Gucci is parting ways with their creative director. They have waited long enough. Lacklustre clothes can’t hold one in good stead

Why is this fashion? Who would have guessed this is Gucci if not for the logo? Photo: Chanee B for SOTD

It is the least surprising departure of the season. The question on many lips has been: why not sooner? We had been patient even when it was doomsville from his first collection, but we thought—like Kering did—that he needed time to gain momentum. But the luxury group that had so much hope in him has just announced, less than three weeks before Milan Fashion Week, that Sabato De Sarno will leave Gucci, two years after the Naples-native’s appointment. That was plenty of time to pick up steam, but the collections have been so placid that we stopped reviewing them. In a statement, the brand’s CEO Stefano Cantino said: “I would like to express my deep gratitude to Sabato for his passion and dedication to Gucci. I sincerely appreciate how he honored Gucci’s craftsmanship and heritage with such commitment.”

But passion and dedication were not enough and honoring Gucci’s craftsmanship and heritage should be a given. All the others before him did. In addition, they offered a point of view—namely Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele. Mr Cantino noticeably did not mention creativity—the intensely imaginative kind; and more importantly, the ability to transcend traditional notion of what a house represents. Sure, Mr de Sarno tried his best, but as the James Ingram song goes, his “best was not good enough”. Or, to use a more youth-oriented parlance, he did not slay. The clothes in the end, look exactly like nothing, such as what we saw on a pair of mannequins in a Gucci window recently. The photo above speaks for itself.

Mr de Sarno’s first collection was supposed to portend a more elegant Gucci. At the time of his hire, the then-CEO Marco Bizzarri told the media that Mr Sarno will bring “taste” back to the brand. Would no taste have been better? In the end, Kering’s marquee brand just did not take off. And in recent collections, they started to bring back Mr Michele-era monogram tracksuits and such, including pussy bows, to no one’s amusement. Sure, what we have said—and so many others too—did not matter if there were hordes storming into Gucci stores to buy, and buy, as was once the situation. Whether the store at Hong Kong’s The Landmark, Bangkok’s Emporium, Kuala Lumpur’s The Exchange TRX, or our own The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands, all had been awfully quiet. At The Landmark store last February, we remember walking in and found the space so sparsely stocked. When we asked the sales person if the merchandise had not arrived, she told us, in Cantonese, “賣晒 (mai sai)”—sold out. It was a brave front.

Rumour, rumour: Hedi Slimane is tipped to go to Gucci! While Mr Slimane’s aesthetic and track record might be a good fit for Gucci, there could be one obstacle: his past legal battles with Kering, following his departure from Saint Laurent in 2016.

This is a developing story