The Biggest Designer Exits of 2024: Dries Van Noten, Hedi Slimane, Kim Jones, Virginie Viard and More

Kim Jones and Fendi parted ways in October 2024 after an eventful four-year collaboration that saw the Roman house dabble with collaborations and destination shows. He was named to the role in 2020.

The British designer, whose title at Fendi was artistic director of haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women, is to continue in his role as artistic director of men’s collections at Dior in Paris.

As of mid-October a succession plan had yet to be revealed. The company said only that “a new creative organization for Fendi” would be announced “in due time” at the time of Jones’ exit.

According to market sources, Fendi has recently held discussions with designers including Pierpaolo Piccioli, previously creative director of Valentino.

During his tenure at Fendi, Jones frequently referenced ready-to-wear designed by Karl Lagerfeld, who had famously created furs and women’s rtw for the Roman house from 1965 until his death in 2019.

Jones also collaborated closely with Silvia Venturini Fendi, artistic director of accessories and menswear collections, and her daughter Delfina Delettrez Fendi, jewelry creative director, whom he considered a key muse.

He took a client-focused approach centered on real clothes and the lifestyle needs of his close circle of female friends, which includes the likes of Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Ronnie Cooke Newhouse and Victoria Beckham.

He took pride in commercial success, and frequently boasted that Fendi revenues grew during his tenure to surpass 2 billion euros. His collections received mostly positive, though hardly ecstatic, reviews, and it is understood some LVMH insiders looked dimly on some of his projects at Fendi.

In September 2021, he surprised the fashion world by pioneering a full creative swap: Donatella Versace designed a Fendi collection and Jones a Versace lineup for pre-fall 2022 retailing.

In 2022, Jones tapped Marc Jacobs to create a collection within Fendi’s spring 2023 women’s collection that was shown during New York Fashion Week, and also teamed with Tiffany & Co. for special Baguette handbags. He followed up in 2023 with a Stefano Pilati collaboration under the new “Friends of Fendi” banner.

A veteran of LVMH, Jones came on board in 2011 as men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton, parlaying his zest for exotic travel into ultraluxurious collections with understated cool and sly functionality. He helped ignite the luxury streetwear phenomenon with the landmark 2017 collaboration with Supreme, the cult New York skatewear brand.

Since joining the men’s division of Dior in 2018, Jones stepped up the pace of collaborations, mostly with fine artists including Daniel Arsham, Kaws and Amoako Boafo, but also the surfwear maven Shawn Stussy, and the Jordan brand.

Filippo Grazioli exited Missoni in October 2024 in an “amicable and consensual parting at the end of Filippo’s mandate,” in the words of Livio Proli, chief executive officer of the Italian brand.

Grazioli had joined Missoni in 2022 and his last show was held for spring 2025 during Milan Fashion Week in September. Over his three-year tenure, he paid tribute to founders Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, revisiting the house’s zigzag and flame patterns, adding transparencies, working with knotted and draped fabrics and sexy fringed skirts.

Rumors about a potential exit of Grazioli had been circulating for some time before the announcement. Speculation was perhaps fueled by Proli’s decision to invest in the brand’s menswear collection, which was presented last June at Pitti Uomo, designed by an in-house team, while Grazioli was to continue to design Missoni’s womenswear.

A graduate of Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design, Grazioli developed his career in Paris. During an internship at Staff International, he met Martin Margiela and went on to work with the designer on the women’s collections until 2013.

In 2015, after a stint as senior women’s designer at Hermès, he made another important personal encounter, meeting Riccardo Tisci and becoming director of the collections at Givenchy. Grazioli then followed Tisci to become director of the runway collection at Burberry.

At Missoni, Grazioli was succeeded by Alberto Caliri whose first collection will bow for pre-fall.

The latter is no stranger to the brand having first joined Missoni in 1998 and succeeding Angela Missoni as creative director ad interim in May 2021. His first collections in that role for spring and fall 2022 received positive reviews. A year later, he crossed over to the brand’s home collection and led a new phase for the division, which has been supervised by cofounder Rosita Missoni.

Celine and Hedi Slimane parted ways after a fruitful, seven-year collaboration in October 2024, a few days after he unveiled his spring 2025 women’s collection for the French fashion house part of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton stable, which reaffirmed his reputation as a formidable fashion designer, filmmaker and dream weaver, able to crystalize a style and present idealized imagery that’s compelling and precise.

Slimane took over the design reins of Celine in 2018, with a mandate to expand the heritage brand into menswear, couture and fragrance.

He took a different tack from its previous creative leader, English designer Phoebe Philo, bringing a blast of cool and youth to Celine. After a few aesthetic tweaks, and after Slimane unearthed the Triomphe logo, Celine took off like a rocket, synonymous with cool, French-girl style with a bourgeois twist.

He meticulously built Celine into a complete universe, adding stationery, headphones, pet accessories, other lifestyle products and Celine Beauté, the first cosmetics line in the house’s history. Lipsticks were added recently, and an eyeliner is out next. The beauty line dovetailed with Slimane’s launch of the Celine haute parfumerie collection, which debuted in 2019.

However, it is understood relations between Slimane and LVMH management had grown increasingly strained.

His next move could not immediately be learned. To be sure, he has a track record of revving up a brand and then leaving at the height of its success.

Slimane cemented his reputation — and influenced men’s tailoring for more than a decade — as the designer of Dior Homme between 2000 and 2007. He went on to reinvent and ignite the Kering-owned house of Yves Saint Laurent, which he rechristened Saint Laurent, between 2012 and 2016 — all the while maintaining a close rapport with the Arnault family, which controls LVMH and Dior.

In a surprise move, Alberta Ferretti revealed she was stepping down from the creative role of her namesake brand. Her last show for the brand was paraded for spring 2025 during Milan Fashion Week.

The news came amid a planned reorganization of parent company Aeffe, which also controls the Moschino, Pollini and Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini brands.

In October 2024, Aeffe promoted Lorenzo Serafini creative director of the Alberta Ferretti brand. His first collection for the brand will bow in February.

The group rewarded Serafini, who joined the group in 2014, when Ferretti handed him the design reins of the Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini label. As part of the group’s restructuring and new strategy, the latter brand will be integrated into the Alberta Ferretti line from the fall 2025 season.

Ferretti launched the brand in 1981 and built it into a go-to for feminine and romantic concoctions that won over celebrities and A-listers, at list since 2000, when Uma Thurman wore the designer’s crimson dress at the Academy Awards that made headlines.

The designer carved a very specific image, catering to a feminine customer who at the same time is independent and confident, a working woman who needs to feel at ease and comfortable in her skin, as she has often remarked.

At the same time, the designer has been dubbed the queen of chiffon, for her talent in creating romantic, dreamy evening gowns and slipdresses in that material, which became a staple on the red carpet. Ferretti’s dresses have been spotted on Sandra Bullock, Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Amal Clooney, Regina King, Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria, Kate Winslet and more stars.

Ferretti continues to hold the role of vice president of parent group Aeffe, while dedicating her time to her passions, including art. 

Glenn Martens stepped down as creative director of Y/Project in September 2024 after an 11-year tenure, leaving a question mark hanging over the future of the label.

Y/Project’s spring 2025 runway show, initially scheduled to take place on Sept. 29 during Paris Fashion Week, was canceled, after the label had already been forced to scrap its fall 2024 runway show due to cash flow issues.

Martens had been involved with Y/Project since it was launched in 2010 by Yohan Serfaty. Having worked as Serfaty’s first assistant, he took over the creative reins following the founder’s untimely death in 2013.

The Belgian designer retained the foundations laid by Serfaty — the graphic, elongated sharp lines — while reenvisioning the brand through his own experimental lens. He also expanded Y/Project to womenswear.

Under Marten’s creative lead, the brand — which won the ANDAM Grand Prize in 2017 and was a finalist for the 2016 edition of the LVMH Prize for Young Designers — gained a cult following with its trademark twisted constructions and collaborations with brands including Brazilian footwear label Melissa and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Celebrities including Hailey Bieber, Rihanna and Kylie Jenner have sported its designs, including the notorious thigh-high scrunched boots and denim panties.

After Martens’ exit and the passing of Gilles Elalouf, the cofounder of the brand, in June 2024, the company was placed into receivership by a Paris commercial court on Sept. 26, according to legal filings.

After two years, Andrea Incontri and Benetton Group parted ways at the end of August 2024, marking the latest change at the Italian company.

Benetton said the decision was made in mutual agreement as “part of the rearrangement of the organization that is taking place, aimed at defining the team of managers that will flank” newly appointed chief executive officer Claudio Sforza in this “new phase of  rationalization and relaunch of the company.”

Responsibilities on creativity and design were handed over to the internal team.

Incontri joined Benetton in July 2022 from Tod’s, where he was men’s creative director. His first collection bowed for spring 2023 during Milan Fashion Week. The designer succeeded in delivering fun and youthful collections in sync with the brand, which he characterized as a pioneer in embracing inclusion, diversity and sustainability through its timeless and long-lasting designs, as well as a wardrobe of daily essentials.

Incontri’s exit did not come as a surprise as the company is going through a restructuring after former CEO Massimo Renon left Benetton in June.

That development followed an interview co-founder Luciano Benetton gave to Italy’s daily Corriere della Sera last spring, saying that he felt “betrayed” by his managers, without naming Renon. Benetton claimed they drove the company into the red and that he had only recently found out just how bad the situation was.

Benetton decided to leave the company once again after returning in January 2018 as its executive president to spearhead yet another turnaround. He had retired in April 2012, the same year that the company delisted from the Milan Stock Exchange. Luciano Benetton founded the fashion group with his siblings Carlo, Giuliana and Gilberto.

Peter Hawkings exited Tom Ford in July 2024 after unveiling only two collections for the brand.

At the time of the announcement, industry sources said Hawkings was let go and that the latest development had been very sudden.

Hawkings’ two collections were met with mixed reviews, although given his proximity to the brand’s namesake founder, they were aligned with his aesthetic and vision.

To be sure, Hawkings was not new to the label, as he began working with designer Tom Ford in 1998 as a menswear design assistant at Gucci, going on to become the senior men’s designer at the company. He left Gucci in 2006 to join Ford in the launch of his eponymous brand, where Hawkings oversaw the design and production of menswear, eventually adding accessories including eyewear, bags, shoes and jewelry. He rose through the ranks to become senior vice president of Tom Ford menswear.

In the wake of Tom Ford’s sale to The Estée Lauder Cos. in November 2022 in a deal valued at $2.8 billion, the founding designer exited the brand and picked Hawkings to succeed him.

Hawkings’ last collection for Tom Ford bowed for fall 2024 during Milan Fashion Week. The brand’s spring 2025 lineup was presented in the Milan showroom in September.

Haider Ackermann was named creative director of the luxury brand in September and will debut his first designs for the house at Paris Fashion Week in March 2025.

Under The Estée Lauder Cos.’s ownership, Tom Ford’s men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, accessories and underwear, fine jewelry, childrenswear, textile and home design products are licensed to Zegna Group, which previously held the license for menswear since around 2006. Zegna Group is in charge of the end-to-end Tom Ford Fashion business, from collection creation and development to merchandising through to production, as well as retail and wholesale distribution. Marcolin holds the perpetual license for Tom Ford eyewear.

Italian outerwear brand Khrisjoy and cofounder and creative director Marzia Bellotti parted ways in June 2024, eight years after the designer established the brand with Maurizio Purificato, who exited the company in December 2023.

The news came after Alsara Investment Group, the brand’s owner, had stepped up the game, spearheading a further development of the brand, a puffer jacket specialist positioned in the luxury range of the market and made in Italy, which garnered a cult following with its Khris cocooning hooded puffer jacket.

As of mid-October, a successor for Bellotti had yet to be named.

Alsara Investment Group acquired a majority stake in the label in 2021 and took full control of it in December 2023.

Since the acquisition, it has invested in bolstering the brand’s management team, developing its wholesale distribution, launching e-commerce operations and expanding product categories. 

The brand held its first official presentation during Milan Fashion Week in February 2024, Bellotti’s last collection for the brand.

Designer Chiara Boni exited the fashion brand she founded in 2009 last June as the company was bought out by the Germanetti family, a longstanding investor who previously owned a 50 percent stake.

Chief executive officer Maurizio Germanetti told WWD at the time that the development came as a result of different strategic views with the designer.

Known for her signature feminine and flattering frocks crafted from sustainable jersey fabrics, Chiara Boni built her brand from scratch and turned it into a global business, with historically strong footprints in the U.S., as well as Europe and the Middle East.

The brand often hosted runway shows during New York Fashion Week under the namesake’s guidance. In recent seasons it decamped to Milan, most recently holding a digital runway show under the design team’s creative leadership.

To be sure, as of mid-October, a successor for Boni had yet to be named.

After Boni’s exit, Germanetti said that a new creative organization was to be revealed in due course, hinting at the potential promotion of an internal designer to the creative director role.

Virginie Viard exited Chanel in June 2024 after five years in the role of artistic director of fashion collections.

A successor for the designer who succeeded Karl Lagerfeld after his death in 2019 had yet to be named as of mid-October.

The fall 2024 ready-to-wear collection was her last for the brand. The fall 2024 haute couture collection and spring 2025 rtw lineup were prepared by the studio team.

Viard had been with Chanel for 30 years and was the closest collaborator of creative director Lagerfeld, who helmed Chanel for more than three decades.

She began what would become a lengthy design experience as an intern at Chanel in 1987, after being recommended to the brand by the chamberlain to Prince Rainier of Monaco.

She was quickly put in charge of the house’s embroidery. Developing a close professional relationship with Lagerfeld, Viard left Chanel for Chloé when the designer — who previously designed for Chloé from 1963 to 1983 — returned to the label for the second time in 1992. Viard then left Chloé with Lagerfeld in 1997, returning to Chanel as the coordinator of haute couture.

In 2000, Viard became director of Chanel’s creation studio director, where she oversaw the haute couture, rtw and accessories collections. She worked closely with Lagerfeld on all 10 collections that Chanel produces each year.

Viard’s appointment as artistic director in 2019 marked the first time a female designer had taken the helm of the brand since Gabrielle Chanel herself.

Throughout her five-year tenure Viard was able to “renew the codes of the house while respecting the creative heritage of Chanel,” the company said. She was instrumental to the brand’s success in recent years as under her watch, Chanel’s rtw business had been multiplied by 2.5 and it grew 23 percent in 2023 alone, the company said.

After an eventful 25-year run, Pierpaolo Piccioli left Valentino in March 2024 leaving a creative vacancy that was filled a few days after by Alessandro Michele, formerly at Gucci.

Piccioli was named sole creative director of Valentino in July 2016, following the departure of Maria Grazia Chiuri to join Dior. The pair was selected in 1999 by founder Valentino Garavani to boost his brand’s accessories, which they rejuvenated successfully, for example through the introduction of the Rockstud range. They were promoted to creative directors of accessories at Valentino when Alessandra Facchinetti was assigned the same title for ready-to-wear after Garavani retired in 2007.

In 2008, they succeeded Facchinetti as creative directors of the brand.

After Chiuri’s departure in 2016, Piccioli charted a new trajectory for the brand, hinged on daring volumes and bold colors — including the Pink PP new Pantone shade for fall 2022 — and developing more daywear looks, as well as dabbling with streetwear.

Highly respectful of Garavani and the heritage of Valentino — in particular emphasizing the brand’s couture — Piccioli embraced a more diverse and inclusive approach, distancing himself from the rarefied and jet-set days of yore. He has simultaneously brought a younger spirit to the maison with a new perspective, for example choosing as Di.Vas brand ambassadors, an acronym that stands for Different Values, Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton or Suga from K-pop boy band BTS, or casting Adut Akech and Anwar Hadid for the Valentino Born in Roma fragrance.

He had come to consider Valentino his home and has frequently taken the opportunity to pay tribute to the talent of the seamstresses who have long worked for the company — highlighting the exquisite craftsmanship of Valentino’s atelier.

Piccioli’s swan song for the Roman couture house was the all-black fall 2024 collection.

The designer’s next move could not immediately be learned, but rumors have been intensifying, with market sources sharing that the designer has recently held discussions with Fendi, after the latter brand parted ways with Kim Jones and is in search of a new creative leader for haute couture, ready-to-wear and fur collections for women.

Marking the end of an era for a beloved and singular designer, Dries Van Noten stepped down from his eponymous label in June 2024, after nearly four decades in fashion — and a glorious, slow-building fashion career.

His last show in the creative director role was his men’s runway parade for the spring 2025 season, a pitch-perfect farewell event during Paris Fashion Week.

Synonymous with ravishing colors, striking prints and dignified dressing tinged with exotic details, the acclaimed Belgian designer forged a succession roadmap when he sold a majority stake in his Antwerp-based house to Puig in 2018.

A beloved figure on the fashion and retail scene, Van Noten has won numerous awards, including the WWD Honor for Designer of the Year in 2023, and the CFDA’s International Designer of the Year in 2008. He has also been decorated by Fashion Group International, the Couture Council of the Museum at FIT and the Flemish Royal Academy of Belgium.

The spring 2025 womenswear collection unveiled on the runway at Paris Fashion Week last September was led by the Antwerp-based studio team who paraded the collection in front of the namesake, sitting front row.

Walter Chiapponi exited Blumarine in March 2024 after only one collection,  the fall 2024 lineup, designed for the Italian brand.

Chiapponi’s was a rushed departure from the brand owned by Exelite, then known as Eccellenze Italiane Holding led by entrepreneur Marco Marchi. However, the designer had been open about his struggles coping with the sudden death last year of his nephew Noah.

The Milanese designer succeeded Nicola Brognano, who parted ways with the brand after four years in October 2023. Chiapponi was previously creative director of Tod’s, which he exited in September 2023.

The single collection for Chiapponi unveiled for Blumarine received mild reviews but was seen as a statement of his intention to shift away from Brognano’s Y2K aesthetics, returning to Blumarine founder Anna Molinari’s original romantic ethos. He also introduced 10 menswear looks on that catwalk.

After Chiapponi’s exit, David Koma was named creative director at Blumarine last July. His first collection for the Italian brand will bow for pre-fall 2025. 

Marchi acquired the Gruppo Blufin and its brands Blumarine, Blugirl, Anna Molinari and Be Blumarine from the founding Tarabini family in November 2019. The deal closely followed an acquisition by Eccellenze Italiane, now Exelite, of a 15 percent stake in Italian retailer Coin SpA. Marchi is also the founder of contemporary label Liu Jo, which is part of the group.