Seán McGirr Departs McQueen

McQueen creative director Seán McGirr is leaving his post at the Kering-owned house after three years.

“I would like to thank Seán for his contribution and dedication to Alexander McQueen,” Kering CEO Luca de Meo said in a statement on Thursday. “Our ambition is to establish a bold new direction for the house, building on its unique heritage of exceptional tailoring, uncompromising creativity and rebellion to reaffirm its position as one of the most innovative and culturally relevant voices in luxury.”

“I want to thank Seán personally for everything he has brought to Alexander McQueen,” McQueen president and CEO Gianfranco D’Attis said. “Over the past three years, he has approached the house with great respect for its history while expressing his own vision. His talent and passion have helped us reconnect Alexander McQueen with London, its culture, and its extraordinary creative energy. I am deeply grateful to Seán and to the teams for their commitment, creativity and contribution to the house.”

The house will soon announce its new creative leadership, according to the release. The new creative director will make their debut in London, where the house relocated its shows for spring/summer 2027. “We are very much committed to showing in London from here on,” D’Attis told Vogue Business in September.

McGirr was appointed creative director of McQueen in October 2023. Before that, he was head of ready-to-wear at JW Anderson. His CV also includes roles as women’s designer for Dries Van Noten, as well as positions at Uniqlo and Burberry.

At McQueen, McGirr stepped into the shoes of Sarah Burton, who spent 26 years at the brand and 13 as creative director, earning plaudits for balancing the brand’s couture ethos with a strong ready-to-wear offer. McGirr’s work was rooted in legacy, with a younger attitude.

His debut show for Alexander McQueen took place in a warehouse space on the outskirts of Paris, evoking “the rawness of the original venue, a derelict rave warehouse in London’s Kings Cross where McQueen had shown The Birds,” Vogue.com’s chief critic Sarah Mower wrote. His collection, which included exaggerated neck knits, shearling jackets and jet-beaded pantsuits, met with skepticism, straying far from Burton’s work and aiming for a younger audience with a less tailored silhouette.

His second show, staged at the École des Beaux-Arts, was “more cohesive and more commercially viable,” Vogue Runway and Vogue Business global director Nicole Phelps wrote.

His SS27 collection, presented in the undercroft of Lincoln’s Inn Chapel in London beneath the Gothic ceiling, embraced darkness through closed-over shoulders built to resemble furled angel wings, classic gowns with anarchic enhancements and twin-peaked hairstyles.

McGirr stated on Thursday: “My vision for Alexander McQueen was grounded in the interplay between raw, visceral, human beauty and the precision and rigour at the heart of the house. I am incredibly proud of the progressive energy we cultivated as a team, anchoring our creativity in contemporary culture, and seeing it resonate with the most forthright, expressive figures across art, music, cinema and more.”

The news of his departure comes as McQueen underwent a restructuring earlier this year that involved job cuts and executive changes. At Kering Capital Markets Day that took place in Florence on 16 April, De Meo spoke about a go-forward strategy for McQueen that includes 50 per cent fewer stores by the end of 2026 (compared with the end of 2025) and rightsizing all functions.

“ One of the problems of Kering was that we were treating all the brands the same way, independently of the nature of the brand itself,” de Meo told reporters at the group’s Capital Markets Day. “You take a brand like McQueen, which is by nature a very niche, edgy, avant-garde [house]. And then you start opening shops and doing accessible products. This is not McQueen. I need to go back to the source of McQueen, which is occasion wear, tailoring, gowns, some funky accessories etc.”

He added that it is about finding the right structure to enable McQueen to sustain a more limited business scope by leveraging synergies with the group. “I probably need to structure within Kering, a platform that is more adapted to accommodate brands below 300 million in turnover because we have been relatively bad at integrating small brands,” he said.

Kering doesn’t break down sales of individual houses except Gucci, but according to Bernstein estimates, the house generated less than €200 million in 2025, down sharply from a peak of €850 million during the post-pandemic luxury boom in 2022/2023.

During the group’s H1 earnings call at the end of July, de Meo said that McQueen is “executing its transformation plan focused on simplification and operational discipline,” noting that it closed 20 stores in the first half.

Kering is to publish its third-quarter earnings on 22 October. Creative changes are likely to be on the agenda of the earnings call as Saint Laurent, the second largest house in Kering’s portfolio, has yet to appoint a new creative director following the departure of Anthony Vaccarello after a decade at the helm.

“I leave with profound gratitude for the dedication of the studio and atelier, and craftspeople. I look forward to my next chapter and wish the house every success,” McGirr also said in Thursday’s statement.

Veronica Leoni Exits Calvin Klein After Four Seasons

Veronica Leoni is leaving Calvin Klein after four seasons, the company announced on Thursday. A successor has not yet been named, but the brand said in a statement it will announce its new creative leadership for its Collection line in due course.

“I want to thank Veronica for her creative vision, commitment and partnership over the past two years,” said David Savman, global brand president, Calvin Klein. “Reintroducing Collection was a significant milestone for Calvin Klein, and Veronica’s exceptional talent and fresh perspective on Calvin’s iconic design codes helped build meaningful momentum for Collection. Collection remains an important part of our brand; we are excited by the progress to date and look forward to its continued evolution.”

Leoni was appointed creative director of Calvin Klein Collection in May 2024 and made her debut at New York Fashion Week in February 2025 for the autumn/winter 2025 season. The show marked Calvin Klein’s return to the runway after a seven-year absence. Leoni’s fourth and final collection for Calvin Klein debuted in September 2026. The brand said that Collection “remains an important part of Calvin Klein’s long-term strategy and the pinnacle expression of the brand”.

Leoni was hired by former Calvin Klein president Eva Serrano, who departed the brand in May 2025, just three months following Leoni’s debut. Leoni – the first woman to lead the New York fashion house – came bearing experience working with European labels including Jil Sander, Phoebe Philo’s Céline, Moncler and The Row. She also had her own label, Quira, which was put on pause after she took the Calvin Klein job. Leoni’s first show became one of the most anticipated for New York fashion in recent years, but after a few seasons, critics decided her work was overcomplicated for a brand best known for its minimalist ’90s aesthetic and blue jeans. Her most recent collection was a step toward simplification, and became her most well-received of her four seasons at the brand. Her departure makes her the latest in the designer revolving door and leaves open yet another vacancy fashion is sure to speculate over.

Calvin Klein Collection, the brand’s luxury tier, has had two other creative directors since its founder retired in 2003: Francisco Costa and Raf Simons. Simons, who was chief creative officer from 2016-2018, reimagined the collection as Calvin Klein 205W39NYC; after his departure, the brand stepped back from the runway.

Calvin Klein sales fell 7 per cent year over year in Q2, which PVH reported in July. PVH CEO Stefan Larsson, who’s overseeing a broader PVH+ Plan to steer Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger into modernised lifestyle companies, said last September that the goal for Calvin Klein Collection is to be “the ultimate expression of the brand”, which is otherwise known for its celebrity-fronted denim and underwear campaigns. We’ll have to wait and see where it fits into PVH’s bigger plans without Leoni. As for Leoni, maybe Quira will get another go.

Anthony Vaccarello Bows Out at Saint Laurent

That golden goodbye has been made official: Anthony Vaccarello is stepping down as creative director of Saint Laurent, the house announced today. Saint Laurent will announce its new creative leadership soon.

Luca de Meo, CEO of Kering, said: “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Anthony for his contribution to Saint Laurent over the past 10 years. Through his creative vision and exacting standards, he has contributed to strengthening the enduring influence of one of France's greatest couture houses, as we embark on a new chapter in its history.”

In her Vogue Runway review of what was today confirmed as the designer’s final show at the house last week in Paris, Nicole Phelps wrote that Vaccarello “is as strong-willed as he is soft-spoken, a designer resolutely unwilling to bend to trends, and just as firm in his disregard for the democratisation of fashion that is one of the dominant storylines of the season.” She concluded it, presciently, with the Robert Frost line: “Nothing gold can stay.”

Cedric Charbit, president and CEO of Saint Laurent, said: “I would like to warmly thank Anthony for his ten years of dedication to the house. During his tenure, Anthony took Saint Laurent on a remarkable trajectory, elevating the house to the forefront of desirability and image, while accomplishing exceptional work both creatively and through his cultural impact.”

Today’s announcement ends a tenure whose timescale and success few would have bet on when it began in April 2016. Vaccarello was 36 when then-Saint Laurent CEO Francesca Bellettini appointed him as creative director just four days after Hedi Slimane’s departure.

At the time, Vaccarello was well regarded in the industry, following his sensually powerful output as creative director of Versace’s second line, Versus, which he had overseen since 2015 and collaborated with since 2013. From 2009, he also led his small but growing eponymous label, which he closed after taking the YSL job. Another feather in his cap was his win at the 2011 edition of the Andam Fashion Award, then under the presidency of Yves Saint Laurent co-founder Pierre Bergé.

Under Slimane’s four-year tenure as creative director, YSL brand revenue rose from €354 million in 2011 to €974 million in 2015: in business terms alone, Slimane’s seemed like huge Chelsea boots for Vaccarello to fill.

In extremely short order, the Belgian designer filled them and more, cresting the wave of growth that swelled across luxury between 2016 and 2023 (via the Covid slump). On his watch, Saint Laurent revenues more than tripled to €3.3 billion in 2022. Covid slump). Of that revenue, a sliver more than 30%, or €1.019 billion, was recurring operating income. Kering’s full-year 2025 figures place Saint Laurent’s value at €2.6 billion.

Vaccarello carved that path to success partly through a mix of progressive creativity drawn from his upbringing in Brussels and education at La Cambre, and an instinct for the provocatively propulsive that he inherited from his Sicilian parents. As he told Vogue Australia in 2015: “I have the Belgian way to construct clothes, to be more into construction and deconstruction of clothes, and maybe my Italian side is the sexy side.”

Another key factor was his image-making, whose aperture widened YSL’s scope beyond Slimane’s brilliant signature subcultural documentarianism to reinstate Yves Saint Laurent as the most quintessentially Parisian modern fashion house of all. His first Trocadéro show with the Eiffel Tower as its backdrop was Vogue Runway’s most-viewed of the season. From Fall 2019, Vaccarello’s collections began not only to recall Saint Laurent’s gestures, but to expand upon and modernise them — testing the extremes of the founder’s silhouettes and codes to generate almost unbearable visual tension.

That trajectory reached its conclusion with Vaccarello’s Spring 2027 show on September 29, staged 10 years and two days after his Saint Laurent debut. Beneath the Eiffel Tower and three towering candlelit chandeliers, he presented 49 looks in shades of gold before closing with 10 in black. Sahariennes, trenches, pencil skirts, brocades and evening dresses revisited the house vocabulary with the amplified rigour that had become Vaccarello’s signature. The colour sequence inverted the finale of Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1991 Rive Gauche collection, which had ended in gold: it was a fade to black.

Even before the show began, it had the atmosphere of a valedictory: his departure has been rumoured since the summer. Vaccarello unusually declined preview interviews, instead offering black calla lilies with a note describing the collection as personal and emotional. Miles Davis’s soundtrack to Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows played before; at the finale, Charlotte Gainsbourg appeared for a surprise performance. Vaccarello came out surrounded by his models, then crossed the catwalk to hand something to his son: many (mis)interpreted the gesture as handing over the keys of the house. Whatever the detail signified, this was his final bow for Saint Laurent.

During his decade at the house, Vaccarello’s conduct both reflected and amplified some of the patterns first sketched by the house’s great founding designer. Where Yves Saint Laurent had designed the costumes for Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour, Vaccarello conceived the house’s launch of Saint Laurent Productions in 2023: its output has included double Oscar winner Emilia Pérez and Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope. And just as Saint Laurent both supported and was supported by a close coterie of women including Deneuve, Loulou de La Falaise and Betty Catroux, Vaccarello’s 21st-century generation of Saint Laurent women includes Anja Rubik and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

In 2018, Vaccarello told Vogue: “Everyone has a vision of what they think Saint Laurent should be, and that’s something I knew when I started. I knew that whatever I did, some people would love it and some would hate it. It was the same with Hedi, and Stefano [Pilati] before him. I’m fine with it. In fact, I kind of love it.”

That observation also applied to Tom Ford, who had designed Yves Saint Laurent’s ready-to-wear between 2000 and 2004, following Gucci Group’s acquisition of the house in 1999 for a reported $1 billion. By the time Vaccarello arrived, Yves Saint Laurent had been under the operational control of CEO Francesca Bellettini since 2013 — the same year Gucci Group, later PPR, was rechristened Kering.

Following Yves Saint Laurent’s peak financial performance in 2022, it endured three years of declining revenues, to €2.64 billion in 2025, and a contraction in operating margin from 30.9% to 20%. Much of this, however, was attributable to both the wider decline across luxury and to YSL’s aggressive 2023 repositioning away from wholesale. Vaccarello’s collections, meanwhile, became ever more uncompromisingly distinct in their interpretation of Yves Saint Laurent’s revolutionary template.

Bellettini, now president and CEO of Gucci, was succeeded at Yves Saint Laurent by Cédric Charbit in early 2025. Charbit, like Bellettini, is a star of Kering’s C-suite, having surfed that same wave of luxury growth alongside Demna as CEO of Balenciaga from 2016. Before then, he was executive vice president in charge of product, retail merchandising and communication at Yves Saint Laurent, where he overlapped with Vaccarello for the first few months after the designer’s arrival.

This May, speaking to the Financial Times, Charbit observed of luxury’s stuttered boom: “The industry’s growth has been extraordinary but not sustainable.” Despite this, under Group CEO Luca de Meo, Kering is applying intense pressure to itself in order to reassert an upward trend in performance and value: in April, de Meo stated that by 2030, YSL is targeting a more than doubling of its menswear sales, a tripling of its jewellery sales, a doubling of its VIC sales and a minimum of €500 million of sales in its entry-price categories. Meeting these targets will now fall in part to whoever is appointed Vaccarello’s successor.

Vaccarello, meanwhile, has already hinted that his any moves might take him beyond fashion. While speaking with Pamela Golbin for the entertainment title The Wrap in 2024, he was asked what could follow his time at Yves Saint Laurent. He replied: “It’s complicated because just being here is already a dream. Saint Laurent, for me, is the most beautiful house, the Holy Grail of houses. What can top that? The only thing you can do is to start something completely different… We need to aspire to new dreams that I don’t necessarily have yet.”

Now aged 46, Vaccarello has plenty of time to formulate those dreams — and to savour his achievements during his decade-long service as custodian of Parisian fashion’s “Holy Grail”.

Exclusive: Donatella Versace Is Back With A New Brand

Here’s a scoop to get tutto il mondo talking at Milan Fashion Week: Donatella Versace is back in the creative driver’s seat. Together with Los Angeles’s Revolve Group Inc., Versace is announcing a new joint venture encompassing beauty and fashion – “an independent venture reflecting Donatella’s personal creative vision,” the press release clarifies, “designed around how a new generation discovers style, experiences culture, shops, shares, and connects.”

Amid a brand repositioning orchestrated by Versace’s then-owner Capri Holdings in March 2025, Versace stepped down as chief creative officer of Versace, a position she held for nearly 30 years after the death of her brother in 1997. She was subsequently appointed Versace’s chief brand ambassador. In the interim, Versace was acquired by Prada Group last December, and the designer who stepped into her shoes, Dario Vitale, was replaced after one season by Pieter Mulier.

At 71, Versace’s appeal very much crosses generations. With 12.2 million followers, she’s one of the most popular designers on Instagram, and her persona resonates offline as well. Her cameo in The Devil Wears Prada 2 was a callback to the 2001 original, when Miranda Priestly urges a stranded Andy Sachs to “call Donatella. Get her jet.” IRL, a string of A-listers have worn her vintage designs on the red carpet this year, from Zendaya on the Spider-Man: Brand New Day circuit in a webby 2016 Atelier Versace dress, to Miley Cyrus in 2015 Atelier Versace at her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, to Jennifer Lopez in 2004 Atelier Versace at the Office Romance premiere. And who was the woman behind the plunging 1999 Versace number Lopez wore to the Grammys, celebrated as the dress that launched Google Image Search? Donatella, of course.

The new deal with the California-based fashion and lifestyle retailer Revolve will tap into that renown. “Revolve understands something I believe deeply: culture comes from connection,” Versace says. “Together, we want to create that connection with a new voice, a new look, and a new energy.”

Revolve Group was founded by Michael Mente and Mike Karanikolas in 2003 and has grown its online offering to encompass 1,600 brands across two platforms, Revolve, which is dedicated to established labels, and Fwrd, which showcases emerging ones. The company reported $1.23 billion in total revenue in 2025 and made a splash by announcing a joint venture with pop star Cardi B, which marked its entry into the beauty category, and another with influencer Sofia Richie Grainge. “By combining Donatella’s creative authority with Revolve’s technology, infrastructure and global reach, we have an opportunity to create something genuinely distinctive – and build it for the long term,” Karanikolas, co-founder and co-CEO, says in the release.

The brand will launch across the United States, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. The first products are expected to be introduced in 2027 together with a name reveal. The scope and ambition of the project are significant and will include entertainment beyond the runway. Says Versace: “I believe creativity should be fearless, inclusive and alive in the world. I have always been inspired by the next generation, in music, film, art and, of course, fashion. This partnership gives me the freedom to speak to that generation in a completely new and personal way, through beauty and fashion.”

Dario Vitale Appointed Creative Director Of Emporio Armani

Dario Vitale is the creative director of Emporio Armani, the house announced on Wednesday. He will also hold the position of creative director of Giorgio Armani Accessories and will begin work with immediate effect.

Vitale said: “I am honoured to take on this dual role across Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani, and deeply grateful to Silvana and Leo for welcoming me into their world. Armani has a powerful legacy and unmistakable design language; a heritage that has spanned decades and shaped the history of fashion. I approach all of this with a deep sense of responsibility and excitement as we build upon that rich foundation, defining a new era together.”

The much-rumoured announcement marks the first time that Armani Group, whose founder and owner Giorgio Armani died last year, has placed an external hire in creative charge of one of its lines. For Vitale, however, this is his second such distinction: in April 2025, he began work as the first non-Versace family member ever to oversee design at Versace, only to exit eight months later following Prada Group’s acquisition of the company. Prada Group was also Vitale’s former employer at Miu Miu.

Founded in 1981, Emporio Armani was conceived by Giorgio Armani as a lower-priced diffusion label, initially strongly focused on denim, that would also serve as a consumer conduit towards his eponymous mainline. “Emporio is my vision of fashion explored from another angle, which is more metropolitan and extremely transversal in terms of generation,” Armani once said.

Today’s appointment marks just such a generational leap. Vitale was born in 1983, making him only slightly older than Armani was when he founded his company in 1975. For most of its existence, Emporio Armani was helmed by Armani himself, alongside Giorgio Armani, Armani Privé, and the rest of his sprawling universe of signature design. His final collection for Emporio, Spring/Summer 2026, was presented in Milan after his death on September 4, 2025, at age 91. The most recent collection was co-designed by Armani’s designated creative heirs, his niece Silvana Armani, 71, and long-term partner Leo Dell’Orco, 73.

In a joint statement, Armani and Dell’Orco said: “Emporio Armani is much more than a line for us: it is a reality to which we are deeply connected, having followed and shared its journey since the very beginning. Emporio was born as a space of freedom, experimentation and energy, and we are convinced that Dario’s arrival in our team, as a talent already established on the international stage, will interpret its spirit with respect and authenticity.”

Vitale arrives at Emporio following a period of such professional tumult that his future employment became a cause célèbre. His first and last collection for Versace, Spring/Summer 2026, was presented in Milan in September 2025 and met with significant industry acclaim.

Observers celebrated Vitale’s ability to reconnect the house with the youthful, sexually charged energy associated with founder Gianni Versace while establishing a bold, culturally contemporary vocabulary of his own. The collection has since been pulled extensively by stylists for magazine covers and red-carpet appearances, giving its relatively small body of work an unusually long afterlife. The sequinned bra from look 50, in particular, has earned considerable mileage.

That was not enough to spare Vitale from forces apparently beyond his control. Prada Group completed its €1.25 billion acquisition of Versace from Capri Holdings late in 2025; Vitale’s departure was confirmed later that week.

Before leaving to go to Versace, Vitale had spent 14 years at Miu Miu, starting in 2010 and eventually becoming design director of ready-to-wear and head of image. Working under Miuccia Prada, Vitale helped shape the phase that accompanied Miu Miu’s emergence as one of fashion’s most closely watched brands, propelling it into a period of exceptional growth. In 2024, Miu Miu sales rose 93%, becoming a significant upside for Prada Group.

That experience at Miu Miu appears to be a powerful calling card as Vitale joins Emporio Armani. Both brands occupy distinct positions within larger corporate ecosystems while speaking to younger customers through product and image. Before his time at Miu Miu, Vitale worked under Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta, and Dean and Dan Caten at Dsquared2.

Vitale’s appointment also comes at a pivotal moment for Armani Group. Giorgio Armani’s will dictated that his heirs sell a 15% stake in the company within 18 months of his death, with a larger portion — between 30% and 54.9% — to be sold to the same buyer three to five years later. His will also specified three preferred buyers: L’Oréal, LVMH and EssilorLuxottica. The initial deadline falls in March 2027.

In 2025, Armani Group reported revenues of €2.2 billion, down 2.8% at constant exchange rates, while total turnover including direct licensee sales reached €4 billion. The group is led by CEO Giuseppe Marsocci, a 23-year veteran of the company who succeeded its founder in the CEO role in October that year. Today’s announcement demonstrates that Armani Group is not waiting on any new stakeholder to establish itself before sharpening its creative strategy in the wake of its founder’s death.

Marsocci said of today’s appointment: “The appointment of Dario Vitale marks an important milestone for the Armani Group: a decision that strengthens our creative organisation and confirms our commitment to looking ahead, consolidating the Group’s path of evolution while remaining faithful to Giorgio Armani’s values and vision. Emporio Armani is a brand of strategic relevance for us and our partners around the world. Giorgio Armani accessories represent a great opportunity. We look to this new phase with enormous confidence.”

Since that passing, the Giorgio Armani mainline has continued under Silvana Armani, leading womenswear, and Leo Dell’Orco, leading menswear. Both worked closely alongside Armani for many years on the collections he justly considered to be the quintessential expression of his decade-defining fashion sensibility. Now at Emporio, Vitale will be given a fresh chance — which this time extends beyond only one fashion collection — to reinvent and expand upon one of Italian fashion’s greatest legacies.

Princess Diana’s Iconic “Revenge Dress” Is Going Up For Auction

This December, Princess Diana’s so-called “Revenge Dress” will be offered up at auction for the first time in nearly three decades. The black silk Christina Stambolian design, worn by Diana to a Vanity Fairy party at London’s Serpentine Gallery in June 1994, will headline a standalone fashion evening auction at Sotheby’s in New York on 9 December. Its estimate sits between $150,000 (£110,666) and $300,000 (£221,333).

Few dresses have crossed the confines of fashion to become such a definitive pop culture moment as this LBD – or have their own Wikipedia page. The image of Princess Diana – shoulders bare in the low-cut and fitted black dress, a pearl choker at her neck, with scarlet nails and matching lipstick – became one of the most important photographs of her life. More than 30 years later, it remains a case study in the ability of clothes to communicate what their wearer would rather leave unsaid.

The context, of course, has become almost as famous as the dress itself. Earlier that day, a television interview with Diana’s estranged husband, then-Prince Charles, was due to air, in which he addressed his infidelity during their marriage. Diana had originally planned to wear something else to the Serpentine, but changed course at the last minute. She had owned Stambolian’s off-the-shoulder design for three years, having previously considered it “too daring” for a public appearance. Her former stylist Anna Harvey would later recall that Diana “wanted to look a million dollars.”

It was an extraordinary example of Diana’s increasingly assured understanding of the power of fashion. Rather than disappear from view on an evening when the world’s attention was trained on her private life, she offered up an entirely different, more confident image: one that would evolve into an assured, fashion-forward wardrobe in her last years. The dress subsequently became known as the “Revenge Dress”, giving a name to a style phenomenon that has been repeated by generations of celebrities navigating break-ups and scandal in public.

Diana never wore it publicly again. In June 1997, she included the Stambolian design among 79 dresses she personally put up for auction to benefit cancer and AIDS charities. It was acquired by its current owners and has remained in their possession ever since. This December’s sale will continue that charitable legacy, with part of the proceeds benefiting NHS Lothian Charity on behalf of the Royal Hospital of Edinburgh.

Diana’s style truly bloomed once she was freed from royal restrictions. After her separation from Prince Charles in 1992, she found herself with a wealth of new options and plenty of designers eager to dress her. The woman who dared to wear a Dior slip dress to the Met Gala in 1996 or body-con turquoise Versace at the Heart Foundation Ball that same year wasn’t the same Shy Di who hid behind baggy sweaters. Confident and entirely in control of her destiny, this era was her best – and it all started with this dress.

And, if anything, the mythology around the dress has only intensified during its decades away from the auction block. Christina Stambolian later created a replica of the original, made to the same measurements and using the same fabrics, which itself eventually came to auction. The Crown, too, recreated the look for Elizabeth Debicki’s portrayal of Diana; that version was among the costumes sold when hundreds of pieces from the Netflix series went under the hammer in 2024.

Earlier this year, even the green Jaguar XJ40 Sovereign from which Diana emerged at the Serpentine became a collector’s item, selling at auction for £66,250 in June. It is perhaps proof that almost every object caught in the orbit of those few minutes in Kensington Gardens has acquired a cultural charge of its own.

The original dress, however, remains the defining artefact. Before arriving in New York, it will tour London, Hong Kong and Geneva, before going on public view ahead of the 9 December sale. Nearly 32 years after Princess Diana first stepped onto the Serpentine lawn in it, the ultimate revenge dress is ready for another audience.

“I Could Never Be Kate”: Cara Delevingne Announces Her Debut Topshop Collection

A little over a week ago, as Cara Delevingne turned 34, the model, actor and musician gathered with her godchildren to watch the solar eclipse in Mallorca. It was fitting, really, that this particular birthday took place as the sky above was rearranging itself: Delevingne is also in the midst of change.

More than a decade after becoming the first model to front a Topshop campaign solo, back in 2014, Delevingne is returning to the beloved high-street label in a new guise: as the creative lead of her own collection. “I feel like we’ve been through a lot together,” she says, with a laugh. “But as you get older, and you take a step back, you have more of an appreciation for things. People will be quite surprised by this collection, it did feel quite out of my comfort zone. I want this to be for every man, woman, gender non-confirming person.”

True enough, of the 16 pieces – ranging from wide denim culottes to off-the-shoulder minidresses and cropped trench coats – perhaps only the white tank, pinstripe denim suiting and slim-cut jeans map immediately onto Delevingne’s signature raffish style. “When I designed stuff for brands in the past, I would make things only I would really wear,” she says. “This time, I wanted to think outside of that realm, to put a designer’s hat on and create something that felt cohesively for everyone. Like… am I really gonna do a long skirt?”

She did: a wraparound denim maxi that she describes as the sort of thing she might admire on “someone else”. And yet, since stepping back from clothes-horsing for other people full-time, the parameters of her own wardrobe have begun to broaden. “When I’m alone and in private, I’ll always dress like a 15-year-old boy, but when I’m more public-facing, I find it a lot more fun to play with fashion now that I don’t have to. I love trying on different clothes I wouldn’t have when I was younger because maybe I was stubborn, or trying to be rebellious, or trying to be, I don’t know, an individual. Now I’m like, yeah, maybe I will wear that skirt…”

It’s this outward-looking approach that distinguishes Delevingne’s collection from that of the other model whose name became synonymous with Topshop at the height of its powers. “In so many areas of my life, people have compared me to Kate, which I always find so sweet, but I just could never be her,” she says of Kate Moss, who Delevingne has previously mentioned stepped in to support her when the intensity of her early success began to take its toll. “She is her own incredible force to be reckoned with. I couldn’t have emulated that.”

While many of Moss’s 15 collections for the brand drew on pieces already hanging in her wardrobe, distilling her personal style into clothes for the masses, Delevingne has refused to make herself the blueprint. “I still have a Kate Moss for Topshop dress I could never wear because if I bend over, everyone will see the moon shining out, but also, you know, that was so of its time. It has its own look, its own smell almost.” What Delevingne learnt from watching Moss promote those collections as a 21-year-old was that “you’ve got to make it individual to you,” she says. For Delevingne, though, individuality doesn’t mean personal. “It would be hard to represent all elements of me in a 16-piece capsule.”

Which might also explain why Delevingne isn’t starring in the accompanying campaign. “I want it to represent the people!” she adds. What does unite the collection and its forebear, however, is a pronounced sense of London-ness – an identity that was also central to Topshop’s decision to appoint her. Managing director Michelle Wilson describes Delevingne as “a global style icon with deep London roots”.

“I don’t see the world through anything but a London lens,” Delevingne continues, pointing to asymmetrical cuts that “feel like the architecture of London”, as well as pieces designed to be swapped in and out of an existing wardrobe. That, to her, is what separates London from other fashion capitals: “mixing and matching time periods, vintage with new, and enjoying something forever.” Hence the collection’s emphasis on denim. “Denim gets better over time. We want these clothes to last for a really long time.”

And though Delevingne has spent much of the past few years in Los Angeles, her frame of reference remains stubbornly British. “You can take the girl out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the girl,” she says. “I mean, if Topshop was in any other city, wouldn’t that be weird?”