Martine Rose spent three years consulting on Balenciaga menswear and then left. On 6 November 2026, Kering named her creative director of the whole house.
Rose, 45, was born in Croydon, in South London, to Jamaican parents. She founded her own label in London in 2007 and built it on 1990s rave culture and a mix of high and low clothing that put her into collaborations with Nike, Supreme and Clarks. From 2015 to 2018 she worked inside Balenciaga as a menswear consultant under Demna, who has since moved to Gucci. She takes over the house on 16 November.
That sequence is the story. She was inside the building as a consultant while somebody else held the title; she left in 2018, and in nine days the title is hers.
“It is a true privilege to be appointed Creative Director of Balenciaga, a House with an extraordinary heritage,” Rose said.
Kering’s chief executive, Luca de Meo, said Rose’s “connection to the new generation and her instinctive understanding of culture bring a new dimension to the House.”
She replaces Pierpaolo Piccioli, who lasted 16 months. Piccioli presented three ready-to-wear collections and one haute couture line, and critics gave the work mixed reviews. He wrote on Instagram that “life is a journey and each chapter exists to make way for the next.”
The appointment is the third creative leadership change in a month across Kering’s brands, and the group is short of creative directors in two more places. Saint Laurent has had none since Anthony Vaccarello resigned in October after a decade in the job. Alexander McQueen has had none since Sean McGirr stepped down. De Meo is trying to restore growth after a three-year slowdown that hit Gucci hardest.
So the job Rose is walking into is not a steady one. Balenciaga has had three creative directors in roughly two years: Demna, who built the house into a streetwear machine over about a decade and then left for Gucci; Piccioli, who got 16 months; and now Rose, who is the only one of the three who has worked there before.
