Martine Rose named Balenciaga creative director after Piccioli's 16-month run

Martine Rose is the new creative director of Balenciaga, Kering confirmed on Friday. The British designer succeeds Pierpaolo Piccioli, who exited the Parisian house after a 16-month tenure and just four collections, including a couture debut last July.

Rose starts on November 16 and will be based in Paris. She founded her namesake label in 2007 and is known for subculture-inflected design drawn from her upbringing in London, staging street-cast shows in places like a former Vauxhall cruising club.

The appointment makes Rose a rare Black woman leading a luxury fashion house, following Grace Wales Bonner's arrival as artistic director of Hermès menswear last year. Both came up through the London talent incubator Fashion East and have guest-designed at Pitti Uomo.

Rose worked alongside Demna, Balenciaga's creative director from 2015 to 2025, on the launch of his first menswear collection. She is widely credited as a major influence on the house's oversize, distressed and vintage-flecked men's silhouettes.

Piccioli's exit, confirmed on Thursday, makes him the third creative director to leave Kering in less than a month, following McQueen's Seán McGirr and Saint Laurent's Anthony Vaccarello. Kering owns Balenciaga, founded in 1917 by the Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga.

Rose said the role was "a true privilege", calling Balenciaga "a house with an extraordinary heritage and a boldly creative spirit." She added that the house had been shaped by remarkable talents and that she was determined to honour that legacy and write its next chapter.

What Kering says about the appointment

Kering chief executive Luca de Meo described Balenciaga as "a house of radical creativity" that challenges conventions and redefines the boundaries of fashion. Rose, he said, "perfectly embodies this spirit through a fresh, daring, and profoundly contemporary vision."

Gianfranco Gianangeli, president and chief executive of Balenciaga, called Rose "an extraordinary creative talent with a bold and highly distinctive vision." Her reinvention of silhouettes and unexpected perspective, he said, resonate with the innovation that defines the house.

De Meo added that Rose's connection to a new generation and her instinctive grasp of culture bring a new dimension, reflecting Kering's ambition to keep Balenciaga at the forefront of innovation. Balenciaga's leader described the move as opening a new chapter for the house.

The turnover behind the hire

Piccioli spent most of his career at Valentino, earning strong reviews for his solo work and his designs with former creative partner Maria Grazia Chiuri, now at Fendi. His handful of Balenciaga collections had drawn mixed reviews, and his departure had been widely tipped.

Kering is understood to want Balenciaga back at its edgier, less romantic Demna days. Demna, now Gucci's creative chief, ran Balenciaga for nearly ten years with sharp-edged, street-wise collections and ad campaigns that courted controversy.

The churn arrives amid sluggish sales and a restructuring under de Meo. Third-quarter revenues were flat at reported rates, totalling 3.35 billion euros, down 1% in comparable terms. Gucci missed expectations, posting a 6% drop at constant exchange rates.

Investors worry the creative churn is more challenge than opportunity. Chief financial officer Armelle Poulou argued each brand is on a specific trajectory, with a "more efficient operating model" wrapping designers in product development, marketing and merchandising support.

We covered Vaccarello's exit from Saint Laurent last month, when Kering confirmed he had stepped down after a decade reshaping the house and said new creative leadership was due soon. Rose's appointment follows that turnover directly.

What Rose brings past the runway

Rose sold a majority stake in her label to Tomorrow Ltd in 2021. She has since worked on capsules and projects for Supreme, Nike, Napapijri and Tommy Hilfiger, and became Clarks' first guest creative director in 2023.

Her eponymous collection sells through around 200 stockists, including Dover Street Market, H Lorenzo, Nordstrom, The Webster, SKP in China and Browns online. The Balenciaga post offers a lift after she paused her fall 2026 collection amid a disentangling from Tomorrow, now sold to The Level Group.

That fall 2026 range never went into production. Rose described it as "decadent through our lens, a mix of '90s clubwear and old-world opulence," drawing inspiration from King Henry VIII, James Brown and the British boxer known as Prince Naseem.

Her laid-back, gender-fluid silhouettes have won fans including Drake, Naomi Campbell, DJ Goldie, Kendrick Lamar and Timothée Chalamet. In 2024 she asked Wallpaper whether fashion could still be "dynamic, interesting and relevant" in a saturated, product-led landscape.

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Image: Balenciaga