If the luxury industry needed reminding of how fraught creative leadership can be at the world’s biggest fashion houses, Raf Simons’ departure from Christian Dior could not have been better timed.
The announcement, late on Thursday, that the 47-year-old Belgian designer would not be renewing his contract as creative director of one of the most revered brands at Paris-based LVMH took the fashion world by surprise.
His exit illustrates how precariously short creative director contracts have become, as well as how vulnerable a designer’s career can be: it comes just weeks after Alexander Wang left Balenciaga, the brand owned by LVMH’s Paris-based rival Kering, barely three years after joining.