Pier Paolo Piccioli Named Balenciaga Creative Director: What to Expect

As I'm sure all of you are aware by now, Pier Paulo Pichuri is taking over as creative director of Balenciaga shortly

after a long-term successful tenure by Demasalia. This is a very full circle moment as his first Instagram post in

2018 was a picture of Chris Balenciaga's famous 1967 wedding dress which was actually seen in the Met Costume

Institute exhibition, Heavenly Bodies, Fashion, and the Catholic Imagination. But instead of just making this video

like, "Oh, Pollo's at Balenciaga. That's so cool. I thought it would actually be more interesting to really talk about

some things I'm looking forward to and some reasons why I think he could or could not work as a creative director of

Balenciaga. First of all, it seems like Carring has a new hiring strategy where they only hire designers that they have

experience working with. It seems that since their experience with Sabato, now they're only working with proven

designers. Of course, we've seen the likes of Demnner, who was moved from Balenciaga to Gucci after seeing insane

amounts of success through Balenciaga. We have now also seen an appointment of Pier Palo Pichi, which for those of you

that don't know, in 2022, Valentino was acquired by Qatari Investment Fund, Mihula, for €700 million. In July 2023,

Kerring acquired a 30% stake in Valentino for €1.7 billion. This deal actually includes an option for caring

to acquire the rest of the brand by 2028. And so if you think about it, if they acquired 30% of the brand in 2023,

that was still when Popo Puri was there. So they have definitely had some experience with him. They've probably

seen a lot of the financials when he was there. They've seen what's selling, what isn't, and there's very clearly

something that they've seen in him, and they must believe in him based on experience and data, which is why, of

course, he was appointed. So I think that caring now is going for very safe bets because they can't really afford to

go for these new budding designers anymore. They need to go for proven designers especially at the bigger

brands because so much is at stake right now with caring. To read the official statement made by Carring, it says

Carring and Balenciaga are pleased to announce the appointment of Popo Picholi as the new creative director of

Balenciaga effective July 10th, 2025. The first Balenciaga collection under Pop Polo Puli's creative direction will

be unveiled in October 2025. Now, it's really important to really know about Pio Palo's background to know why it

makes a lot of sense that he has been appointed at Balenciaga. Pio Palo was at Valentino for 25 years. I know an

extremely long time and he worked his way up. He started as an accessories designer with Maria Gratio. They came up

together in the brand and they eventually became co-creative directors. Eventually in 2016, Maria Graatia became

the artistic director of women's wear Dior. So Pollo Puli was left as the sole creative director which is a role that

he stayed in up until recently. If you think of what is it about Dem's Balenciaga that has garnered such a cult

following and why does it sell so well? It's because Demnner and his team at Balenciaga had an amazing way of making

really desirable accessories and footwear, especially everything down to the trooper boots, the Tyrex, the Triple

S. It's almost like everything they touch turns to gold. The accessories, even when they're stupidly ridiculous,

they still garner a lot of attention. Whether that's Balenciaga selling an IKEA bag or making a bag out of a

leather shoe box. If I see Lays bags one more time or those incognito, you know, Margelaesque beanies on Tik Tok one more

time, I will literally lose my mind. And Pablo Pichioli himself knows a thing or two about creating extremely successful

footwear and accessories. The Rockstar collection, if you remember, was a huge hit. The Valentino Rockstar shoes were

actually first released in 2010, debuting on the runway via the fall winter 2010 collection. The Rockstud

collection was so successful they started to create Rockstar accessories in all iterations. We saw sneakers,

bags, belts and many other things. However, I don't think Popo Picholi has been able to garner that same mainstream

buzz that he did from the Rockstar collection. And that is very difficult because at Balenciaga, Demner was very

consistent. He was able to churn out hit after hit after hit after hit after hit. And that's why so much of it sold,

right? And I think he'll probably have a hard time, but I believe in him, you know, creating products that are

constantly desirable over and over and over and over again. I think that was Demar and his team's, you know, big

selling points, how consistent they could make, you know, selling really, really big things and how consistently

they would make new iterations of footwear and stuff like that that people actually loved and bought. Now, an

opinion I've seen online, even though this story just broke, but I've seen quite a few opinions because I was

scrolling through Instagram, a lot of people are saying that Pop Palo joining Balenciaga means that Balenciaga wants

to go in a completely different direction aesthetically. And I could not, you know, agree less, could not

disagree more because I think people are selling Pollo's work shorts. Pollo has shown over the years that he has range.

I've seen everything from Pollo Puli. Yes, he's known for elaborate gowns and his amazing couture shows. However, I've

seen him do streetear designs. I've seen some collections that look more streetearesque. I've seen Pollo

collaborated with many different brands. He's collaborated with Monontlair Genius making outear dresses, but also more

simple jackets. So, I've seen all different kinds of products from Pollo. So this idea that Pilpo is going to go

to Balenciaga and completely change it and it's going to be you know longline dresses and it's going to look very

conservative which is more of an aesthetic that we associate with Pollo when you compare it to Demar. I get

where that comes from but I think that Pollo has shown enough range to show that he's not just going to do the same

aesthetic at every brand he goes to. He's shown that he can do many different aesthetic. And I'm sure by now Kerring

has learned that doing a complete 180 in aesthetic does not work. We talk about this all the time when we talk about

Alessandra Mckela and Sabat Dano. I think if you build an audience that consistently buys a very specific thing

or very specific aesthetic and then you change creative directors and you do a complete 180 on aesthetic and you expect

all those customers that went for that initial thing before to stay and to build customers upon that so that you

see you know revenue growth. I think it's diabolical and almost silly to think that you can do that. It made

sense when brands were smaller. It made sense in the early 2000s when these brands weren't making 11 billion euros

um in one year, right? If you if you're a company and you make a hundred million, there are many different

hundred million market segments, right? There are less market segments for 11 billion. So when you're working at 11

billion, there are there's a higher chance for you to lose money if you start doing anything different versus

when these brands were just making a few hundred million or, you know, 90 million a year. It was very easy for them to

change creative directors and have different aesthetics and for it to still work and it to not affect them

financially because they're playing with smaller figures. So there's more room for error. There's less room for error

when you're dealing with these massive figures, which is why Gucci has been struggling. So, I don't think that

they're going to go a complete 180. I think they've learned their lesson that at the point they are now

financially that just can't be the case. And the thing is, it's not like you can't change the aesthetic. It just

needs to be a slow transition, which gives consumers enough time to acclimatize to the new aesthetic, to the

new products, to the new branding, and that way you can bring them along. If it's too stark or too harsh, people

don't understand it. People are like, "Oh, I used to like this when I used to buy from this brand. and now I'm just

going to find a different brand that does what I used to buy. Right? You do not want that. And Pier Pollo himself

seems to very clearly understand this because I'll read some of the quotes that he gave in his interview with Vogue

about his appointment to Balenciaga, but it was along these sort of lines. So what he said is this is a new moment for

fashion and you can change the rules only from the inside. I think we can deliver a new image of fashion that is

about assertiveness, humanity and intelligence which is not granted very often. But in Thiago already exists in a

community. I want to embrace that community and the spirit of Balenciaga to make my own chapter in the same

story. And so that's a clear understanding that he's not going to he's already telling you he's not just

going to completely change the aesthetic. He feels like he already has an audience already has its cult

following and he's already trying to see where he fits within all of that. Right? To read another quote, he said, "I want

to embrace the past because I feel that it's very important to have respect for what Nicholas Gierre and Demner did

before me. The story of Balenciaga is a story of designers that I respect. this is more a passing of the torch rather

than a game of chairs and I feel very lucky to be a part of it. So it's very clear that even he understands that you

know you can't just completely change and reinvent the wheel um because it just doesn't work in this luxury fashion

climate. It really really doesn't work. I also find it interesting that he mentioned Demar and Nicholas Gasier but

not Alexander Wang when he was mentioning you know very recent previous creative directors. That was very

interesting and I'm very sure the people at Carring must have thought about this appointment for a really long time.

Carring is in a very very interesting position right now. Of course, the most important brand by a landslide is Gucci.

Gucci makes practically all the money um for Kerring. And so that's why Demar has the most important job right now. But I

also think that POI's job is super important. If Kerring wants to not have the financial issues that they continue

to have, they need to be less reliant on Gucci. When you look at their financial reports, there's a massive gap between

Gucci and everything else like Salon Paris and of course BGA Veneta and sometimes you don't even see Balenciaga

in the report because it doesn't really make enough money to be shown, right? It's just in the other brands category.

However, if they could balance their books, if BGA Veneta could make more money, if Salamon Pis could make more

money, if Balenciaga could make up that deficit, then they would be less reliant on Gucci and then bad performance from

one specific brand would not completely tank their share prices. So I think if they are smart, if they're being smart,

they have a long long-term strategy on how exactly they're going to build Bayga Veneta, they're going to build Salon

Paris. They're going to build Balenciaga to the same financial level as the likes of Gucci. I personally think Bayga

Veneta and Balenciaga are really fast growing and I think they have so much untapped potential when it comes to

being in market segments that they don't really do well in. A good example is beauty. I know Carring launched Caring

Beauty not too long ago and they're clearly focusing and they've said they're focusing on launching fragrances

with Balenciaga and they are planning on re-releasing some old Balenciaga fragrances. A lot of the partnerships

with you know Cody that Kerring has had in the past haven't really been that lucrative for them and that's why they

didn't renew the contract. So now that they're focusing on carrying beauty, there's so much untapped potential on

how much money they can make via their fragrances, via their candles, via lipsticks and other things. And all

these things haven't even really been properly launched yet, especially not with Balenciaga. With Bautga Veneta,

they've already sort of launched their first release of fragrances, but Balenciaga, it's still crickets and

there's so much there. There's just so much untapped potential. And I really think that if Pollo, you know, does a

really good job and the team there does a really good job, they can really balance the books. I also wonder since

Balenciaga still hasn't released their fragrances yet if POI will have any input on the fragrance line. I don't

think so cuz I feel like Carrying Beauty is like a separate entity entirely. He might have a say on the packaging

because it has to align with his design language. Kind of similar to, you know, the Drea Notin fragrances, which I love.

I love how aligned it is with the house and the aesthetic of the house. But in terms of formulation, I think they're

too far gone. I'm probably sure they've already worked on a lot of formulations already or they're kind of in the works

too far to have any input now. And of course, they're re-releasing some old Balenciaga fragrances, which will be

interesting to see what they do with those. Now, beyond design, when I think of Pure Polo Pachi, I think of someone

that is known for diversity. He was always championed for being very diverse with the way that he casts models and

his campaigns, the people that he's around. You know, he's challenges social issues. He has commentary on social

issues with a lot of his shows when he was at Valentino. And you contrast that right now with the current narrative

around Balenciaga, which is around, of course, the controversy. Will he be able to shake off that dirty stench that is

around Balenciaga right now considering that he is more of like a wholesome, you know, not get into trouble character?

Will people notice that there's a new creative director or will or will people not care and just be like, "Yeah,

Balenciaga's canceled forever type of thing." That would be interesting to see if he's able to change opinions. It

tends to be the case though, which is why Balenciaga didn't really see that much of a hit when the controversy

happened. that the people that actually buy the brand don't care, which is very fascinating. Um, so even though people

are outraged online, it didn't really lead to like a massive fall in sales for Balenciaga. Now, last but not least,

what I'm really looking forward to with Po Balenciaga are the couture collections. I think Demner had amazing

couture collections at Balenciaga. I wasn't a fan of everything he did, but I definitely think that a lot of the

collections and the narrative around the collections was really great. However, I do think I have fatigue of this demma

postirony everything is ironic. What if we made it this way? What if we did this and we changed the context of this? I

just have I'm just a bit tired of it and it's really good now to see someone like Pollo who's known for making really

elaborate gowns and really really well-crafted dresses. Seeing what he does with the Balenciaga archive and the

Balenciaga shapes which we know he has an appreciation of. I'm really curious to see what he does on the couture side.

So yeah, those are my thoughts on Pipalo Picholi being the creative director of Balenciaga. Please leave your thoughts

down below. And before I go, if you want extra content and you want to be a part of the fashion book club, you can join

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that note, thank you very much for watching and I'll see you guys in the next video.

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