Luxury’s Creative Directors Are in Retrograde

By Emma Childs , a fashion news writer at The Cut who covers style and pop culture. Previously, she was the fashion features editor at Marie Claire and a fashion writer at The Zoe Report. Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Getty Images Please check on your fashion-news-obsessed friends: The dust had only just settled after last week’s news of Anthony Vaccarello leaving Saint Laurent when Calvin Klein Collection and McQueen announced this morning that their respective designers, Veronica Leoni and Seán McGirr, are out.

And so begins another round of creative-director musical chairs. Leoni — who cut her teeth at Jil Sander, Phoebe Philo’s Céline, and The Row — joined Calvin Klein in May 2024 and was tasked with returning the American brand to the runway after a seven-year absence following Raf Simons’s exit.

Her debut fall 2025 collection was met with lukewarm reception, with critics, including our own Cathy Horyn , unclear about her vision for the label cited as the blueprint of ’90s minimalism. Leoni presented her fourth and final collection just last month at New York Fashion Week’s spring 2027 season , widely considered her strongest yet.

Horyn, described it as “too clean, too polished,” lacking “edge” and “heart.” (That was a win considering Horyn’s assessments of previous shows included her saying: “She makes things overly complicated. She can’t lay down a look that excites, mostly because she’s putting out many, many looks.”) Despite the brand gathering better buzz and reviews, rumors that Leoni’s contract wouldn’t be renewed had been tossed around group chats for months.

Today, the speculation was confirmed as fact. Leoni’s successor has yet to be announced. But Leoni’s place in fashion history is cemented as Calvin Klein Collection’s first female creative director.

From left: Calvin Klein spring 2027 Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein Calvin Klein spring 2027 Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein From top: Calvin Klein spring 2027 Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein Calvin Klein spring 2027 Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / ...

From top: Calvin Klein spring 2027 Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein Calvin Klein spring 2027 Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway / Courtesy of Calvin Klein Similarly, McGirr’s tenure as McQueen creative director was largely felt as shaky. The Irish designer, previously the head of ready-to-wear at JW Anderson, succeeded Sarah Burton in 2023 .

And Burton — who worked directly under Lee McQueen as the only assistant the prolific designer ever had and later served as lead designer for 13 years — left impossibly big shoes to fill. That’s not to say McGirr’s time at the Kering-owned brand was without impact: He was a favorite on the celebrity circuit and custom-designed looks for Zendaya, Kylie Jenner, Daisy Edgar-Jones at the Met Gala, all five remaining Katseye members at the 2026 American Music Awards, and Phoebe Bridgers at the Venice Film Festival .

Clockwise from left: Photo: 2026 Getty Images McQueen spring 2027 Photo: INDIGITAL.TV/ Courtesy of McQueen McQueen spring 2027 Photo: INDIGITAL.TV/ Courtesy of McQueen From top: Photo: 2026 Getty Images McQueen spring 2027 Photo: INDIGITAL.TV/ Courtesy of McQueen McQueen spring 2027 Photo: INDIGITAL.TV/ Courtesy of McQ...

From top: Photo: 2026 Getty Images McQueen spring 2027 Photo: INDIGITAL.TV/ Courtesy of McQueen McQueen spring 2027 Photo: INDIGITAL.TV/ Courtesy of McQueen Like Leoni’s, critics also viewed McGirr’s spring 2027 McQueen show as his “most settled collection for the brand,” as Horyn wrote .

It was close, but still not quite at Lee’s or Burton’s level: “There is so much there to think about, reimagine, then take in a totally new direction,” Horyn continued. “Yet McGirr remains on the outside studiously looking in.” In a statement shared on Thursday, Kering CEO Luca de Meo wrote, “Our ambition is to establish a bold new direction for the house, building on its unique heritage of exceptional tailoring, uncompromising creativity and rebellion to reaffirm its position as one of the most innovative and culturally relevant voices in luxury.” A slow fashion news day, eh?

Given the way the industry works — and as we saw during the great designer switch-up last spring — Leoni and McGirr won’t be the only exits of the season. And if what the streets are saying proves true , Pierpaolo Piccioli’s era at Balenciaga may soon be finito ... Luxury’s Creative Directors Are in Retrograde Your product is saved!

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