After sixteen months, three ready-to-wear collections, Kering announces that Pierpaolo Piccioli is leaving Balenciaga.

Nine consecutive outings in white, cream, and beige on the pale floor of the Tennis Club de Paris. On October 1,&nbsp;Pierpaolo Piccioli opened his third Balenciaga ready-to-wear collection, Les Coraux de la Liberté, <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/balenciaga-spring-summer-2027-paris-fashion-week-pierpaolo-piccioli-celebrities-juyeon">Spring/Summer 2027</a>. Outside the show, there was already talk of something else: a departure. Now, there is confirmation.&nbsp;Kering and Balenciaga have announced the creative director's departure, just over a year after <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/pierpaolo-piccioli-is-the-new-creative-director-of-balenciaga-fashion-news">his arrival</a>. For weeks, rumours had pointed to commercial reasons: <a href="https://www.lofficielsingapore.com/fashion/balenciaga-pierpaolo-piccioli-restores-essence-with-first-couture-collection">couture</a> wasn't translating into sales, and menswear, the cornerstone of revenue, was in sharp decline. Balenciaga doesn't publish separate figures, and the true picture remains unclear.
Piccioli's appointment was announced in May 2025, after he spent 25 years at Valentino, where he had led the Italian fashion house alone since 2016, following the departure of Maria Grazia Chiuri. His mandate from Balenciaga was clear: to restore the house to the elegance of founder Cristóbal after ten years of post-punk irony bearing Demna's resonant signature. Upon his appointment, he wrote that the first photo on his Instagram profile was of his 1967 Balenciaga wedding dress.

<blockquote>Couture is a way of thinking, a perspective from which to choose to look at the world. It is uncharted territory, a delicate ecosystem where care and human connection are everything; a balance kept alive by those who choose this profession with awareness. Over the years, my passion for couture has defined my identity, shaping my choices and the paths I have taken. I have learned by observing, doing, and listening. Couture requires time and attention; it demands conviction and courage. It is the place I have always wanted to be, the place I have chosen to inhabit. It is my way of understanding this profession: not just a gaze, but a gesture; not just a silhouette, but a skilled hand, a perspective and a point of view from which to contemplate imagined landscapes. It is a land without maps and without compromise, a place of possibility, a space capable of becoming a vehicle for powerful expression. We believed in a dream. A beautiful dream, to be shared and believed in, a landscape imagined from that point of view. Yet, life is a journey, and each chapter exists to make room for the next. Nothing ever truly ends; everything evolves. Ultimately, our identity and our values ​​are the only things we truly possess. Remaining true to this identity and these values ​​is the only way to gracefully face what lies ahead. There&#39;s a line from Pasolini that I always carry with me: &quot;They will teach you not to shine. And you will shine instead.&quot; Thank you, then. For the work you&#39;ve done, for your hands, for your courage, for your care; thank you to all those who have shared this perspective and walked alongside me along this path. Without maps and without compromise. You know who you are. And, despite everything, continue to shine. Always.&quot; Pierpaolo Piccioli</blockquote>

His couture debut in July had garnered lukewarm reviews. The latest effort, however, has a method: haute couture techniques shifted to everyday life, the bias cut applied to jeans, unlined wool suits, and coral as an emblem. The departure comes amid a difficult October for Kering, with the departures of Anthony Vaccarello from Saint Laurent after ten years and Seán McGirr from McQueen after three. The plan attributed to CEO Luca de Meo is to make Balenciaga the gateway to the group for Generation Z. Sixteen months is a short time to judge a language, and couture, by its very nature, requires time. The fashion system, these days, grants it less and less.

Pierpaolo Piccioli Exits Balenciaga

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