Dario Vitale’s Versace Exit: The Backstory

Dear BoF Community,

A few months ago, I was sitting down with Andrea Guerra to prepare for our conversation for BoF VOICES. Every year, I choose one luxury CEO to interview and this year, I knew it had to be Guerra, what with the sustained growth at Prada Group, powered in no small part by the explosive success of Miu Miu, and the news that the company was set to acquire Versace.

As always, Guerra was game for direct questions and when it came to interview time, he delivered incisive responses and handled some challenging questions with aplomb on topics from piloting a soft landing at Miu Miu as growth inevitably slows to luxury’s price-value equation. He let slip that Prada scion Lorenzo Bertelli would become executive chairman at soon to be acquired Versace, but avoided directly answering my question about the future of the brand’s creative and business leadership.

“Especially at the beginning, stability is a very important word,” Guerra said. “And this is what we are going to do. We are going to care about everyone working in Versace. And we are going to care about everything that is happening in Versace. The only thing I don’t want to happen is I don’t want to kill the patient while we cure it.”

So the speed at which the Prada-Bertelli clan exited Versace designer Dario Vitale, only two days after taking control of the brand, took me by surprise. The news immediately sparked another round of designer succession speculation. Could it be Anthony Vacarello? Sources have told BoF that he’s been approached and that he idolises founder Gianni.

The potential match-up makes sense given his history with the brand (he previously designed Versus and has a good relationship with Donatella), speaks Italian and, after ten years at Saint Laurent, might be looking for a new challenge.

But that’s besides the point. Leaving aside that Dario Vitale’s show that wasn’t supposed to be a show turned out to be one of the most unexpectedly exciting moments of the Milan fashion season gone by, it was also notable because he was a new name, with new energy. Everywhere else we were seeing old names pop up at new houses. He was a new guy on the scene to step into the spotlight from behind the scenes. Whether or not he was a good fit for Versace (Prada clearly thinks not), a healthy fashion system depends on this kind of creative renewal and change.

Unfortunately for Vitale, the old axiom “you never know what is going to come back to bite you” held especially true for him. After informing Prada Group earlier this year that he was leaving Miu Miu to take the creative director role at Versace, he was told in no uncertain terms that they did not believe he was ready for such a role and if Prada ended up acquiring Versace he would not stay in the job, according to multiple sources close to the company.

Vitale took the plunge in any case, so he knew this was coming. Maybe it will still pay off for him in the end, his buzzy debut a compelling audition for a new role no doubt.

In the meantime, we will wait and watch what happens at Versace. We understand that a new creative director has already been identified and could be announced within the month.

One thing that might have scuppered Vitale’s tenure at Versace was the pricing. His collection brought to mind the youthful energy of the brand’s former second line Versus, but was priced like top-end luxury.

This topic was central to the discussion I had with System Magazine’s editor in chief Jonathan Wingfield and Bernstein’s global luxury analyst Luca Solca for another wide-ranging examination of the state of the luxury industry on this week’s episode of The BoF Podcast.

Have a great weekend.

Imran Amed, Founder and Editor in Chief

Here are my other top picks from our analysis on fashion, luxury and beauty:

1. Can Nike’s Latest C-Suite Makeover Finally Solidify Its Vision? Elliott Hill has made another round of changes to Nike’s executive team as he builds out the company’s future. But how close is that vision to finally arriving?

2. Case Study | The Art & Science of World-Building. Once the preserve of a handful of high-end labels, world-building has become a powerful method for any brand to create a lasting impression and connect emotionally with customers. Pulling it off requires more than just consistent branding across channels.

3. High Margin: Chanel Takes the Subway, LVMH’s Management Shakeup. What’s going on at luxury’s two biggest brands, Chanel and Louis Vuitton? Plus, Sant Ambroeus opens in Paris.

4. Prada’s Versace Acquisition Closes, Now the Real Work Begins. The group’s effort to revive the fortunes of the iconic label founded by Gianni Versace will require both patience and pain. ‘The next 12 months will be rough.’

5. How Staud Churns Out Hit After Hit. After a decade in business, Sarah Staudinger’s brand is profitable, on track to hit $250 million in annual sales, with an even split between ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories, wholesale and direct-to-consumer. She and co-founder George Augusto spoke to The Business of Fashion about how they did it — and what’s next.

This Weekend on The BoF Podcast

Instead of his usual place in the host’s seat, BoF founder and CEO Imran Amed appears this week as a guest in an interview with Jonathan Wingfield, editor in chief of System Magazine, alongside Luca Solca, senior analyst of global luxury goods at Bernstein — as featured in the second issue of System Collections.

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