Could Oliver Rousteing become Rabanne's creative director? More and more reports seem to confirm the imminent handover
After designing Balmain for fourteen years, Olivier Rousteing could be the next creative director of Rabanne. As reported by Glitz, Rousteing has started deleting from his Instagram profile all images related to his Balmain era since the middle of last month. But the most interesting thing is that according to the Parisian magazine Rousteing would have already started working for Rabanne preparing his first debut collection while Julien Dossena is still at the house. The transition here is essential for the moment the brand is going through. But in what sense?
Rabanne, Puig and the growth challenge
The Puig group owns several important brands including Jean-Paul Gaultier, Dries Van Noten and Mugler. Normally the group makes its money with perfumes, which is why many of the historic fashion brands it owns are more oriented towards the sale of fragrances than ready-to-wear. But more or less since the acquisition of Dries Van Noten the group has decided to strengthen this branch of the business, for example by giving Jean-Paul Gaultier a creative director, Duran Lantink, who produces collections seasonally.
The possible appointment of Rousteing responds precisely to this need and his task could be precisely the strengthening of Rabanne's ready-to-wear. The brand today famous for its best-selling perfumes (which on the Instagram profile have as much space, if not more, than the fashion collections) finds itself in a delicate phase from a financial point of view.
As explained by Glitz, in 2024 Puig's fashion division recorded a loss of 5.21 million euros, a figure that pushed the group to concentrate resources and seek new strategies to relaunch the brand. The arrival of a designer more oriented towards commercial luxury collections could represent the turning point that Rabanne needs. At the moment, however, the Puig group has not released official statements nor has it responded to requests for clarification.
But what about Julien Dossena?
@andreagolpeba Rabanne Fall-Winter 26 by @juliendossena. #Rabanne #juliendossena #pfw ##rabannefw26 audio originale - DRIVEYOURKITTY
In all this, we must not forget Julien Dossena. The creative took the reins of Rabanne since 2013, managing it for almost the same long time that Rousteing directed Balmain. In this decade and more the brand has changed a lot, certainly keeping in line with the contemporary language of fashion but without exactly breaking through in the ready-to-wear market on which, however, Puig has never placed excessive emphasis so far.
The handover from Rabanne could therefore be very promising, given that the brand in fact needs a turning point and a new language, as well as more attention on itself. But it is also interesting for Dossena's future. Speaking of rumors, for example, MF Fashion hypothesized that Dossena could move to Alaïa, currently without a creative director after Pieter Mulier's move to Versace.
