Pierpaolo Piccioli Leaves Balenciaga After Less Than Two Years

In a statement on Thursday, 5 November 2026, the Kering group announced that Balenciaga’s creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli has stepped down. Appointed to Balenciaga in May 2025 after a 25-year career at Valentino, the Italian designer bows out before completing his second year at the house. Kering said Balenciaga’s new creative leadership will be announced soon; for now, no successor has been officially named.

WWD's post announcing Piccioli's departure

A short but ambitious tenure

Piccioli’s appointment was announced on 19 May 2025, and the designer officially took up the role on 10 July 2025. Succeeding Demna, who moved to Gucci, Piccioli took charge of the womenswear, menswear, accessories and haute couture collections. The appointment was read as a clear departure from the streetwear-adjacent, provocative direction of the Demna era.

The designer presented his first collection, for Spring/Summer 2026, in Paris in October 2025. In it, he turned to the Balenciaga archive, showing voluminous, colour-blocked pieces inspired by founder Cristóbal Balenciaga’s 1957 “sack” dress. In the seasons that followed came a pre-fall collection, a collaboration with the NBA and the Fall/Winter 2026 collection. That latest collection, which carried a darker mood, received a lukewarm response from critics.

Balenciaga's Skiwear collection campaign by Pierpaolo Piccioli

Statements from Kering

Balenciaga president and CEO Gianfranco Gianangeli opened his statement with the words “We are deeply grateful for Pierpaolo’s contribution to Balenciaga”, expressing deep gratitude for Piccioli’s contribution to the brand. Gianangeli also said that, through the importance he placed on craftsmanship, construction and creativity, the designer had brought the house’s couture roots back to the fore.

Kering CEO Luca de Meo, for his part, described Piccioli as an exceptional couturier. De Meo said the group’s aim is to carry forward the brand’s avant-garde spirit while honouring Balenciaga’s heritage.

Change at three major brands at once

Piccioli’s departure is the latest chapter in a sweeping creative overhaul at Kering. On 9 October, the group announced the end of Anthony Vaccarello’s decade at Saint Laurent, and on 15 October, the departure of Seán McGirr from McQueen. The group is therefore searching for new creative leadership at three of its best-known brands at the same time. Commentators suggest that de Meo, who took office in 2025 and is known for his cost discipline, has accelerated these changes as part of a plan to reposition the group’s brands.

Who will succeed him?

Although there has been no official announcement, the name circulating most in the fashion press is Martine Rose, the London designer who previously worked on Balenciaga’s menswear line. For now, this is only a rumour and has not been confirmed by Kering or Balenciaga. Should Rose arrive, the brand is expected to place greater emphasis on menswear.

Why it matters

Creative directors’ tenures have become markedly shorter in recent years, and Piccioli’s departure is one of the most striking examples of this trend. That a designer who arrived with a slow-burning approach rooted in the couture tradition should be judged on the results of just two seasons shows how keenly luxury groups feel the pressure of sales. Balenciaga is cited among the Kering brands that have been through a difficult stretch in recent quarters.

Seen from Turkey, these changes will directly shape the look of the coming seasons, from store windows to campaign faces. To follow which fashion weeks will host the new creative directors’ debut collections, take a look at our 2026-2027 fashion week calendar.

Sources

Image: Balenciaga’s Miami Design District store (representative image) — Phillip Pessar, Flickr, CC BY 2.0