Italian luxury goods house Gucci Group on Thursday named four lesser-known in-house designers to replace Tom Ford, the star fashion creator who bowed out at the weekend.
Ford, 42, made his exit on Sunday with a glamorous show for the resurgent YSL brand after he and Gucci Group chief executive Domenico De Sole decided they did not want to stay on as French department store group Pinault-Printemps-Redoute takes over.
PPR shares fell 3.5 percent on Thursday, partly on worries about the earnings potential of Gucci but also due to the expected negative effect on tourism from bomb blasts in Spain.
Analyst Francois-Regis Breuil at Oddo Securities in Paris said the replacements would create a problem of visibility for Gucci as Ford had become its totem with his strong personality.
Gucci appointed Alessandra Facchinetti as creative director of Gucci women's fashion, John Ray as creative director for Gucci men's fashion and Frida Giannini as creative director of accessories such as leather bags.
"Alessandra, John and Frida are incredibly talented, and each one has made significant contributions to Gucci's current success," said Giacomo Santucci, CEO for the Gucci brand.
Stefano Pilati was named creative director of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, reporting to Mark Lee, who is president and chief executive of the Yves Saint Laurent fashion brand.
YSL is Gucci's number two brand, which the group is building up to rival Chanel and Christian Dior.
Analysts said the new Gucci team, who worked closely with Ford, would secure continuity for the brands but could lack the sparkle of the man who used sex to sell everything from handbags to yoga mats.
Gucci Group, the number three luxury firm in the world after LVMH and Richemont, also has designers Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen in its line-up.
Texas-born Ford combined unswerving creative talent with an instinctive commercial touch and Hollywood good looks.
In partnership with Italian lawyer-turned-CEO De Sole, the two engineered a turnaround of the near-bankrupt house that has become a case study at the world's top business schools.
Saving it from family feuding and brand-cheapening licences, the duo transformed Gucci into the world's third-biggest luxury goods group through rigorous control and cutting-edge design that is imitated on high streets from London to Shanghai.
The new appointees step into the most high-profile jobs in the cut-throat luxury arena. They face the challenge of maintaining the character and commercial success of a brand onto which Ford said he had "grafted his own personality", while the group is integrated with PPR.
While PPR has never publicly commented on why talks with Ford and De Sole broke down, Ford said in a recent interview that control rather than money was an issue.
Gucci has always vehemently defended its independence, fighting a creeping take-over bid by luxury goods giant LVMH on the bourse and through the courts. Billionaire Francois Pinault finally stepped in with a white knight bid that won Gucci several more years of freedom.
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