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The Armani Group on Thursday named a senior manager who worked alongside Giorgio Armani to take over as chief executive of the luxury empire following the designer’s death.

Giuseppe Marsocci, 61, joined the group in 2003 and spent over a decade in the New York office. For the past six years he had been reporting directly to Armani as deputy general manager and global chief commercial officer of the group.

Leo Dell’Orco, Armani’s long-time partner, is chairman of the board of directors, and Silvana Armani, the designer’s niece, will be vice-president.

“In the coming weeks, the board of directors of Giorgio Armani will take its final form upon completion of the procedures and execution of the will,” the group said in a statement.

Armani, who died in September aged 91, kept a tight control of the empire he built up over five decades, which spanned hotels to haute couture.

After defending his independence throughout his life, however, he entrusted his heirs in his will with the task of selling his group.

READ ALSO: Italian Fashion Icon Giorgio Armani Dies At 91

Marsocci’s appointment was intended to “start the new phase without interruption in the company’s management,” the group said.

“The appointment is an important confirmation of the united will of the Armani family to continue the project that Giorgio Armani has built and sustained for 50 years,” it added.

Dell’Orco said that Marsocci’s experience, discretion, and loyalty, “together with his closeness to Mr. Armani in recent years, make Giuseppe the most natural choice” to lead the group.

In the same statement, Marsocci said, “This is a project of extraordinary importance, of continuity and enhancement of one of the most prestigious Made in Italy brands in the world.”

He admitted, “The goal is challenging, especially in a luxury market undergoing deep reflection.”

AFP

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Italy’s Pierpaolo Piccioli stressed that “every heart beats differently” in his first show as chief creative at Balenciaga on Saturday as he set a more classic pulse for the fashion label, with support from Meghan Markle.

The 58-year-old was under huge scrutiny at Paris Fashion Week, having replaced the highly rated Georgian designer Demna, who left the brand in July after raising its profile and profits over a decade at the helm.

Demna, who counted Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian and Cardi B as well as Gen Z celeb fans, began the task of reviving fellow Kering-owned label Gucci at Milan Fashion Week last week.

Piccioli will be hoping his spring/summer 2026 womenswear designs keep Balenciaga relevant among younger buyers, but he also looked to have toned down the flamboyance and code-breaking of the Demna era.

His front-row also looked different, including the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, who dressed in an ivory-coloured Balenciaga suit with a cape for a rare trip to Europe from her home in California.

“She has long admired his (Piccioli’s) craftsmanship and modern elegance, and tonight was no different,” a spokesman for the Duchess told Hello! magazine.

Other VIPs included recently married Lauren Bezos, wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, and “The Devil Wears Prada” star Anne Hathaway.

‘Own Sensibility’

Piccioli, who made his name at Valentino, took a retro approach to the invitations for Saturday’s show, sending his guests a 1980s-style Walkman cassette player with a recording of a heartbeat.

“The heartbeat is the rhythm we share – the pulse that reminds us we are human,” he wrote in his notes handed to invitees in the headquarters of Kering on Saturday night.

“Even so, every heart beats differently.”

Speaking to reporters, he said it would be “stupid and disrespectful” to overlook the designers before him in the house while stressing he would leave his own mark.

“I wanted to work, even with the Demna archetype, with my own sensibility, which is, of course, different,” he said.

Demna helped move streetwear onto the catwalks and made regular headlines at the brand with his $2,000 “Ikea” bag and $1,800 so-called “trash pouch”, as well as his designer “Crocs” and T-shirts.

READ ALSO:  Louis Vuitton Unveils Ethereal Collection At Paris Fashion Week

He was also behind a much-criticised 2023 advertising campaign that appeared to reference child abuse, leading to a rebuke from billionaire Kering CEO Francois-Henri Pinault.

Piccioli worked for 25 years at Valentino, at first alongside fellow Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri.

A flurry of new appointments at major labels have lent this Paris Fashion Week momentous significance.

After debuts by Jonathan Anderson at Dior women or Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez at Loewe, Dutch designer Duran Lantink will step into the limelight on Sunday for his debut as chief creative at Jean Paul Gaultier.

Monday will see the hotly anticipated first collection from new Chanel designer Matthieu Blazy.

Best Of The Rest

Elsewhere on Saturday, Nadege Vanhee-Cybulski presented her Spring-Summer 2026 collection for Hermes in the barracks of the horse-backed Republican Guard security forces, staying true to the house’s equestrian heritage.

“I wanted to bring a much more bohemian touch to horseback riding — to show that it can also mean letting go, freedom, and a hint of ecstasy,” explained the French designer, who has designed women’s collections for the label since 2014.

At Vivienne Westwood, inspiration came from old curtains, explained Austrian designer Andreas Kronthaler, who unveiled a colourful new collection at the historic Institut de France, featuring fluid draped dresses and corseted baroque-style silhouettes.

Supermodel Heidi Klum closed the show wearing a white, rhinestone-embellished bustier with a long, airy cape, followed by the designer himself, who appeared carrying a bouquet of sunflowers so large he could barely carry it.

Celebrities including American rapper Ice Spice, singer Demi Lovato and Paris Hilton looked on.

Heidi Klum then left the runway to attend the Elie Saab show at the nearby Palais de Tokyo, where the Lebanese couturier — beloved by stars and Middle Eastern royalty — presented a wardrobe of sandy tones and bold patterns.

AFP

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Paris Haute Couture Week has wrapped up after four days of shows that featured the end of an era at Balenciaga, the start of a new one at Maison Margiela, and some surprise appearances and absences.

Here’s a look back on the key moments of the Autumn-Winter 2025-2026 season:

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The first-ever Birkin bag designed by French luxury brand Hermes for celebrity Jane Birkin sold for 8.58 million euros ($10 million) at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris on Thursday, smashing previous price records for a handbag.

The modern design classic, owned by a Paris-based handbag collector, sparked a telephone bidding war up to seven million euros, with the final sale price set at 8.58 million with commission and fees, the Sotheby’s website showed.

“After weeks of anticipation, the bidding opened at 1 million euros — prompting a gasp from the room,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

The final buyer, who eclipsed eight other rivals, was a “private collector from Japan”, the auction house added, without giving further details.

The previous record price for a handbag at auction was set by a diamond-encrusted crocodile skin Hermes Kelly 28, which fetched $513,000 in 2021 at Christie’s in Hong Kong.

Sotheby’s had advised that the Birkin prototype was expected to beat that level during its sale.

But the staggering price tag for a well-worn item is in keeping with the fashion world’s recent flashy aesthetics.

After years of so-called “quiet luxury” dominating catwalks, designers have embraced more ostentatious looks in recent seasons that have been dubbed “boom boom” by some trend forecasters.

Modern-day Birkin bags are offered by Hermes to loyal clients, with prices starting at around $10,000.

‘Nostalgic’

The original Birkin has changed hands twice since being put up for sale by Birkin at an auction in 1994 where the proceeds went to an AIDS charity, according to Sotheby’s.

Thursday’s sale represents an extraordinary pay day for owner Catherine Benier, who has a boutique in the upmarket 6th district in Left Bank Paris.

She said she was “astonished at the result” in a statement sent by Sotheby’s.

“I’m already very nostalgic at the thought of knowing the bag is no longer mine but extremely happy it has found a new loving home,” she added.

She told The New York Times before the sale that the bag, which she bought at auction 25 years ago, was the “jewel in my collection”.

The bag is now the second-most expensive fashion item ever sold at auction, Sotheby’s said.

The record was established by a pair of ruby red slippers worn by actor Judy Garland from The Wizard of Oz in 1939, which sold for $32.5 million in 2024 in Dallas, Texas.

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Magazine legend Anna Wintour stepped down as editor of US Vogue on Thursday after 37 years during which she was often hailed as the single most influential figure in the fashion world.

Wintour, 75, was famous for making Vogue’s front covers an authoritative statement on contemporary fashion, and for her total control over the glamorous pages inside.

She will no longer run day-to-day editing of the fashion bible, but magazine group owner Conde Nast was quick to scotch suggestions that she was retiring.

She will continue to hold senior roles at the group and remain Vogue’s global editorial director, a company source said.

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In African wax print dresses and tight-fitting evening wear, the “plus-size” models strutted up the runway in Kisumu, western Kenya, in a special event designed to celebrate the beauty of larger women.

Started nine years ago, the East Africa Plus Size Fashion Affair is, according to founder Winnie Wenga Walcott, the only event of its kind in Kenya despite the fact the region “has mostly really plump women”.

“We have seen the media really trying to focus on a certain body type of women,” she told AFP. “And in so doing, this has really affected their self-esteem.”

In front of more than 300 screaming spectators, a dozen amateur models walked and danced their way along the catwalk this weekend.

Unlike traditional haute couture shows, there was a lot of smiling.

Among them was Oprah Odhiambo, a Kenyan entrepreneur, who wanted to show that “plus size can do what the petite can do, so I feel joyous.”

“There are those plus-size women who are in hiding because they are afraid that people will body shame them,” she said, adding that she hopes the show will make them reassess their self-image.

Singer and model Rosemary Odire, stage name Nyakusa Nyamama, spoke of the sneers she has faced when performing.

“I have encountered so many problems… people are like ‘Yo big mama, what are you going to do there, you cannot dance, get off the stage,'” she said.

“But I am here portraying… not just any beauty, not just plus-size beauty, but the African beauty in me,” added Odire, who swayed her hips on the runway in a leopard-skin skirt.

Coming from all walks of Kenyan society, the models did not have this level of confidence when they started training in March.

“They were very timid about their body sizes,” recalled Walcott, adding that there was now a “huge difference”.

The fashion show addresses health issues but also focuses on “accepting curvy women” and “celebrating their appearance by blending it with fashion due to the difficulty they face finding clothes,” said Walcott.

Walcott created the show to honour her own mother — so she could “see herself as beautiful.”

“You see how big I am, I really hated my body, but she really encouraged me,” said Walcott’s mother, Seline Aoko, speaking at the fruit stall in Kisumu where she works.

“Big is beautiful!”

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The first-ever Birkin bag that was designed by French luxury brand Hermes for actress Jane Birkin is set to be sold at auction in Paris, with the piece of modern fashion history likely to spark a bidding frenzy.

The Birkin has become a modern design icon that is so exclusive that Hermes only offers it to loyal clients, with prices starting at around $10,000.

Auction house Sotheby’s, which is handling the sale of the Birkin prototype in Paris on July 10, declined to specify a reserve price publicly and its value is hard to forecast.

“The Original Birkin holds the potential to redefine records,” Morgane Halimi, Sotheby’s global handbag and fashion head, said in a statement.

The previous record sale price for a handbag at auction was set by a highly customised Birkin in Hong Kong in 2017.

The diamond-encrusted crocodile-skin Birkin 30 with white gold details fetched $510,000 at Christie’s.

The seller of the original Birkin is well-known Paris-based handbag collector and dealer Catherine Benier whose appointment-only boutique in the high-end 6th district of the capital has a cult following.

Benier told The New York Times that the bag was the “jewel in my collection”.

It has changed hands twice since being put up for sale by Birkin at an auction in 1994 where the proceeds went to an AIDS charity, Sotheby’s said.

A record-setting sale price for the prototype would be in keeping with the fashion world’s recent flashy aesthetics.

After years of so-called “quiet luxury” dominating catwalks, designers have embraced more ostentatious looks in recent seasons that have been dubbed “boom boom” by some trend forecasters.

Celebrity fans

The birth of the Birkin bag has become a modern fashion legend.

During a Paris–London flight, the singer and actress — who died in 2023 — complained to a fellow traveller about not being able to find a bag suited to her needs as a young mother.

That fellow passenger happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, then head of Hermes.

The result of their conversation was a spacious tote with room for baby bottles, created in 1984 and named the Birkin.

It is engraved with the initials J.B. and has several unique features, Sotheby’s said, including closed metal rings, a non-detachable shoulder strap and a built-in nail clipper.

Its condition “reflects the many years of use by the actress and singer,” Sotheby’s said.

A slightly differently sized version of the original has become the flagship product of the immensely profitable family-owned luxury French leather goods maker ever since.

Produced in very limited numbers, the bag has maintained an aura of exclusivity and is beloved by celebrities from Khloe Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez to Victoria Beckham.

Frustrated fashionistas in America even sued Hermes in a class-action suit in California last year after they were refused access to the bags.

Birkin also had a sometimes strained relationship with Hermes, once threatening to take her name off the bags because of the group’s treatment of crocodiles whose skins are used for its products.

The former wife of French singing legend Serge Gainsbourg championed a host of causes, including animal rights.

The prototype Birkin will be exhibited at Sotheby’s in New York from June 6 to 12 before being put on show in the French capital before the sale.

In addition to the Birkin bag, the Sotheby’s “Fashion Icons” sale will feature runway pieces from designers including Christian Dior, John Galliano, Thierry Mugler and Alexander McQueen.

Bidding will open online on June 26 and close on July 10.

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Hollywood star Halle Berry was tripped up by the Cannes film festival’s new dress code Tuesday banning extravagantly large dresses on the red carpet, while others appeared to flout the rules.

New regulations banning nudity on the red carpet as well as long dress trains meant Berry had to leave a gown she had chosen for the opening night in her wardrobe.

“I had an amazing dress to wear tonight by Gupta, and I cannot wear it because the train is too big,” the Oscar winner told reporters, referring to the Indian designer Gaurav Gupta, who has previously dressed rapper Cardi B and made big statement gowns for the Met Gala.

“Of course, I’m going to follow the rules,” the American actor, who is on the jury that will decide which film wins the Palme d’Or top prize, said.

Yet others clearly did not.

German model Heidi Klum sported a pink train that was at least three metres (10 feet) long on the first red carpet of the festival, while a Chinese actor and influencer Wan Qianhui also appeared in an enormous white marshmallow mountain of white taffeta.

Berry, who won an Oscar for “Monster’s Ball”, also backed the festival organisers on clamping down on overly risque outfits with new written rules.

“The nudity part is probably also a good rule,” she said.

Cannes organisers raised eyebrows Monday by putting its dress rules publicly into writing for the first time.

“It is not about regulating” what people wear but “to ban total nudity on the red carpet, in line with French law”, a spokesman told AFP.

The Cannes red carpet has seen a procession of daring and revealing looks over the years, with model Bella Hadid in particular sending social media into a spin with a plunging sculptural Schiaparelli creation in 2021.

Stilettos get the heel

“Naked dresses” — provocative looks that reveal considerably more than they conceal — have become something of a red carpet phenomenon of late, with rapper Kanye West’s wife, architect Bianca Censori, causing a scandal at the Grammy Awards in February.

After years of rows and controversies, Cannes has also clarified its rules on footwear, with many accusing it of forcing women to wear high heels.

Several stars defied the tacit rule by going in flats or even barefoot, including Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert.

Kristen Stewart dug in her heels by walking onto the red carpet in 2018 and then dramatically removing her towering Christian Louboutin stilettos before the cameras.

The rule has now been clearly codified.

The festival has decreed that “elegant shoes or sandals with or without heels” are allowed, a change that this year’s jury president, French Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche, hailed as “a very good idea”, joking that she was speaking from “experience”.

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The brightest stars in Hollywood, music, sports and fashion hit the red carpet Monday for the Met Gala, the extravagant Manhattan fundraiser that this year spotlights the subversive style of Black dandyism.

The blockbuster night’s theme explores the sharply tailored dandy aesthetic and its rich, complicated history. It also celebrates the opening of a corresponding exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

But for the fashionistas, the Met Gala — always the first Monday in May — is simply one of the world’s top red carpets with blinding star power.

Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, two of the co-chairs of fashion’s marquee event, were among the early arrivals alongside gala supremo Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue.

Domingo paid tribute to the late Andre Leon Talley, Vogue’s first Black creative director and one of fashion’s towering figures, in a royal blue Valentino cape with a glittering white collar over a snazzy black and gold jacket and gray tweed trousers.

Hamilton meanwhile wowed in a sharp cream suit and matching backwards cap, diamonds glittering in his ears, as well as on his lapel, cuffs and hands.

And musician and designer Pharrell Williams, another co-chair, looked snappy in a short, pearl-encrusted white jacket and flared black tuxedo trousers.

Tailored suits, bejeweled brooches, canes and jaunty hats were de rigueur for the men.

Among the women in attendance, actor Teyana Taylor definitely understood the assignment, arriving in a black suit with red pinstripes and matching huge red coat, the back fully pleated and “Harlem Rose” embossed in the fabric.

Rapper Doechii wore a logo-heavy Louis Vuitton cream shorts suit with burgundy accents, a cigar dangling between her lips.

And actor Zendaya, always a huge hit at the gala, stunned in a slim white suit and dramatic brimmed hat — perhaps some bridal chic now that she is engaged to Tom Holland?

Last to arrive at the party was Rihanna, cradling her new baby bump in an all-black ensemble after revealing she was pregnant as the event began.

Her partner A$AP Rocky, a gala co-chair, confirmed the pregnancy on the carpet: “I’m glad everybody’s happy for us because we’re definitely happy.”

Former US vice president Kamala Harris skipped the red carpet, but attended the gala in an understated black and cream gown from Off-White.

‘New sense of importance’

The gala comes five years after the enormous anti-racist uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement, which pushed a number of cultural institutions in the United States to grapple with their representation of race and diversity.

This Met theme is years in the making but now coincides with Donald Trump’s recent efforts to quash institutional initiatives to promote diversity — a push to keep culture and history defined on the Republican president’s terms.

The Met Gala and its exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” promises a sharp contrast to that notion, a deep dive into Black dandyism from the 18th century to today.

“Obviously, this exhibition was planned many years ago, and we didn’t know what would be happening in the political arena, but it’s taken on a new sense of importance and purpose,” Wintour told AFP.

Subversion

Guest curator and Barnard professor Monica Miller’s book “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity” was the Met’s inspiration.

Her book details how dandyism was a style imposed on Black men in 18th century Europe, when well-dressed “dandified” servants became a trend.

But Black men throughout history subverted the concept as a means of cultivating power, transforming aesthetic and elegance into a means of identity establishment and social mobility.

During the vibrant Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, men wore sharp suits and polished shoes as a show of defiance in racially segregated America.

“Superfine” is a rare Costume Institute exhibition to spotlight men and male fashion, and the first to focus on Black designers and artists.

The Met Gala was first organized in 1948 and for decades was reserved for New York high society — until Wintour transformed the party into a high-profile catwalk for the rich and famous in the 1990s.

It remains a fundraiser for the Costume Institute. The famed Manhattan museum said Monday it expected to rake in $31 million this year.

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