As a stream of A-list celebrities took their seats in the basement of Tate Modern last week for Gucci’s latest cruise collection, executives appeared relaxed. Seated next to his wife, Salma Hayek, Francois-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of Gucci owner Kering, “beamed confidently”, wrote the Telegraph, London’s head of fashion Lisa Armstrong after the show. Park Gyu-young, Alia Bhatt, Demi Moore, Debbie Harry, Lila Moss, Kate Moss, Nikolai von Bismarck and Debonnaire von Bismarck attend the Gucci Cruise 2025 Fashion Show at Tate Modern, London, last week.
Credit: Getty Pinault and Gucci’s 600 other guests, who included Debbie Harry, Demi Moore and Dua Lipa, had gathered to see the latest collection by Sabato De Sarno, the luxury brand’s new creative director, in his first show outside of Milan. After years of declining sales at Gucci, De Sarno has his work cut out in winning back customers. Last year, Kering revealed Gucci’s revenue had slipped another 6 per cent to €9.
9 billion ($16 billion). It recently said it was expecting profits across its business to fall as much as 45 per cent in the first six months of the year, placing the lion’s share of the blame at Gucci’s door. Increasingly, the poor performance is causing frustration among investors, who have seen the value of Pinault’s empire crumble.
Loading Shares in Kering are down 57 per cent since their peak in August 2021, giving it a market value of €41 billion. It is a bitter pill for Pinault.
