A Dive into the Deals Driving the Latest Shuffle of Creative Directors

The creative directors atop the fashion and luxury spectrum are moving again. Some of the confirmed changes in recent months: Jonathan Anderson is leaving Loewe and former Proenza Schouler creatives Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez will take his place; Sabato de Sarno’s is out at Gucci and Demna’s shock appointment swiftly followed; Matthieu Blazy made headlines with his momentous appointment to the top spot at Chanel; Donatella Versace is stepping down (or being ousted?) as creative director of Versace and Miu Miu’s Dario Vitale is stepping in; Kim Jones is leaving Dior Homme and the list goes on. 

Traditionally, big-name brands have looked to keep creative directors (and other C-level figures) in place as part of a power-play in the ultra-competitive luxury market – one that has seen industry giants vie for coveted key talent and then work to prevent those stars from jumping ship to a competitor brand. One result of such intense battles for talent is rising salaries; fashion’s top creatives can take home upwards of $10 million in salary per year before any cash bonuses or equity stakes. 

Another result is the paperwork that goes into these headline-making creative director appointments (and departures). Creative director contracts routinely include strict notice periods and limits in terms of what companies the creative can – or more realistically, cannot – work for after his/her current tenure. In fact, it is common to see a notice period and iron-clad non-compete provisions inserted into creative directors’ and other key design and non-design-focused individuals’ contracts. 

But change is afoot to some extent, as companies are becoming increasingly less willing to keep their top creative and/or commercial brass in place if turnarounds are not panning out as they had hoped, and sales are not stunning. Brands “are stepping in faster if they think a turnaround is not showing enough promise,” the WSJ’s Carol Ryan writes. “This might be because the industry has become more focused on shareholder returns. And as luxury labels have grown in size, there is more to lose when a makeover attempt is not working.” 

The legal mechanism here is not just shorter contract terms but also a robust termination clause. Counsel for Hedi Slimane, Leon Del Forno, shed light on the evolving nature of deal-making in a recent interview, telling WWD: “In the last 10 years I’ve witnessed a slight shortening of [creative director] contracts and increasingly, they come with unilateral termination clauses that can be invoked by either party.” This often takes the form of “a midterm exit right, where you establish a contract for three or four years, but you determine that after two years, either side can decide to end the contract.” 

> For some perspective, industry lawyer/deal-maker Betsy Pearce previously stated that the duration of non-competes had increased “substantially as of 2017, up from an older norm of six months between gigs to nine to 12 months or more. That trend appears to be reversing. 

In order to get former creatives off of their payroll, since the enforcement of non-compete agreements often legally require companies to compensate the individual for the duration of the non-competition period, companies are opting to implement “shorter non-compete clauses of six or nine months, rather than 12,” Del Forno says. (In France, case law generally mandates that a non-competing employee be paid a “minimum” of at least to one-third of his/her average monthly salary for a non-compete agreement to be legally above-board.) And in at least some cases, Del Forno states, “We’re seeing that those non-compete clauses are not necessarily enforced.” 

As for how the state of non-competes is playing out in the world, one recent example comes by way of former Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele, who reportedly had to wait out a lengthy non-compete with the Kering-owned brand. He left Gucci in late November 2022 and took up the same job at Valentino in April 2024. Meanwhile, Matthieu Blazy made headlines in December after leaving Kering-owned Bottega Veneta and being appointed to the top spot at Chanel. He is expected to officially take up his position at Chanel in April, which suggests that Kering is enforcing a three-month-long non-compete. 

THE BOTTOM LINE: The creative director role is driven by high-stakes contracts, non-compete clauses, and pressure for quick turnarounds amid rising shareholder expectations. In a changing market, some companies appear to be enforcing shorter non-competes and more flexible exit terms to adapt to shifting market demands and control costs.