Alessandro Michele is leaving Gucci. The creative director took to Instagram to announce that his "extraordinary journey" with the Italian fashion house has ended. The news comes after rumors of his impending departure emerged earlier this week.
The 49-year-old Rome-born designer took the reins at the legendary house in 2015, following Frida Giannini. He had been with Gucci since 2002 where he started designing handbags. Michele made waves at Gucci with his colorful, maximalist, and genderfluid designs.
In separate statement, Gucci president and CEO Marco Bizzari and Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault thanked Michele for his years of commitment to Gucci, as well as his "vision, devotion, and unconditional love for this unique House during his tenure as Creative Director."
Read Michele's full statement below.
There are times when paths part ways because of the different perspectives each one of us may have. Today an extraordinary journey ends for me, lasting more than twenty years, within a company to which I have tirelessly dedicated all my love and creative passion. During this long period Gucci has been my home, my adopted family. To this extended family, to all the individuals, who have looked after and supported it, I send my most sincere thanks, my biggest and most heartfelt embrace. Together with them I have wished, dreamed, imagined. Without them, none of what I have built would have been possible. To them goes my most sincerest wish: may you continue to cultivate your dreams, the subtle and intangible matter that makes life worth living. May you continue to nourish yourselves with poetic and inclusive imagery, remaining faithful to your values. May you always live by your passions, propelled by the wind of freedom
According to a release, Gucci's design office will continue to produce collections until a new "creative organization" is announced.
