16 Oct
2026
Every few years fashion goes through a season where the most important story is not a hemline but a name on a door. September 2026 was one of those months. Within a single week, the Armani Group handed one of its most valuable labels to a designer from outside the family, and Diesel confirmed that the creative director who rebuilt its reputation was walking away. By the time the Spring/Summer 2027 shows wrapped in Paris, a handful of debuts at Moschino, Courrèges and Carven had added to the sense that the industry's creative leadership is being redrawn in real time.
For anyone who follows creative direction as a discipline, rather than as celebrity gossip, these moves are worth reading closely. They show what heritage brands now believe a creative director is for, and how much risk they are willing to take to get it.
On September 16, the Armani Group appointed Dario Vitale creative director of Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani accessories, effective immediately. FashionUnited reported that he is the first person outside the Armani family to hold the role, and Models.com noted the announcement came a year after Giorgio Armani's death. CEO Giuseppe Marsocci called the appointment "an important milestone for the Armani Group," describing Emporio as strategically important and the accessories business as a major opportunity.
The structure matters as much as the name. According to Models.com's summary of WWD reporting, Silvana Armani and Leo Dell'Orco continue to oversee the main collections. Silvana Armani, head of womenswear style, said Emporio "was born as a space of freedom, experimentation and energy." That is a careful division of labour: the family keeps custody of the flagship signature while an outsider is given the younger, more commercially elastic line and the category that most luxury groups now treat as their profit engine.
Vitale's résumé explains the choice. He trained at Istituto Marangoni, worked at Bottega Veneta under Tomas Maier, and joined Miu Miu in 2010, rising to design director of ready-to-wear and brand image director before leaving in March 2025. He was then named chief creative officer of Versace in April 2025, but Models.com describes that as a one-season stint that ended after the Prada Group acquired the house. Dazed confirmed the transition is real on the runway: Emporio skipped a show this season, releasing a lookbook instead, and the article described it as the last Emporio collection designed by Dell'Orco and Silvana Armani.
Two days later, Diesel announced that Glenn Martens would leave after his Spring/Summer 2027 show in Milan on September 22. Founder Renzo Rosso said Martens' contribution had been "extraordinary," crediting him with forging "a strong bond with younger generations". Hypebeast reported that Martens joined in 2020 and remains creative head of Maison Margiela, the OTB-owned house he took over in 2025 after John Galliano. Diesel did not name a successor.
His farewell was no quiet bow. The Associated Press described a runway bathed in red light, models seated in the stands performing to "Love to Love You Baby," knitwear that appeared to dissolve into denim and leather, and a standing ovation at the end. Hypebae counted about 200 performers from the collective (LA)HORDE among the audience. Backstage, Martens told the AP that Diesel "never pretended to be a luxury brand," and that the team wanted "to do more alternative things, and think about the community."
That line is the clearest statement of what made his tenure work. Martens did not try to drag a denim label into couture territory. He made Diesel culturally relevant on its own terms, and the brand's management credited him with raising its editorial authority and product desirability while keeping its democratic, irreverent identity. A week later in Paris, Hypebae reported, his first Margiela collection made without the Diesel workload centred on deconstructing everyday home life, with a flattened silver teapot as a motif.
Alongside the exits, the season delivered a cluster of first collections. In Milan, Hypebae reported the debut of Loris Messina and Simone Rizzo, the duo known for Sunnei, at Moschino, where about 400 real commuters walked alongside models. In Paris, Drew Henry made his debut at Courrèges with a playful, space-age collection of tall hats, neon belts and vinyl outerwear, and Kai Nesselrath showed his first Carven collection, drawing on founder Madame Carven's archive with pencils tucked into pockets and behind ears.
Meanwhile, designers appointed in the previous cycle were showing whether their early promise holds. At Fendi, Maria Grazia Chiuri, named to lead the house last October, staged a collection that Hypebae counted as her second, and told AnOther that "to me Fendi is about lightness."
Read together, the September news points to three shifts in how creative direction is being defined.
There is also a timing lesson. Vitale's Versace chapter lasted a single season before an acquisition changed the ownership picture. Creative directors are increasingly exposed to corporate events they do not control, and boards appear more willing to move quickly when a strategic fit appears elsewhere.
Independent labels and founder-led businesses can take something practical from this. Every brand eventually faces the question Armani faced: which parts of the identity must stay with the founder, and which can be handed to someone with a different eye? The Armani answer, keeping the core signature close while delegating a more experimental line, is a useful template. So is Martens' approach at Diesel: define what the brand is not ("never pretended to be a luxury brand") and push hard inside that boundary rather than chasing someone else's prestige.
The first Emporio Armani collection under Vitale will be the real test of whether an outsider can modernise the label without diluting the Armani name. Diesel's choice of successor will reveal how much of the Martens playbook the company intends to keep. And the Spring 2027 debutants at Moschino, Courrèges and Carven now face the harder second season, when novelty fades and the clothes have to sell. Creative direction is a long game, and September 2026 reset the board for several of fashion's most recognisable names.
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