Dive Brief:
- This week Gucci EVP Piero Braga left to become the new CEO at Italian fashion company Slowear.
- The departure follows last week’s exit of Robert Triefus, who left Gucci to serve as CEO at Sportswear Company S.p.A., which makes casual menswear brand Stone Island.
- Gucci parent company Kering has been in the midst of a restructuring period at the brand since it announced sluggish 2022 brand revenues earlier this year, and the departure of its creative director Alessandro Michele late last year.
Dive Insight:
Recent moves signal further disruption as the Italian luxury house tries to reverse its fortunes.
Braga, who will also become a Slowear board member, has held several positions at Gucci, most recently serving as executive vice president, strategic adviser and board member. Previously, he was the executive vice president of indirect channels, outlet and travel retails, and before that he was CEO of Gucci’s timepieces division.
Monica Marsilli, who was vice president and global general merchandise manager at Gucci until 2020, is also a new Slowear board member.
Meanwhile, Triefus spent 15 years at Gucci and was most recently CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures, and senior executive vice president of corporate and brand strategy. Prior to that, he was executive vice president of brand and client engagement.
The senior EVP role was new for Triefus, who only took on the position in September amid a flurry of C-suite changes at Gucci Americas and Gucci China. At the time, WWD reported that Triefus might eventually look to become a strategic consultant for Gucci.
That was then. In the interim, Gucci China and U.S. sales drooped, and Jean-Marc Duplaix, Kering’s CFO told Reuters in February that Gucci's 2022 performance "did not meet our expectations."
Gucci’s new creative director, Sabato De Sarno, is scheduled to present his first runway collection for the brand at Milan Women’s Fashion Week in September 2023, and Kering said in an April release that he’ll “be responsible for defining and expressing the House’s creative vision through womenswear, menswear, leather goods, accessories and lifestyle collections.”
He has an intimidating runway to walk following the unexpected departure late last year of Alessandro Michele, who was credited with revitalizing the house and delivering record revenues, even during the early days of COVID-19. Michele, who joined Gucci in 2022 and became its creative director in 2015, left just before presenting the men’s 2023 fall collection following rumors of a rift.
Gucci did not respond to requests for comment by press time, and the Kering website currently has an open listing for ‘GUCCI Manager, Public Relations.’
