I Will Miss Sabato De Sarno's Gucci

Earlier this month, while fashion lovers were converging on the city for the start of NYFW, news broke in Milan that change was (once again) afoot at the House of Gucci. After just two years at the brand’s helm, Gucci announced that its creative director, Sabato De Sarno, would be leaving the brand.

The news came after a series of increasingly bleak financial reports, which have been further quantified by parent company Kering’s most recent report, which cites Gucci’s 2024 revenue as down 23%.

Furthermore, it was announced that collectively, we’d all already seen De Sarno’s last collection as the Fall 2025 collection set to show at Milan Fashion Week this month would be presented by Gucci’s in-house design studio.

A Farewell Too Soon?

There’s no denying that De Sarno had incredible shoes to fill after taking over Gucci’s helm from Alessandro Michele. Michele pioneered a renaissance at Gucci and catapulted the brand back to widespread popularity.

Still, his vision was distinct and undeniably eclectic, and it had been widely speculated that Kering’s higher-ups wised to lead Gucci in a different direction. It was De Sarno that they eventually chose to lead the next chapter in Gucci’s history, but that chapter was cut incredibly short.

While De Sarno’s Gucci was inarguably unsuccessful from a revenue perspective, from a fashion perspective, he did an incredible job at combining his own vision with a brand’s rich heritage. De Sarno quickly forged his own path at Gucci, settling in almost immediately and swiftly changing the brand’s aesthetic.

Quickly, Gucci Rosso Ancora became synonymous with the House, with the hue becoming a coveted shade at both Gucci and within the greater fashion world as a whole.

A Grand Farewell

De Sarno’s Gucci was classic, yet contemporary and wearable, yet statement-making, with a hint of sex appeal à la Tom Ford’s Gucci. His later collections, though were less commercial and sportswear-heavy, exploring the Gucci archives of the 60s and 70s with fun prints and classic tailoring.

De Sarno’s last collection for Gucci, Pre-Fall 2025, which debuted in December, was his strongest one yet, leaving fans excited for what was to come from De Sarno’s third year at the House. Yet Kering execs still opted to split from De Sarno ahead of the Fall 2025 collection, in a move that feels entirely untimely.

It’s arguable that the stark contrasts between Michele’s Gucci and De Sarno’s are ultimately what led to decreased revenues, not the work of De Sarno himself.

Fans of Michele’s loud luxury at Gucci began to look elsewhere for pieces that spoke to them, leaving De Sarno with the responsibility of curating a new generation of Gucci lovers.

This would have proven incredibly difficult for anyone, given the industry’s never-ending price increases and the luxury goods industry’s unstable climate. Gucci has yet to name a successor to De Sarno but one thing is certain: change is yet to come (again) at the House of Gucci.