Roberto Cavalli has become the latest leading fashion house to part company with its creative director; the departure of Peter Dundas who had been serving a second stint at the Italian house was revealed this morning.
Dundas, who presented his final Roberto Cavalli collection in Milan last month, said in statement: “I want to thank Roberto Cavalli and the group for this valuable experience and wish them success in their future endeavours,” according to WWD.
He was appointed to the position of creative director at Cavalli in March 2015 having previously been creative director at Pucci since 2008. Before Pucci, the Norwegian designer had been head designer for Roberto Cavalli and his wife Eva from 2002 to 2005. He had described his return to Cavalli last year as “a homecoming”. Cavalli himself bowed as chief designer for his own house in September 2015.
No successor has been named, said Roberto Cavalli CEO Gian Giacomo Ferraris: “As Roberto Cavalli goes through a period of transformation, the design team will carry on and the appointment of a new creative director will be made in due course.”
The house was acquired by private equity fund Clesidra in April last year (Cavalli himself retained a 10% stake) shortly after Dundas arrived. Ferraris arrived in July this year from Versace (where he was replaced by former Alexander McQueen CEO Jonathan Akeroyd) to replace Renato Semerari who had left citing strategic differences. Semerari had only been with the business since April 2015 having joined from Coty Inc (a Cavalli fragrance licensee).
2016 has seen a change of guard at a number of big fashion houses. Christian Dior appointed former co-creative director of Valentino Maria Grazia Chiuri as its first female head designer (replacing Raf Simons) leaving Pierpaolo Piccioli to hold the fort at Valentino on his own and Versace Versus lost Anthony Vaccarello to Yves Saint Laurent, where he replaced Hedi Slimane. At Lanvin Alber Elbaz departed and was replaced by Bouchra Jarrar while Alexander Wang left Balenciaga to be replaced by Demna Gvasalia.
