Less than two years after he took the helm, Pierpaolo Piccioli is leaving Balenciaga. Parent company Kering confirmed the departure on 5 November 2026, saying a new creative direction for the house will be announced shortly. Vanity Fair Italia and Vogue both reported the news the same day, closing a short chapter that began when the Italian couturier was named creative director in May 2025 and started in July that year.
What Balenciaga and Kering said
Balenciaga president and chief executive Gianfranco Gianangeli thanked Piccioli for reaffirming the house’s couture origins and for a considered approach to craftsmanship, construction and creativity. Kering chief executive Luca de Meo called him an exceptional couturier and said the group’s ambition is to build on Balenciaga’s avant-garde spirit, honour its heritage and keep pushing creative boundaries. The official statements stop there: no successor was named in the release.
The exit sits inside a wider reshuffle at Kering. In recent weeks the group has also parted ways with Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent and Seán McGirr at McQueen, as de Meo resets creative leadership across the portfolio.
From Valentino colour to Balenciaga craft
Piccioli spent roughly twenty-five years at Valentino before leaving in 2024, where his colour sense — including the Pantone-linked “Pink PP” moment — and couture shows made him one of fashion’s most watched voices. At Balenciaga he inherited a house remade by Demna for a street-and-sports audience, and tried to marry that relevance with softer, more classic silhouettes and couture construction. Harper’s Bazaar notes his tenure lasted about sixteen months; his spring 2026 debut revisited sack shapes, evening dresses and sculpted leather, chasing what many critics called pragmatic beauty rather than pure shock.
In a long Instagram note shared after the announcement, Piccioli wrote that couture is a way of thinking, not merely a look, and quoted Pier Paolo Pasolini on the duty to keep shining. He thanked the ateliers and collaborators who walked that path with him. Whatever comes next for the house, the appointment itself already showed how luxury still reaches for couture hands when it wants to reset a brand’s mood.
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Sources: Vanity Fair Italia, Kering, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar.
