The Great Game Of Fashion-Designer Musical Chairs, Explained

As the great Heidi Klum famously said on Project Runway, “In fashion, one day you're in, and the next day, you're out.” This reigns true on both the competitive reality series — and the fashion world at large. This has never been more true in the last several months, with fashion designers shuffling around like a game of ultrastylish musical chairs. A more apt description is a massive line of dominoes falling one after the other, and so, before Fashion Month kicks off, here’s your official cheat sheet of who’s landed where.

In early January, Y/Project — beloved indie brand and maker of Rihanna’s favorite unconventional jeans — announced they’re ceasing operations, 14 years after making a name for themselves under the leadership of Glenn Martens. Martens is still creative director at Diesel, where he’s making a case for shredded denim dresses, and his name is in the ring for leading Maison Margiela after John Galliano stepped down.

In addition to Y/Project’s absence at Fashion Week, JW Anderson and Loewe both didn’t show during the men’s shows, which led many to believe the rumors of designer Jonathan Anderson heading to lead Dior’s women’s and menswear. The men at the helm of Proenza Schouler, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, also stepped down from the brand they founded 20 years ago, with many rumors swirling that they’re replacing Anderson at Loewe.

But before we get ahead of ourselves and feed the rumor mill, here’s a comprehensive update on the official designer shake-ups. We announced Matthieu Blazy’s appointment to Chanel, ending the months-long guessing game of who would snag the coveted position. Blazy won’t show for the house until October 2025, and so won’t his replacement at Bottega Veneta, Louise Trotter. Some newer replacements and appointments will show during Fashion Month in February and March, including: Julian Klausner, the new man in charge at Dries Van Noten, Sarah Burton at Givenchy, and Veronica Leoni for Calvin Klein Collection. Michael Rider is in at Celine after Hedi Slimane stepped down in October 2024, but we don’t know when he’ll give us a taste of his new collection. (We’re exhausted keeping up, too.)

One of my friends who isn’t in fashion asked me over drinks a few weeks ago, “Why now?” — as in, why this domino effect of change going down all at once? Fashion is a circle: Not only do trends repeat themselves, like we saw at Prada last season, but the tides of who’s in charge ebb and flow like the hottest drink in town. It’s high time for a change of the guards, and with luxury fashion slowing down across economies, we can’t wait to see who comes out on top. Not to further feed the Diet Prada rumors, but we also think this is only the beginning of even more switch-ups... but we’ll leave it at that for now.