Georgian designer Demna is leaving Balenciaga after a decade to become artistic director of Gucci, the French parent company of both brands, Kering. “Kering and Gucci are delighted to announce the appointment of Demna as the house’s new artistic director, starting early July 2025,” it said. The 43-year-old designer, who stopped using his last name Gvasalia in 2021, made fashion a sort of battleground of provocative ideas after taking the helm of Balenciaga in 2015.

He achieved notoriety with his $2,000 “Ikea” bag - a luxury leather version of the 99-cent original - and created a poverty chic aesthetic that has been widely copied. His daring designs have included a head-to-toe black shroud that US reality television star Kim Kardashian wore to the Met Gala in 2021.

In late 2022, he caused a controversy with a spectacularly ill-considered publicity campaign. The ads featured children with teddy bear bags that had studs and harnesses, supposedly meant to evoke a punk aesthetic but looking a lot like bondage gear. It coincided with another ad campaign that included a strange background detail - a print-out of a US Supreme Court judgement about child pornography.

Demna apologized profusely in the pages of Vogue, denying any intention to reference child abuse, but the damage was done, with a slump in fourth-quarter sales and criticism from celebrity friends such as Kardashian. But Kering defended him, saying everyone had the right to make one mistake. Demna said he was “truly excited to join the Gucci family” and looked forward to helping write “a new chapter of Gucci’s amazing story”. 

He replaces Sabato de Sarno, whom Gucci let go in February after just two years on the job. His surprise nomination comes as Kerning seeks to turn around the Italian luxury brand. Kerning, whose brands also include Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, saw its net profit drop 62 percent last year, with Gucci’s sales alone falling by 23 percent. A child refugee, Demna fled Georgia with his mother and grandmother after fighting broke out with pro-Russian separatists in 1989. For many years, his trauma affected his work but he told Vanity Fair in 2021 that counselling, meditation and exercise had helped exorcise some demons.--AFP