JW Anderson Out at LOEWE? Hedi Slimane to Gucci? Inside Fashion's Juiciest Rumors
For folks, fashion is a spectator sport. These are the people who cheer new creative director hirings like others jeer basketball draft picks. For better or worse, it's all entertainment.
This is why, to a select bunch, fashion's creative director reshufflings are such big news that even rumors of future shakeups are of equal import to the official announcements.
The near-constant creative director rumblings of the past year or so have thus generated endless hype, endless speculation, and endless enthusiasm from the people spinning and sharing the rumors.
Everyone wants to be first to make the right call and everyone wants to have their say on it.
For instance, in the six exhaustive months between Virginie Viard leaving Chanel and Bottega Veneta's Matthieu Blazy unexpectedly taking her place, outlets and random Instagram pages alike shared vague updates from shadowy sources positing that this designer or that designer — Jeremy Scott! Hedi Slimane! — were in the running for the top spot.
The cycle of suspicions slowed following Blazy's announcement, which itself capped a string of arrivals and departures, including John Galliano out at Margiela and Louise Trotter of Lacoste and Carven in at Bottega. But then it picked right back up as we entered 2025, with a series of loose ends becoming suddenly intertwined in a series of all-caps assertations.
Let's pick through the resulting quilt of hyperbole and see which strands hold their weight and why (NIGO x Louis Vuitton part three is a separate story entirely).
Kim Jones Leaving Dior Homme
This is an interesting one, a rumor that's persisted since at least 2023. I've heard from various insiders — my own shadowy sources! — that Jones was planning a departure at various points in 2024, though he did not actually leave. Instead, he oversaw seasonal Dior Homme collaborations throughout the year, accented by team-ups with Stone Island, Louis Hamilton, and KAWS (his second for Dior).
Since then, whispers of Jones' departure have mostly died down. However, it now coincides with another rumor:
Jonathon Anderson Leaving LOEWE
This is the big one, the juiciest rumor with the most potential hype. Anderson became LOEWE's creative director in 2013 and has not moved since. Instead, the world has come to him.
Everyone loves Anderson's LOEWE, because how can you not? It's informed by ingenius clothes, savvy collaborations, famous friends, and abundant crossover appeal. So, when rumors of Anderson's departure from LOEWE were first kicked up a few months back, I was initially skeptical. The guy has it all: What does he get from going elsewhere?
But there's certainly some interesting wrinkles here. For instance, Anderson looked oddly weepy at the end of his Spring/Summer 2025 runway presentation, according to several attendees. These weren't merely the happy tears of a satisfied leader — something was amiss.
Jonathon Anderson Joining Dior
Anderson is supposedly heading to Dior, another LVMH-owned label, where he'd replace both Kim Jones on menswear and Maria Grazia Chiuri on womenswear.
Chiuri has been a reliable earner for Dior though LVMH recently announced some underwhelming quarterly revenues, likely making management sweat. Chiuri has been at Dior for nearly 10 years, though, so also likely she could be looking for her own change of pace.
Highsnobiety has reached out to Dior representatives for comment.
John Galliano Joining Dior
Now, this is a relatively minor rumor born of Miss Tweed, an outlet devoted to industry scuttlebutt. You'll hear more from them soon. In the meantime, they made this declaration (as always, citing "sources") in the days following Galliano's December departure from Maison Margiela. But, since putting this one forth, they've joined a louder chorus in singing the following tune:
Proenza Schouler Joining LOEWE
With Jonathan Anderson out at LOEWE, who's to replace him? Fashion writer Graciela Martin is quite sure that it's Proenza Schouler, according to a January 10 LinkedIn post.
Cofounders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez have cannily evolved Proenza Schouler into a staple of New York fashion over the past 23 years, earning industry respect, a devoted audience, and crossover moments with labels like Vans and Mercedes-Benz.
Proenza Schouler is going so strong, in fact, that it's unlikely to slow down even if McCollough and Hernandez actually are joining LOEWE: The label only just opened a new NYC flagship store and appointed a new CEO in October.
Highsnobiety has reached out to LOEWE representatives for comment.
Luke and Lucie Meier Leaving Jil Sander, Joining LOEWE
This is an odd one. In early 2025, Miss Tweed asserted that Luke and Lucie Meier, the couple who took over Jil Sander's creative director duties in 2017, would soon decamp Jil Sander, possibly to take over LOEWE.
This jars with the aforementioned report, which Miss Tweed shared shortly after, that Proenza Schouler would be taking the lead at LOEWE. But there's also always possibility that the Meiers may simply leave Jil Sander and not join another company.
Highsnobiety has reached out to Jil Sander representatives for comment.
Hedi Slimane Joining Gucci
Hedi Slimane's surprise exit from CELINE, where he singularly reshaped the luxury label in his own image, did not have a clear trajectory. There was much buzz about Slimane jetting off to Chanel, whose former overseer, Karl Lagerfeld, was famously enamored with the French designer's slim-fit clothes.
And, now, there's a moderate amount of buzz about Slimane joining Gucci later this year. @StyleNotCom-inspired outlet @BoringNotCom reported on both the rumor and the moment that Sabato De Sarno, current Gucci creative director, Liked the post. An affirmation? An amused reacion? Unclear.
There has been some reporting about flagging sales during the De Sarno era, which some analysts assert is performing "even worse than we thought" so this may have some presumptive precedence.
Highsnobiety has reached out to Gucci representatives for comment.
Prada Buying Versace
And, finally, we come to a rumor that has nothing about creative directors but I figured was still worth a shout.
In early January, rumblings of a major fashion acquisition raised some eyebrows. Specifically, word was that Prada Group was considering purchasing Versace from embattled parent company Capri Holdings.
This is early days, and who knows if it'll come to pass at all, but it's perhaps the most intriguing of all the possibilities on the board thus far.
After all, when it comes to fashion, creative directors are temporary. Luxury conglomerates are forever.
