Artwork images are from Gucci’s new store in London

As Kering considers its next Gucci move after “promoting upwards” Alessandro Michele’s successor Sabato de Sarno — to quote LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault’s new term for firing people — at least one financial analyst believes he knows the answer to Gucci’s challenges.

WWD’s headline is ‘Analysts Pressure for Gucci to Name High Profile Creative Director’. The strategy is that the stature of the designer would help revitalize the brand and regain market prominence.

Kering’s Gucci sales for the three months ending Dec. 31 decreased 24%. Of course Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault assures financial industry professionals that Gucci is poised for a rebound.

AOC has a one-word response: Why?

Bernstein’s global luxury goods analyst Luca Solca believes he knows how to fix the problem, declaring recently that Gucci:

“needs a new, heavyweight creative director, and it needs it now. The task is to add an original and compelling fashion twist on the cleansed Gucci image Sabato De Sarno has contributed to create: more elegant, more qualitative, but dull.A heavyweight designer (say, Hedi Slimane — the most likely candidate in our view — or John Galliano or Maria Grazia Chiuri, for example) could restart the buzz around the brand, and help it to regain center stage.”

Hedi Slimane Demands Absolute, Total Control

Regarding Solca’s strong preference for Hedi Slimane, it’s not as if Slimane and Pinault don’t know each other.

The talented Mr. Slimane was creative director of Yves Saint Laurent and is regarded as having a successful four-year run from 2012 to 2016. After his departure, Slimane — with his insistence on absolute control down to shooting the ad campaigns, and his refusal to live in Paris — filed lawsuits against Saint Laurent's parent company, Kering, alleging that he was underpaid.

A French court agreed and awarded Slimane $11.5 million.

Later, Slimane filed another lawsuit regarding YSL’s continued use of photographs and videos created for campaigns while Slimane was creative director. The designer prevailed on his appeal with the French court finding that there were more than 100 instances where YSL should have paid Slimane one-year license extensions for continued use of the material.

When Slimane’s contract negotiations with LVMH broke down over his renewal at Celine, it wasn’t because LVMH was wanting Slimane to exit the company. Once again the designer and creative director delivered strong growth and financial results.

The Celine breakdown was over the high-risk brand volatility created by Slimane’s absolute control demands. No one has autocratic rule of a brand at LVMH.

Most Financial Types Say ‘Seeing Is Believing’ at Gucci

Other financial institutions don’t believe they have the magic sauce to fix Gucci. HSBC says “seeing is believing” after writing that "the visibility" of a Gucci rebound is "blurry." As to Maria Grazia Chiuri, WWD confirms that she is negotiating with LVMH over the open position at Fendi and her own desire to return to Rome.

Why she would give up a positive relationship with LVMH to rock and roll with Gucci isn’t clear. Also the Fendi brand DNA is in much better alignment with Chiuri’s own values. And for the record, she hates this artwork. And so do I — which will be clarified in a separate post.

Which brings me back to the question of what IS Gucci’s current brand DNA? To say that Gucci is poised for a rebound is akin to Elon Musk declaring that he’s rooting out waste while firing nuclear scientists and cutting off funds to America’s most elite research institutions. The man is totally out of control.

Kering needs a clear brand identity for Gucci that they can articulate to the next creative director. Or that individual must be able to convince Kering of his or her vision for the brand.

I’ve seen no evidence that Gucci is poised for a rebound, and I’ve spent two years declaring what AOC believes is wrong at the brand: for starters, it has no heart. No resonance. And it lacks the credibility to say “Trust me, you will love this next iteration of Gucci.” And yes, Sabato de Sarno’s designs were lackluster, to put it kindly.

AOC drilled down on the new Gucci store in London, while comparing a new Gucci Valigeria campaign video with a Rimowa campaign that broke soon after. You clearly see the differentiation AOC makes about Kering’s values for Gucci vs LVMH values for Rimova in the example of luggage — but different values dominate this artwork vs what would be chosen for Dior or Vuitton. This is not a negotiable observation.

Bottom line, AOC also sits in the ‘Seeing is believing’ group and Kering needs one heck of a presentation to make me believe otherwise that Gucci is poised for a rebound. Because I don’t have any idea what Gucci IS anymore, under the hood — and Kering doesn’t care that we don’t know it.

Management is convinced that they know what they are doing. Here’s hoping they do. ~ Anne