The Business of Fashion
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Gucci has promoted deputy chief executive Stefano Cantino to lead the Italian mega-label, succeeding interim CEO Jean-François Palus.
Cantino climbed the ranks at Prada over the course of two decades, working closely with executive chairman Patrizio Bertelli in various communications, merchandising and strategy roles during the company’s global expansion, public offering and lengthy turnaround. The Italian executive then decamped to Louis Vuitton, where he oversaw communications and image at the LVMH flagship from 2018.
Cantino succeeds Jean-François Palus, formerly the managing director of Gucci’s owner, Kering, who took over leadership of the brand following Marco Bizzarri’s 2023 departure. Palus has worked to revamp internal processes and culture while onboarding a new designer, Sabato De Sarno, but has been seen to lack hands-on experience in running a large fashion brand at a time when Gucci’s fortunes are under severe pressure.
Gucci’s first-half revenue fell 20 percent to €4.1 billion ($4.5 billion) as it struggles to transition its image during a global slowdown in demand for luxury goods. The brand phased out product and marketing from its previous creative era, led by designer Alessandro Michele, clipping sales of maximalist couture and streetwear-inflected merch. A new strategy seeking to underscore Gucci’s heritage and better promote the brand’s core range of carry-over items has thus far been unable to fill the gap, in part hindered by a muted industry reception to De Sarno’s vision and slow delivery of his seasonal collections.
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Cantino worked at Vuitton during a period of rapid transformation as the brand grew from a €10 billion per-year luxury fashion powerhouse — already the industry’s biggest and most profitable label by revenue — into a multi-faceted “cultural brand” with estimated sales of €20 billion in 2022. Under CEO Michael Burke, Cantino helped Vuitton juggle various plotlines: supporting marketing momentum across Nicolas Ghesquière’s womenswear, Virgil Abloh’s menswear, blockbuster collaborations with the likes of artist Yayoi Kusama and nascent initiatives including high jewellery and smartwatches (as well as restaurants, exhibitions, chocolate shops and home design).
In a recent interview, Kering co-deputy CEO Francesca Bellettini lauded Cantino’s qualifications to execute Gucci’s strategy by combining experience from heritage juggernaut Louis Vuitton with his tenure at fashion-forward Prada. “We need to remember what is the DNA of Gucci — but at the same time [having] a super strong fashion component… The moments when Gucci was most successful, it’s when the two things were combined together,” Bellettini said.
