Is It That Hard to Design Gucci?

Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele had huge success at the label while others have floundered.

Loose Threads

• Hermès price increases are now in effect. The brand raised prices on handbags, silk scarves, watches, jewelry, and ready-to-wear by 4 to 5 percent, according to an analysis by Bernstein. Prices of fragrances and makeup, however, seem to be the same, indicating Hermès will take the tariff hit on these products. With prices that tend to top out under $200, these are the entry-point for aspirational shoppers. (You can get many items for less — like a lipstick for $77 or perfume for $155). Pursebop has a list of bag prices — the cheapest Birkin is now $12,700. While Hermès has continued to grow despite usual annual price increases, I hear April hasn’t been so hot.

• Is this new MAC ad, featuring Lisa Rinna and her daughter Amelia Grey, for Lipglass and Lipglass Air, selling?? Is nepotism the marketing move MAC owner Estée Lauder needs to make? The Business of Fashion called the campaign “the brand’s latest effort to restoke its cultural flame.”

  

• I’ve been The Outset-curious since The Cut reported it’s one of the best celeb beauty lines. The brand sent me their new gloss to try (marketed with ScarJo instead of nepo-babies) and the formula is… actually really good. It didn’t feel drying as many of these do. (The Cut also liked the cleanser.)

• Sabrina Carpenter wore no pants to the Met Gala because Pharrell, who designed her Louis Vuitton look, short-shamed her. “He was like: ‘You’re quite short, so no pants for you.’ So here we are,” she said on the Vogue livestream. Many pointed out that Cardi B, who’s three inches taller at 5’ 3”, looked elongated in her green Burberry coat and wide-leg trousers.

  

Next up… today’s big story.

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Is It That Hard to Design Gucci?

Gucci has had two explosive periods in the last 30 years. The first being when Tom Ford designed from 1994 to 2004, taking the brand from losing millions to $2.8 billion in sales in 2003 as part of Gucci Group. Later rebranded Kering, the conglomerate included Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

The next spectacular period came under Alessandro Michele, creative director from 2015 to 2022. Michele presented a wildly different vision from Ford. If Ford’s Gucci was a rayon gown with hip cutout, Michele’s was a prairie dress that looked like a renaissance faire on acid. When he started, annual revenue was $4.4 billion. He grew it to nearly $11.5 billion in 2021; by the time he left, sales had slipped to $10.7 billion.

Between Ford and Michele, Gucci had a sleepy decade under Alessandra Facchinetti (creative director from 2004 to 2006) and Frida Giannini (2006 to 2015). Gucci finds itself in a similar period as it transitions from Michele successor Sabato de Sarno to Balenciaga’s Demna. Only, since Gucci had become so big under Michele, the pressure is much greater. Revenue for 2024 was $8 billion, a 21 percent decrease from the previous year; and sales slumped in the first quarter of 2025 by 14 percent from the previous year.

This puts Demna, who starts at Gucci in July, in the unenviable position of needing to “save” Gucci. Let’s not forget that, while the media is telling us that Kering is in “crisis,” many businesses would love to have $8 billion in sales. But the overlords at Kering — like overlords at LVMH and many businesses — want more, more, more. More sales will require more buzz and more general goodwill toward Gucci. If it employed two designers able to deliver in the last thirty years, what gives? Is this brand especially difficult to design for? Or is there another explanation?