Does Alessandro Michele's future lie in France or Italy?

Ever since Alessandro Michele stepped down as creative director of Gucci in November 2022, speculation about his future has been mounting. Everyone is wondering what his next job will be and at which brand he will end up with his maximalist and eccentric style full of references and inspirations from art, philosophy, cinema and pop culture. Insiders, fashion fans and probably even your uncle keep mentioning names of more or less important maisons where they believe Michele, reading unlikely hints in his Instagram posts or coffee grounds, could soon end up there to propose new fashion again. A whole group of people are convinced his next destination is France. The Roman designer is expected to pack his bags for Paris to head one of the biggest luxury companies. This theory was also supported this week by Bryanboy, who tweeted: "First person to guess which French brand Alessandro Michele is moving to gets a cookie!". Under the tweet, commenters were divided between Balenciaga, who predicted an imminent departure of Demna, Lanvin, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Chanel. The latter two Maisons are among the most quoted, although there are no real reasons and no rumours of Maria Grazia Chiuri or Virginie Viard being fired. The speculation is merely based on the personal taste and hopes of the author, who finds the style presented by the two creative directors unsatisfactory or cool and sees Michele as a more interesting option. At one point there was even talk of Bulgari, as the Roman creative has a passion for jewellery, but this is just conjecture unsupported by fact.

Rumours about Alessandro Michele's future have been fuelled in recent hours by the news of Jeremy Scott's departure from Moschino. Reading between the lines of the post with which Scott shared his decision, it is clear that a new job is already waiting for him. The position vacated by the Italian brand seems perfect for some to house the creative flair of the former Gucci. However, his name does not seem to be one of the top candidates for the role at the moment, coming much later than, say, Richard Quinn's or Charles Jeffrey Loverboy's. There are those who see in the umpteenth departure of a creative director with an eccentric and maximalist style a desire on the part of the big brands to move away from theatricality and towards "timelessness"," towards a more minimalist, perhaps conventional, but certainly more direct and versatile fashion. It makes you wonder if there is still a place for the personality and unique creations of Alessandro Michele. We hope there is. Wherever he goes, we hope to see new work from him soon.