Ranking Fashion’s Longest-serving Creative Directors in 2024

Véronique Nichanian was appointed men’s artistic director of Hermès in 1988. Previously, Nichanian was in charge of the men’s collection at Cerruti.

In 1998, Maison Christian Dior created a new jewelry department, appointing Victoire de Castellane as artistic director. Previously, De Castellane was head of Chanel’s costume jewelry designs  for 14 years.

Ian Griffiths joined the company in 1987, fresh out of the Royal College of Art, after winning the brand’s contest in 1985. In 2005, with the blessing of Max Mara’s owners, the Maramotti family, Griffiths was appointed lead designer of the brand.

Olivier Rousteing joined Balmain in 2009 and was in charge of the women’s wear design studio. In 2011 the designer was appointed creative director of the brand, succeeding Christophe Decarnin. Previously, Rousteing worked for Roberto Cavalli for five years in Milan.

Nicolas Ghesquière was appointed artistic director of women’s collections of Louis Vuitton in 2013, after a 15-year tenure at Balenciaga. Last year, the french brand renewed the contract of the designer for another five years. Ghesquière succeeded Marc Jacobs who stepped down from Vuitton after a storied 16-year tenure.

Paco Rabanne tapped Julien Dossena as creative director for women’s wear in August 2013, following the exit after two seasons in the role of the designer Lydia Maurer. Dossena from 2008 to 2012 was senior designer in the Balenciaga studio, working closely with former creative director Nicolas Ghesquière.

Stuart Vevers is Coach’ creative director since 2013, replacing executive creative director and president Reed Krakoff. Previously, Vevers served as creative director of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton’s Loewe brand and also spent time working at Bottega Veneta, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and Calvin Klein.

The French luxury house Hermès named Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski as artistic director of women’s ready-to-wear in 2014, following the departure of Christophe Lemaire after four years. Before, Vanhee-Cybulski worked at Maison Martin Margiela in Paris from 2005 to 2008, before joining Phoebe Philo at Céline as a senior designer until 2011 and later The Row as women’s design director until March 2014.

Francesco Risso joined the Italian label Marni in 2016, succeeding founder Consuelo Castiglioni. His work experience started at Anna Molinari, and after stints at Alessandro Dell’Acqua and Malo, in 2008 he joined Prada Group to work on the brand’s women’s show collections and on special brand endorsement projects.

Dior confirmed Maria Grazia Chiuri as its seventh couturier in 2016. Chiuri was named creative director of women’s haute couture, ready-to-wear and accessories for the French house after 17 years at Valentino and eight in her role as co-creative director. The designer succeeded Raf Simons who exited the house after the expiration of his initial three-year contract and a string of legendary design talents such as John Galliano, Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan and Gianfranco Ferré.

Anthony Vaccarello was named creative director of Saint Laurent in 2016, after the second departure of Hedi Slimane. Vaccarello worked for the Italian brand Fendi before launching his own couture line in 2008 put to an end in 2016. In 2011, he scooped the ANDAM fashion award and two years later Donatella Versace in 2013 tapped the designer as a guest designer for her revamped Versus brand. Shortly after he was named creative director of the brand.

Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia have been co-creative directors for Oscar de la Renta since 2016. They succeeded Peter Copping, who had succeeded the founder after his death in 2014. Prior to their appointment, Garcia and Kim had worked for the brand for 12 and six years, respectively — Kim as de la Renta’s design director and Garcia in the celebrity dressing department. They oversee ready-to-wear, accessories, bridal and children’s collections.

Alessandro Sartori was named artistic director for Zegna in 2016, after the exit of Stefano Pilati. Sartori joined Zegna in 1989 after graduating from design school in Milan and in 2003 he became creative director of Z Zegna, Ermenegildo Zegna’s more fashion-oriented brand, for eight years. In 2011 he was appointed as artistic director for the Paris-based firm Berluti.

Wes Gordon took over creative direction at Carolina Herrera in 2018, after being named successor by the founder herself. After learning the ropes at Central Saint Martins, Gordon interned at Tom Ford and Oscar de la Renta, before starting his own signature collection of women’s wear in 2009, which was put on hold after joining Herrera. 

Daniel Roseberry is in charge of all collections, projects and image at Schiaparelli since 2019. He succeeded Bertrand Guyon, who held the post of design director for four years. In 2008, Roseberry joined Thom Browne and was most recently design director of men’s and women’s collections. He became the third designer to take on Schiaparelli since Della Valle relaunched the brand in 2013 by hiring Paris fashion personality Farida Khelfa as the spokeswoman for the house and tapping Christian Lacroix for a one-off collection that was never sold.

Raf Simons is the new co-creative director at Prada from 2020. Simons was best known for his signature men’s wear brand, launched in 1995 and shuttered in 2022 after 27 years. The designer has also done stints as the creative director of Christian Dior in Paris, and Calvin Klein in New York and was at the helm of Jil Sander from 2005 to 2012.

Diesel named Glenn Martens its creative director, with oversight on style, communications and interior design in 2020. The last marquee talent at the helm of the brand was Nicola Formichetti who exited in December 2017 after a four-year tenure as artistic director. Martens was tapped by Diesel in 2018 as a guest designer of the experimental capsule series Diesel Red Tag. Martens became the first assistant of Y/Project founder Yohan Serfaty in 2010 and took over the creative reins following the founder’s untimely death in 2013. He parted ways with the brand after a 11-year tenure last month.

In 2020, Fausto Puglisi was confirmed creative director at Roberto Cavalli. The brand parted ways with Paul Surridge in 2019 and since then all the design functions were taken over by the in-house design team. Previously, Puglisi had launched his namesake label in 2010.

Courrèges appointed Nicolas Di Felice as artistic director in 2020, succeeding Yolanda Zobel who left the brand after 2 years. Di Felice was part of Ghesquière’s team at Balenciaga in 2008 shortly after graduating from La Cambre, remaining at the brand for six years. After a brief stint at Dior under Raf Simons, he was reunited with Ghesquière at Vuitton in 2015.

Pucci confirmed Camille Miceli as artistic director in 2021 when the brand revealed plans to return to its roots as a resort-focused brand after years of behaving like a designer house. Before the appointment of Miceli, Pucci had experimented with a variety of permanent designers over the years, including Julio Espada, Christian Lacroix, Matthew Williamson, Peter Dundas and MSGM’s Massimo Giorgetti and guest designers, including Christelle Kocher of France and Japan’s Tomo Koizumi. Miceli started her fashion career at age 15 when she interned at Chanel and Azzedine Alaïa. She spent seven years as a publicist at Chanel before joining Vuitton as accessories creative director under Nicolas Ghesquière in 2014.

Daniel Lee was named chief creative officer at Burberry in 2022, replacing Riccardo Tisci. A graduate of Central Saint Martins, Lee was previously director of rtw at Celine. This followed earlier stints at Maison Margiela, Balenciaga and Donna Karan. In 2018, he succeeded Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta.

Ferragamo tapped Maximilian Davis as its creative director in 2022 after the exit of Paul Andrew’s the year before. Davis founded his eponymous brand Maximilian in 2020 after working as a junior designer at Grace Wales Bonner. He previously worked as a freelance designer for Mowalola, Asai and Supriya Lele.

Nina Ricci selected Harris Reed as creative director in 2022 making him its youngest designer to take the creative helm. The brand was without an artistic director following the exit of Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh earlier the same year. Since graduating from Central Saint Martins in 2020 Reed had quickly gained a reputation for decadent designs. Last month, Reed launched a new women’s scent with Vénus for the brand.

Marco de Vincenzo joined Etro as creative director, in charge of the women’s, men’s and home in 2022 taking over the role of founder Gimmo Etro’s children Veronica, Kean and Jacopo, who were previously creative directors of the women’s, men’s and home collections, respectively. De Vincenzo, a former winner of the Vogue Italia “Who Is on Next?” talent search, worked for years on accessories as a consultant for Fendi with Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi. 

Louis Vuitton named U.S. musician and entrepreneur Pharrell Williams as creative director of its menswear division at the beginning of 2023. The position had been left unfilled since the death of his predecessor, Virgil Abloh, in November 2021. Over the years, Williams has founded several clothing brands including Billionaire Boys Club and Icecream, the streetwear labels he launched with Japanese designer Nigo. He has also scored a collaboration with Nike in 2004, which was followed by shoe designs for brands including Reebok and Timberland. In 2014, the artist entered a long-term partnership with Adidas and in 2017 he dropped a sneaker with Chanel.

Pelagia Kolotouros was tapped as the latest creative director by Lacoste in February 2023, after parting ways with Louise Trotter. Kolotouros cut her teeth at Theory and Calvin Klein, where she was design director of its men’s line until 2014. Recently she was in charge of developing the Adidas textile, footwear, women’s and men’s collections for collaborations such as Ivy Park and Pharrell Williams.

In October 2023, Kering chose Sean McGirr for the role of creative director at Alexander McQueen. He replaced Sarah Burton who was at the creative helm of the brand since the founder’s death in 2010. McGirr was most recently head of menswear at JW Anderson and before he worked at Dries Van Noten on the womenswear collection. His résumé also includes stints at Burberry and Christophe Lemaire for Uniqlo.

Chemena Kamali is the creative director at Chloé since October 2023, succeeding Gabriela Hearst who ended the three-year collaboration with the brand in June. Kamali already worked at Chloé under both Phoebe Philo and Clare Waight Keller earlier in her career until 2016, when she departed to become Saint Laurent’s women’s ready-to-wear design director under Anthony Vaccarello. The designer also worked for Alberta Ferretti and Strenesse.

Rochas picked Alessandro Vigilante as his new designer at the end of 2023 while he was already working for the brand since May, contributing to the spring 2024 collection. The Italian designer succeeded Charles de Vilmorin who close his uneven two-year tenure in April. Vigilante worked in the studio of such brands as The Attico, Dolce & Gabbana, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Gucci under Alessandro Michele.

In December 2023, Tod’s confirmed Matteo Tamburini as the new creative director, in charge of both the women’s and men’s collections, following the departure of Walter Chiapponi. Previously, Tamburini was working for Bottega Veneta since 2017 with former creative director Tomas Maier.

At the beginning of 2024, Adrian Appiolaza was selected as creative director for the Moschino after the premature death of previous creative director Davide Renne last November. Early in his career, he worked as a junior designer for Alexander McQueen and Miguel Adrover. In 2006 he moved to Miu Miu and four years later he joined Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton as a senior designer. He returned to Chloé in 2012 as design director with Keller, leaving in 2014 for Loewe.

Gap Inc. appointed Zac Posen as its next creative director. The American designer is tasked with reinvigorating the company’s entire portfolio. In this role, in fact he is in charge of the all the brands of the group: Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta e Old Navy,

Alessandro Michele was confirmed creative director at Valentino in March. He replaced Pierpaolo Piccioli, who exited the brand after 25 years some days before. Michele held the same role at Gucci for seven years since 2015 but he joined the Gucci design studio in 2002 following a stint as senior accessories designer at Fendi. He was appointed “associate” to then-creative director Frida Giannini in 2011, and in 2014 took on the additional responsibility of creative director of Richard Ginori, the porcelain brand acquired by Gucci in 2013.

Calvin Klein hired Veronica Leoni as the new creative director, after a five year hiatus. Leoni, a 2023 LVMH Prize finalist and founder of Quira, has worked for such brands as Jil Sander, Celine, Moncler and most recently The Row, where she was womenswear and menswear design director, in addition to Quira.

Lanvin named Peter Copping new artistic director in June. Previous creative director Bruno Sialelli parted ways with the French house in April 2023. Copping has helmed Oscar de la Renta and Nina Ricci, and Balenciaga’s couture atelier.

David Koma has been tapped as creative director at Blumarine. Before Koma, the brand was designed by Walter Chiapponi who left the brand after only one collection. Koma launched his London-based fashion house in 2009, after completing his studies at Central Saint Martins College. In April, he launched a swimwear brand called Let’s Swim, a venture with new partners and one of his childhood friends.

Frances Howie assumed the role of creative director at Fforme replacing Dutch creative director Paul Helbers who parted ways with the brand. Howie was design director Stella McCartney until she left in August 2021

The designer Haider Ackermann was named creative director of Tom Ford in September following the departure of Peter Hawkings after less than a year that he stepped into the role following founder Ford’s exit. In the past years, Ackermann designed a couture collection for Jean Paul Gaultier and held the job as creative director of Berluti for three seasons between 2016 and 2018. Also in May, the designer was appointed creative director of Canada Goose.

Sarah Burton is the new creative director at Givenchy since September. Burton replaces Matthew M. Williams who left the brand at the end of 2023 after three years. She became the Givenchy’s eighth designer and its second female couturier, after having spent her entire fashion career at Alexander McQueen in London.

Michael Rider was confirmed creative director at Celine following Hedi Slimane exit, which was announced the same day. Previously, Rider was creative director at Polo Ralph Lauren from 2018 and before that he worked at Celine from 2008 to 2018, working under the-creative director Phoebe Philo.

Missoni brand has chosen Alberto Caliri as creative director after partying ways with Filippo Grazioli who joined Missoni in 2022. Caliri had first joined Missoni in 1998 and succeeded Angela Missoni as creative director ad interim in May 2021. 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.

The Aeffe Group promoted Lorenzo Serafini to creative director of the Alberta Ferretti brand this month. Serafini landed at the group in 2014, when Ferretti handed him the design reins of the Philosophy label which will be integrated into the Alberta Ferretti line from the fall 2025 season.

John Skelton is EBIT’s new cultural and creative director since October. Skelton’s appointment marks his return to the fashion industry after a seven-year hiatus, during which he was recovering from mental health and substance abuse issues.

Joseph named Mario Arena, formerly of JW Anderson, creative director; his first collection will be for spring 2026. Arena succeeds husband-and-wife duo Anna Lundbäck Dyhr and Frederik Dyhr, who had served as co-creative directors since 2020.

Georg Jensen tapped former John Lobb artistic director Paula Gerbase as creative director. 

The Puig-owned fashion house Dries Van Noten announced the appointment of Julian Klausner. For the past six years, Klausner has designed womenswear alongside the Belgian founder who stepped down in June from his namesake brand. A 2016 graduate of the renowned Brussels visual arts and fashion school La Cambre, Klausner interned at Thom Browne, Kenzo and Maison Margiela before being hired in 2016 as a junior designer at the latter house, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Bottega Veneta selected Louise Trotter to succeed Matthieu Blazy at the creative helm of the brand. Trotter was the creative director of Carven and her first collection for the brand bowed in September last year during Paris Fashion Week. Before, Trotter has held the top role at Joseph from 2009 and 2018 and then at Lacoste for four years.

Chanel named Matthieu Blazy new creative director, after the departure of Virginie Viard after five years in June. Formerly, Bottega Veneta creative director since 2021, he worked at Calvin Klein as part of the team Simons brought to New York, working on the men’s and women’s collections as design director.

January

Glenn Martens was selected as the new creative director of Maison Margiela. The Belgian designer, also creative director of Diesel succeeded John Galliano, who in December wound up a 10-year collaboration at Maison Margiela that delivered fashion thrills, cultural moments and business progression galore.

March

Jil Sander confirmed in March the appointment of Simone Bellotti as creative director, effectively immediately. Previously creative director at Bally, he succeeds Luke and Lucie Meier whose exit was confirmed after their fall 2025 fashion show in Milan.

Designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, founders of the New York label Proenza Schouler, were named the new creative directors at Loewe, effective April 7. They succeed Jonathan Anderson after an acclaimed 11-year tenure that catapulted the Spanish house into fashion’s big leagues. In January they stepped down as creative directors of the brand they founded in 2002.

The Georgian creative Demna Gvasalia is the new designer at Gucci. Gvasalia will end his tenure at Balenciaga on July 9 after 10 years. He succeeded Sabato De Sarno, who exited Gucci in early February after a two-year collaboration. The fall 2025 fashion show in Milan on Feb. 25 was presented by the brand’s design office.

Mugler appointed Miguel Castro Freitas its new creative director, an alumnus of Sportmax, Dries Van Noten and Christian Dior Couture. Freitas succeeded Casey Cadwallader, whose swan song after an eventful seven-year tenure was an uncharacteristically low-key look book drop for his fall 2025 effort, photographed in a sexy, sci-fi manner by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

Carven, the French fashion label owned by China’s Icicle, has named Mark Howard Thomas as its director of design. Thomas is filling the vacancy left by Louise Trotter, who was poached by Bottega Veneta in December last year. Thomas joined Carven in 2023 as head of sartorial and creative collaborations. Previously, he held various design roles in brands including Lacoste, Helmut Lang, Joseph, Givenchy and Neil Barrett.

April

Versace tapped Dario Vitale as chief creative officer of the brand. Vitale was previously Miu Miu’s ready-to-wear design director and left the company in January and succeeds Donatella Versace who was named chief brand ambassador.

Jonathan Anderson was appointed to succeeded Kim Jones as Dior’s menswear designer presenting his first collection for the French house in June. In March, Anderson departed after 11 years as creative director of Loewe, which he transformed from a small, reputable Spanish leather house into a vibrant global luxury brand steeped in contemporary culture.

Jean Paul Gaultier picked the Dutch designer Duran Lantink as permanent creative director. The Paris fashion house has been hosting guest couturiers in recent years. Lantink, who has made circularity a keystone of his design process, was the winner of the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize in last year’s LVMH Prize competition and of the 2025 International Woolmark Prize.