Balenciaga Hands Its Future to the Woman Who Used to Just Consult There

Kering named London designer Martine Rose creative director of Balenciaga on Friday, November 6, making her the first woman to lead the house's design direction since it was founded in 1917. Rose, who built her reputation on a menswear label that treats tailoring like a dare, isn't a total outsider: she spent three years, from 2015 to 2018, consulting on Balenciaga's menswear under then-creative director Demna, long before he left for Gucci. "It is a true privilege to be appointed creative director of Balenciaga," Rose said. Kering CEO Luca de Meo called the house "a house of radical creativity."

The hire lands two days after Balenciaga confirmed that Pierpaolo Piccioli was out after barely 16 months in the job, a tenure that never quite answered the question of what Balenciaga was supposed to be post-Demna. Piccioli's exit is one entry in a longer list: Saint Laurent lost Anthony Vaccarello after a decade, Alexander McQueen and Seán McGirr ended a two-year run, and Diesel is losing Glenn Martens. Luxury's creative-director carousel has rarely spun this fast, and Kering, still trying to stop the bleeding at Gucci and now Balenciaga, needed a bet that reads as decisive rather than desperate.

It is, at minimum, an unconventional one. Rose hasn't staged a runway show since her own label's spring/summer 2026 presentation in June, and her namesake brand spent the past three years tangled in a messy ownership dispute: she sold a 60 percent stake to the incubator Tomorrow Ltd. in 2023, that partnership soured, and Tomorrow sold off in March to Italy's The Level Group. Whatever happens with her own house now, Balenciaga is betting that someone who has spent two decades needling the fashion establishment from the outside is exactly who should run one of its most storied names from the inside.

Source: FashionUnited

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →