Egor Sharay is a Dubai-based journalist, cultural analyst, and influencer specializing in contemporary culture and the global art scene. Author of ‘Dubai: The Art of Wealth’ book and editor of BURO247.me Russian edition, he explores the intersections of creativity, commerce, and identity with refined prose and a distinctly intellectual voice.
They say chess is a game of slow strategy, patience, and sacrifice – and when you watch what’s unfolding in luxury fashion today, you recognize the same choreography: pieces shifting across a vast, gleaming board, each move revealing both genius and gamble. If one imagines the fashion landscape as a grand chessboard – and lately, I do precisely that – we are witnessing a match of extraordinary complexity. The players, our storied maisons, act with the deliberation of grandmasters and the audacity of dreamers. From my vantage point in Dubai – a city that turned strategy itself into an art form – these movements tell a deeper story of transformation in a world learning once again to value beauty over speed.
The Board Is Set
The luxury sector now finds itself navigating what McKinsey once called “a maze of compounding challenges”: economic uncertainty, shifting consumption, and a softening market. In such conditions, every creative reshuffle becomes more than a personnel shift – it’s a declaration of intent, a strategic gambit in what Business of Fashion aptly names a “reset era.” The global luxury market, projected to grow only 2–4% annually between 2025 and 2027, is slowing from its decade-long sprint. Expansion has diluted exclusivity, and the question becomes: what still makes luxury luxurious?
Consumers – particularly the discerning young – now crave authenticity and artistry, not logos. “We’ve built global brands,” a Dubai-based executive told me recently, “now we must remember how to build desire.” The creative director thus becomes more than designer – he or she is the custodian of longing, translating heritage into emotion.
Dior’s Move – Jonathan Anderson
Jonathan Anderson’s leap from Loewe to Dior is arguably the most symbolic play of this fashion season – a shift from intellectual craft to imperial grandeur. After 11 transformative years at Loewe, where he recast the brand as a dialogue between concept and craftsmanship, Anderson steps into Dior’s luminous corridors with both reverence and rebellion. His appointment as the sole creative director across men’s, women’s, and couture signals not just a promotion but a recalibration.
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Industry insiders interpret this as LVMH’s calculated overture to Dior’s 80th anniversary in 2027 – an alignment of heritage with vision. Under Anderson, Dior may evolve into something more contemplative: couture as architecture of thought rather than spectacle. Expect silhouettes that breathe philosophy, materials that whisper rather than shout. It’s a move from statement to sentence, from power to poise.
Maria Grazia Chiuri’s departure closes a chapter defined by feminist dialogue and accessible iconography. Her legacy – political, poetic, profoundly human – leaves Anderson both freedom and pressure. For Dior, the next act may not be louder, but infinitely deeper.
Loewe’s Move – McCollough & Hernandez
With Anderson’s exit, Loewe turns the page to a new duo: Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the sharp minds behind Proenza Schouler. Known for sculptural minimalism and urban intelligence, they bring New York’s pragmatic poetry to Madrid’s artisanal heart. Their appointment suggests a rebalancing – less cerebral theater, more tactile realism.
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Under Anderson, Loewe became fashion’s thinking man’s brand: leather woven with metaphor. Now, McCollough and Hernandez inherit both a loyal audience and towering expectations. Can they preserve that emotional currency while infusing the brand with youthful precision? Early whispers suggest a Loewe that feels brisker, more architectural, with city edge tempered by Spanish warmth.
Handbags and ready-to-wear may lean into silhouette play and functional chic, bridging craftsmanship with modern rhythm. Expect refinement with pulse – a dialogue between the atelier and the street. “Proenza Loewe,” as one editor quipped, might be the industry’s next fascinating hybrid: a brand fluent in both structure and spontaneity.
Chanel’s Move – Matthieu Blazy
Matthieu Blazy’s ascension from Bottega Veneta to Chanel marks another inspired realignment – an evolution rather than revolution. Known for his quiet innovation and intellectual grace, Blazy arrives to breathe nuance into a house too often accused of playing it safe. Chanel, after Virginie Viard’s gentle stewardship, needs reinvigoration without rupture, modernity without noise.
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Blazy, who mastered the art of subtle reinvention at Bottega, approaches heritage with the precision of a sculptor and the restraint of a poet. Expect a reimagining of Chanel’s vocabulary – tweed reinterpreted through light and movement, tailoring softened into second-skin geometry. The goal is not to disrupt Coco’s codes but to let them exhale anew.
His Chanel will likely feel intimate, sensual, and deeply material. Less social uniform, more self-expression. “Luxury,” he once hinted, “should make you feel understood, not impressed.” In his hands, Chanel might rediscover that elusive balance: fashion as reflection, not performance.
Valentino’s Move – Alessandro Michele
The most theatrical of all plays is Alessandro Michele’s homecoming at Valentino. The former Gucci visionary, known for baroque maximalism and romantic excess, steps into Pierpaolo Piccioli’s sacred space – a brand that, under Piccioli, distilled elegance into near-religious minimalism. The contrast could not be more cinematic.
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Michele’s appointment suggests Valentino’s return to emotional flamboyance. Expect collections that feel like visual sonnets – embroidery as punctuation, color as confession. Where Piccioli pursued purity, Michele will chase transcendence. His Valentino may look like an operatic dialogue between past and future – Renaissance meets rapture.
It is also a strategic move for the house: Valentino seeks re-enchantment in an era fatigued by restraint. Michele, with his mythic sensibility, is uniquely equipped to restore romance as a commercial force. “Beauty must shock again,” he once said – and in today’s aesthetic austerity, that sounds almost revolutionary.
Gucci’s Move – Demna Gvasalia
Gucci’s board reshuffle has brought Demna Gvasalia – Balenciaga’s provocateur – into the fold after Sabato De Sarno’s brief, restrained reign. If Michele was Gucci’s dreamer and De Sarno its minimalist, Demna is its disruptor: a designer fluent in irony, commerce, and chaos.
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His arrival signals Kering’s decisive pivot from nostalgia to confrontation. The post-pandemic consumer no longer wants quiet luxury alone; they crave tension, commentary, emotion. Demna’s Gucci is expected to provoke conversation as much as desire – street culture refracted through Florentine decadence. Think heritage logos deconstructed, bourgeois silhouettes fractured and reassembled with subversive clarity.
De Sarno’s exit after disappointing sales reveals the stakes: creativity now answers directly to capital. Yet, Demna’s genius lies in his ability to turn critique into commodity. For Gucci, this is both risk and renewal – a bet that controversy, when intelligent, still sells. The question is whether the world is ready for irony in a brand built on sensual sincerity.
Bottega Veneta’s Move – Louise Trotter
Louise Trotter’s debut at Bottega Veneta exudes quiet strength – a study in restraint and refinement. Known for her sharp tailoring and minimalist rigor, Trotter honors the house’s legacy of “discreet luxury” while adding her own architectural discipline. Each garment feels built rather than designed, every line deliberate.
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Having shaped her craft across Whistles, Joseph, Lacoste, and Calvin Klein, she brings a cosmopolitan polish that blends Northern precision with Italian sensuality. Her first collection revealed an eloquent tension: structure meeting softness, practicality turned poetic. There’s power in her subtlety – the kind that whispers but never wavers.
She is, notably, the only woman at the creative helm within Kering’s major houses, a fact not lost on observers. In an industry obsessed with spectacle, Trotter’s approach feels restorative: fashion as calm intelligence. Her Bottega is about motion, texture, and authenticity – the kind of luxury that reveals itself only upon touch.
Versace’s Move – Dario Vitale
Versace’s latest play carries both emotion and precision. Donatella Versace’s transition to Chief Brand Ambassador marks the graceful exit of a legend, ensuring continuity while opening the runway for Dario Vitale, formerly of Miu Miu. His appointment signals a generational shift – a recalibration of glamour for the new era.
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Vitale inherits a house synonymous with opulence and provocation. His task: to refine, not restrain. Expect collections where baroque drama meets sleek modernism – still seductive, but with sharper tailoring, subtler palette, and digital-age rhythm. The goal is evolution without erasure: to make Versace feel essential again, not nostalgic.
Simultaneously, the Prada Group’s acquisition of Versace adds an intriguing subplot. With Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada overseeing creative strategy, Vitale operates within a rare hierarchy of mentorship. It’s a complex move – corporate chess meets creative alchemy – but potentially transformative. Versace may finally find balance: the theater of sensuality performed with architectural grace.
Proenza Schouler’s Move
Now under new corporate leadership and awaiting a fresh creative director, Proenza Schouler enters its own quiet metamorphosis. Founders McCollough and Hernandez, though departing for Loewe, remain shareholders and creative advisors – a gesture of continuity in transition.
The brand’s DNA – New York intellect meets feminine pragmatism – remains intact. Yet, its next chapter depends on whether it can scale beyond insider acclaim into global relevance. For a label built on urban sharpness, this intermission feels less like retreat and more like recalibration. In fashion’s current tempo, sometimes the boldest move is to pause.
Carven, Miu Miu, Armani – The Ecosystem Promotion
A subtler strategy unfolds in the ecosystem of internal promotions. Mark Thomas, after joining Carven in 2023, ascends to creative director – a nod to consistency and faith in organic growth. Francesca Nicoletti’s elevation at Miu Miu follows years of collaboration with Dario Vitale, preserving synergy as both brands enter the Prada orbit.
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Meanwhile, at Armani, legacy becomes lineage. Silvana Armani and Leo Dell’Orco quietly steer the ship – she overseeing women’s collections, he the broader vision – continuing Giorgio Armani’s philosophy of measured evolution. No new designer announced, no theatrical gesture. In a world obsessed with novelty, Armani’s calm is its own form of genius.
Checkmate? The Future of Creative Direction
As the pieces settle into their new positions, one truth emerges: the creative director’s role has expanded beyond artistry. Today’s designer must be strategist, economist, storyteller, and diplomat. They must speak the language of TikTok without betraying the codes of couture, justify price tags while preaching sustainability.
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Luxury’s value proposition – its link between imagination and material perfection – has weakened under the weight of growth. The new guard’s task is to restore it. In this chess match between heritage and innovation, success belongs to those who move not just cleverly, but meaningfully. The industry’s leadership reshuffles – Kering, Jil Sander, Thom Browne – mirror this alignment of vision and execution. Creativity now sits beside commerce, not beneath it.
And so, the board is reset. The players are poised. The next collections will reveal who has mastered not only the art of fashion – but the strategy of staying relevant. In the end, fashion is not about checkmate, but perpetual motion. The beauty lies in the game itself.
