Mimma Viglezio on the Gucci crisis: can Demna rescue Kering?
From egg-throwing shareholders to designer meltdowns, former Kering executive Mimma Viglezio has seen it all. She tells us why Gucci's battle for survival rests solely on Demna Gvasalia's shoulders
In 2025, after more than a decade of explosive growth, the world’s biggest luxury firms are beset by falling sales, PR disasters, creative misfires and tumbling share prices. Kering, where Mimma Viglezio worked as executive vice president of communications between 2005-2010, has suffered one of the greatest declines of all the major groups.
Paid subscribers can read part one about Viglezio, one of the few senior people to defect from LVMH to Kering, where she took us inside Bernard Arnault's business empire. In the second part of Dark Luxury’s interview, she takes us deep inside Kering and gives us her opinion on the prospects for new CEO Luca De Meo and new creative director, Demna Gvasalia, formerly creative director at Balenciaga, who will present a make-or-break debut collection for Gucci in March 2026.
Mimma Viglezio takes us inside Bernard Arnault’s empire
“Demna knows that if he fails there, it’s probably the end of his career”, she said. Kering’s most important brand has suffered one of the worst falls in sales ever for any global luxury brand after the disastrous tenure of Sabato De Sarno as creative director, who abruptly left after just two years when sales fell by 25 per cent but reportedly still received a healthy payoff.