Are Creative Directors Getting A Fair Shot Or Just A Countdown?

I have been thinking about this a lot, mostly because the latest creative director exit felt less like a surprise announcement and more like a running joke the industry keeps telling itself. Dario Vitale is out of Versace after just nine months. Nine months is barely enough time to settle into the archives, let alone reshape a house as dramatic and historically charged as Versace. His first and only collection debuted in September and the Prada takeover had wrapped just a few days before the announcement of his departure. It almost played out like a scripted sequence. Prada officially closed its acquisition of the house, the industry held its breath for the first big move and then before anyone even finished debating whether Vitale’s bold silhouettes were genius or completely off track, Versace confirmed he was leaving.

Vitale had come in with serious credibility. He had been the womenswear design director at Miu Miu, a brand that has been having a cultural golden run. Everyone expected him to bring some of that sharp, offbeat Miu Miu confidence to Versace. His debut collection reflected that shift. It was polarising in the most textbook fashion way. Some people absolutely loved the unapologetic sparkle, the clown pants, leather jackets, youthful energy, kind of stepping on Gianni Versace’s vision. Others said it strayed too far from Donatella Versace’s sensual maximalism. Yet despite all the noise and the split reactions, the clothes instantly made it to major red carpets. Addison Rae, Olivia Dean, Aimee Lou, Shailene Woodley and many wore a re-designed and differently styled version of the collection on the red carpet and the designs were highly appreciated. I absolutely loved the silver sequinned bralette-panty and glove set that Addison Rae wore on her tour.

Yet that was not enough to buy him breathing room.

And this is where the pattern becomes hard to ignore. Ludovic de Saint Sernin lasted six months at Ann Demeulemeester. Sabato De Sarno had just under two years at Gucci before a reshuffle followed a drop in sales. We have reached a point where creative directors are barely getting started before the industry starts speculating about who is next.

The standard expectation used to be that a new designer needed at least three to five seasons to establish a language and get customers to understand the shift. Today, it sometimes feels like they are expected to transform a global brand in one runway while also keeping the internet entertained, the critics satisfied and the quarterly numbers stable.

I know the luxury market is slow right now. Everyone is scrambling for relevance. The younger crowd has loud opinions, even if they are not the primary spenders yet. A single look can trend for a week and then vanish. Houses want excitement and fast results. But the solution cannot be to keep rotating creative directors like playlist tracks.

The pressure to perform instantly is making the job almost impossible. Designers entering these roles have spent years building craft, working under some of the most respected names in fashion and waiting for this exact opportunity. They walk in with a vision that needs time to unfold. Removing them after one or two seasons does not just halt that vision. It destabilises the brand identity they were hired to strengthen in the first place.

I genuinely believe that some of these exits are less about talent and more about impatience. In the rush to secure numbers, luxury houses risk losing the very thing that makes them luxury. Consistency. Depth. A point of view that has been developed with care. No one can deliver any of these if they are constantly looking over their shoulder wondering if their second season will be their last.

Maybe it is time we stop expecting miracles in record time. Maybe brands need to trust the people they hire long enough for their ideas to land. If the industry wants creative directors to bring freshness, innovation and identity, they need to be given more than one shot.

Otherwise, we will keep repeating this cycle where talented designers enter a house full of potential, barely get the keys to the archive, and are already being asked to leave. That is not a creative process. That is damage control disguised as leadership.

And fashion deserves better than that.

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