Gucci and its parent company Kering announced on Saturday that Italian fashion designer Sabato De Sarno has been appointed the brand's next creative director. His debut collection will be shown at Milan Fashion Week in September of next year.
De Sarno previously held a position as fashion director at Valentino in 2009, where he headed both the men's and women's collections. He has also worked for Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana.
Rome-based De Sarno has become a fixture at the brand’s events around the world but remains unknown to the fashion-consuming public. Kering, the firm that owns Gucci, is promoting a behind-the-scenes executive to oversee one of its brands in this move. Alessandro Michele, De Sarno's predecessor at Gucci who left the company in November of last year, had been a little-known studio veteran until initiating a historic expansion starting in 2015.
De Sarno, a native of Naples, will work for Gucci as soon as his current obligations will be over, and he will be in charge of all the brand's collections, including those for men, women, leather goods, accessories, and lifestyle. The Gucci in-house design team is currently working on the Fall/Winter 2023–24 womenswear collection, which will be unveiled in Milan the following month.
De Sarno said he was “touched and excited to contribute my creative vision for the brand,'' which he said ”has been able to welcome and cherish the values I believe in."
(Source – Instagram / BOF)
