Martine Rose Is Named Balenciaga Creative Director a Day After Pierpaolo Piccioli's Exit Is Confirmed

The same report notes trade press speculation about weak sales of his couture and a sharp fall in menswear revenue, and says Puck reported that staff had been told internally. Those are reports of reports, and neither company has confirmed commercial reasons for the change.

Who is Martine Rose?

Rose founded her eponymous label in 2007. Kering's announcement, carried by the Manila Times, credits her with a body of work rooted in subculture, music and identity, with a London-informed perspective, and notes her collaborations with artists and brands. She will be based in Paris and starts as creative director on 16 November.

Rose said it was a true privilege to be appointed and pledged to honour the house's heritage. De Meo said she brings a fresh, fearless and deeply contemporary vision, and Gianangeli called her an extraordinary creative talent with a bold and highly distinctive vision.

What happens to Balenciaga now?

The release does not say when Rose will show her first collection, and no date has been announced for it. The usual calendar would put a debut on a Paris runway some months after her start, but that is an inference, not a Kering statement. What is certain is the profile of the appointment: a London-based designer with her own label taking over a house that has passed from Demna to Piccioli and now to a third creative voice in about eighteen months.

Expect the next few weeks to be spent on the questions Kering has not answered, including how much of Piccioli's team stays and what the first collection will say about price and audience. For a group under pressure to turn its brands around, the answer will be watched as closely as the clothes.