That it would come to this surprises no one. Kim Jones’s leaving Fendi has been the industry chatter for months

Increasingly, fashion industry gossips do turn out to be true. For months, the talk among fashion folks has been that Kim Jones would leave Fendi. This morning (our time) LVMH confirmed the suspicion by issuing a statement about Mr Jones’s leaving. Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, said via an official statement, released to the media: “Kim Jones is a highly talented designer who has brought his unique and multicultural vision to Fendi over the past four years. I would like to thank him for his contribution and look forward to continuing to witness his creativity at Dior Men’s.” There is no news with regards to Mr Jones’s replacement and it is not known if that announcement would be made as speedily as Hedi Slimane’s replacement at Celine, another LVMH brand.

Mr Arnaud’s message also confirmed that Kim Jones would not vacate his position at Dior Men, where he has been its design director since 2018, making his tenure there longer than that at Fendi by two years. Mr Jones’s Dior Men is, on the surface of things, a better performer than his Fendi womenswear, as well as the attendant couture collection. This was his first attempt at a complete women’s line after designing mainly for men, including stints at Dunhill and Louis Vuitton, as well as at the sports brand Umbro. Fendi under his watch has not really wowed many except, perhaps, his circuit of close fashion friends and those women who are just smitten with Fendi anything or clothes that help the wearers blend in, without effort.

There is almost certainty now that Fendi will soon welcome fellow Italian Pierpaolo Piccioli, formerly from Valentino—now enjoying a dramatic overhaul by Alessandro Michele—to the headquarters in Rome, where Fendi was founded in 1925. Mr Piccioli would not be out of place at Fendi, and if appointed, who get to part of the brand’s centenary celebrations next year .While he may not look to reprise the Karl Lagerfeld years, he is unlikely inclined to continue Kim Jones’s lack of breakthrough for the house, so much so that there was that shocking pairing with Versace in 2021 for a capsule that over-aroused the senses to their detriment. It could have been a marketing stunt gone very wrong. Regardless, whoever joins Fendi as a creative head next will unlikely look back at that, and see glorious, gleaming genius.

Illustration: Just So