to a major comeback of creativity.”