Is Massimo Giorgetti leaving revolving door Pucci?

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Apr 4, 2017

Looks like Emilio Pucci may be in the process of changing its designer, yet again. The brand has rifled through six designers in 17 years and sources indicated that the famed Florentine brand is busy trying to find yet another.

After LVMH acquired the brand in 2000, the house named Antonio Berardi as its creative director. Since his departure, Julio Espada; Christian Lacroix; Matthew Williamson; Peter Dundas and Giorgetti have all helmed the brand. The record for longevity held by Dundas, who lasted five years until spring 2015.
 
A spokesman for Giorgetti confirmed that his three-year contract with Pucci runs out in April 2018.

However, he denied that Giorgetti was unhappy at Pucci, which was founded in 1947 by the dashing Italian aristocrat Emilio Pucci after an avant-garde ski suit he had designed for a lady friend was photographed for Harper’s Bazaar.
 
“Massimo is super happy at Pucci. If he has any difficulty it is balancing both Pucci – where he spends three days each week – and his own brand MSGM, which keeps him very busy and is very growing rapidly,” the Giorgetti spokesman said. However, plans revealed last year to move Pucci company’s headquarters from Florence to Milan – where Giorgetti is based – would make logistics easier, he added. Asked about rumors that LVMH had actually been interviewing for a possible replacement, he replied: “LVMH is always talking to talent. It has so many brands. We know nothing about anything at Pucci.”
 
However, sources indicated that Laudomia Pucci, the founder’s daughter and chairman of the house, was not entirely happy with Giorgetti, perceiving his designs as too populist for a tony label like Pucci.
 
Born in Rimini, the hometown of Federico Fellini, Giorgetti – a DJ who worked in local boutiques as a teenager - founded his own label MSGM in 2009. It rapidly grew to cult status with its Technicolor prints, bold graphics and youth culture appeal. With 600 sales points worldwide, and an estimated 45 million euros in annual sales, MSGM is just as large a business as Pucci. This LVMH-owned firm does not issue financial figures, but analysts estimate 2016 revenues at 47 million euros – though with flat growth, unlike MSGM. Suggesting that MSGM will outstrip Pucci in turnover this year.
 
Last summer, Giorgetti oversaw Pucci Elements, a retrospective exhibition in Villa Granaiolo, the family’s historic home outside Florence. Besides showing designs by the founder and all his successors (including Laudomia), the event heralded the new triumvirate running Pucci – Laudomia, Giorgetti and CEO Mauro Grimaldi, both of whom joined in 2014.
 
Neither Signora Pucci nor Grimaldi returned calls for comment.
 
Giorgetti’s next major deadline is June, when he will show his own men’s collection in the Milan menswear season.