Everyone, grab a seat. No, literally. Fashion recently decided that it’s not time to end the game of musical chairs just yet. You know, the one where every creative director under the sun spent the past year chasing a luxury seat, fun times. Thought we kind of wrapped it up, but fun times. Pieter Mulier officially exited the maison of Alaïa, and the rumors didn’t just go nuclear, they turned out to be true.
Alaia isn’t exactly a complicated maison. Azzedine Alaïa himself called the shots for nearly four decades, until he sadly didn’t, in 2017. Pieter Mulier took the reins in 2021, but until then he was proving his chops next to Raf Simons at every major house, the good old right-hand man. Raf Simons, Jil Sander, Christian Dior, he was there. At Calvin Klein, Mulier officially became creative director, with Simons keeping the big chief creative officer’s chair. And that’s when the duo parted ways and Mulier took center stage at Alaïa.
2017 and 2021 are five years apart, but one title away. After Alaïa’s death, the house ran on its in-house team, to put it plainly, those five years were five really long years. But when Mulier stepped in, the energy shifted. He organized the maison, modernized the workflow, and mentored the team. He brought the collections closer to the market, gave the house a pulse, and proved you can update a legend without entirely killing its soul.
With Versace getting that big, fat hug from Prada Group, in other words, officially sold by Capri Holdings, and Dario Vitale’s sudden exit, the game of musical chairs crowned a new winner. Pieter Mulier is officially heading to Versace as chief creative officer, turning months of speculation into reality. Whether it’s actually the right fit is, of course, highly debatable, but it will certainly be entertaining to watch. Now, whispers of Mulier co-heading Versace with Donatella are everywhere, powered by the ever-reliable Internet. Considering Simons is currently teaming up with Miuccia herself at Prada, it doesn’t feel as far-fetched as it should, a sort of half-circle moment. And where does this leave the fashion world? Alaïa’s chair is open, and there’s a list of potential heavy hitters. Olivier Rousteing, Sabato De Sarno, dare I even say John Galliano. Point is, logic may be missing, but names definitely aren’t. Alaïa just landed the ultimate opportunity to shock us, the kind fashion usually wastes.
