A Post-Mortem of the Fashion Shuffle, 2025

If you blinked this year, you missed a debut. The industry didn’t just shuffle the deck in 2025; it threw the cards across the room, ordered a double espresso, and started speaking in tongues. It was chaotic, it was incestuous, and frankly, it was the most fun I’ve had since the 90s.

Here is who is sitting where (assuming they haven't moved since I started typing this sentence.)

• Gucci: Demna is in. Yes, that Demna. He packed up his trash bags at Balenciaga and moved to Milan in March. Expect the Horsebit loafer to be reimagined as a duct-taped combat boot, and the GG monogram to be spray-painted on a condemned building. Sabato De Sarno has left the building—too quiet, apparently. We need noise.

• Balenciaga: With Demna gone, Pierpaolo Piccioli has entered the chat. This is the plot twist of the century. We are trading apocalyptic streetwear for Roman couture volume. I am ready for a Balenciaga hoodie that is actually a thirty-foot taffeta opera cape. Finally, the "weird" gets "pretty" again.

• Versace: A tragedy in three acts. Donatella stepped down (I still haven't processed this). Dario Vitale stepped in, lasted one season—a blink!—and was promptly escorted out last week. That Medusa head is spinning!

• Dior Men: Kim Jones has left the building (presumably to curate a library of first-edition Virginia Woolf novels). Jonathan Anderson has taken the throne. Expect the Dior saddle bag to be reshaped into a ceramic turnip.

• Loewe: With Jonathan off to Dior, the boys from Proenza Schouler (Jack & Lazaro) have moved to Madrid. It’s American cool meets Spanish leather. A "Puzzle Bag" that you can wear on the subway? Groundbreaking.

• Givenchy: Sarah Burton is finally settling in. The ghost of Lee McQueen is smiling, and the spirit of Audrey Hepburn is finally being dressed in something that doesn't look like a sci-fi costume. It is sharp, it is dark, it is divine.

• Celine: Hedi Slimane took his skinny jeans and rock-n-roll pout elsewhere. Michael Rider (a Philo disciple!) is back. The accent mark is probably returning to the logo as we speak. We can all breathe; the silk blouses will fit humans again.

• Chanel: Matthieu Blazy has arrived. After making Bottega the only brand that mattered, he is now tasked with making tweed feel dangerous. If he does for the Camellia what he did for woven leather, AmEx Black Cards will be melting all over.

My Advice? Do not get attached to a silhouette. By the time you get it tailored, the designer will have moved to a different house. Just buy the vintage. It’s the only thing that stays put.