The very messy game of designer chairs that roiled the fashion world in late 2024 continues into 2025.
On Wednesday, Proenza Schouler, a New York brand once considered the future of fashion in the city, announced that its designers, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, would be stepping down from the company they founded in 2002. will remain on the board of directors and will remain minority shareholders. Their replacements are being sought.
No reason was given for the decision other than that the time just felt ‘right’ and no statement was made as to what the designers would do next. Mr. McCollough and Mr. Hernandez reportedly began thinking about exploring other opportunities after the company’s 20th anniversary in 2022, and their new CEO, Shira Suveyke Snyder, was appointed last October in part to guide the transition.
Yet it is almost unheard of for a designer to leave a house he or she founded when it is relatively stable and they are relatively young (Mr. Hernandez and Mr. McCollough are 46), unless there has been a falling out with a lender or the designer plans to take another job.
It is possible that Mr. McCollough and Mr. Hernandez will set a new precedent when it comes to career paths. But they are also rumored to be in line as the new designers of LVMH’s Spanish brand Loewe, replacing Jonathan Anderson, who has been rumored for months to be heading to Dior. (A spokesperson declined to comment on the move.)
It should be noted that Mr. Anderson has not officially left Loewe, and neither has Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of Dior womenswear whom he would theoretically replace, at Dior. Kim Jones, the creative director of Dior menswear, also recently re-signed his contract with the brand.
LVMH, which once investigated the acquisition of Proenza Schouler, has neither confirmed nor denied the various anonymous reports suggesting all of the above, even as the rumors have spread on social media. Neither Loewe, nor Proenza Schouler, nor JW Anderson, Mr. Anderson’s namesake brand, will be at the upcoming fashion shows in New York, Paris or London.
According to headhunters, major luxury groups are now asking that designers who hold positions at fashion houses in their groups stop duplicating work with their own labels. For example, Veronica Leoni, the new designer at Calvin Klein, put her Quira collection on hold when she took on the bigger job.
All this has further fueled speculation about who will go where.
The only thing that is certain is that while Proenza Schouler is synonymous with Mr. McCollough and Mr. Hernandez, the designers plan to move on without them. It will not be closed or suspended and a second store in New York will open in February. (February’s women’s collection will be released digitally; the fate of a planned men’s collection has yet to be determined.)
What Proenza Schouler, named after Mr. McCollough and Mr. Hernandez’s mothers, will look like without its founders is less clear.
In addition to being known for their cool urban art gallery vibe and a popular bag (the PS1), and despite being very mediagenic, Mr. McCollough and Mr. Hernandez have won and are receiving five awards from the Council of Fashion Designers of America championed by Anna Wintour, Proenza Schouler never quite lived up to its promise of becoming the Next Great American Brand.
Within the industry, the designers are still known as ‘the Proenza boys’, reflecting the feeling that they have remained designers on the edge. Two collections shown at the couture shows in Paris received a lukewarm reception and the company struggled with a shifting group of investors. (Currently, Proenza Schouler is majority owned by Mudrick Capital.)
The vacancy at Proenza now joins those at Fendi, Maison Margiela and Helmut Lang and will further shape a fashion world amid extraordinary designer changes. Eight creative directors are making their debuts this year as fashion houses look to offer something new in light of a global slowdown in luxury spending. The dominoes haven’t finished falling yet.
