Author: rb809rb

In luxury fashion, creative directors used to get years to put their stamp on a house. Lately, they’re lucky to get a few seasons.

The latest possible casualty is Pierpaolo Piccioli, the acclaimed designer who took over Balenciaga only last year. Multiple industry sources say Piccioli is expected to leave the Kering-owned house following his spring/summer 2027 show in Paris on Oct. 1. Neither Balenciaga nor Kering has announced his departure.

If the reports prove true, Piccioli’s remarkably short tenure would be another sign of how unforgiving the luxury business has become. With sales soft across much of the sector, fashion’s biggest conglomerates have been cycling through celebrated designers, hiring them to reinvent major brands and looking quickly for another solution when the numbers disappoint.

What used to be a career-defining appointment has started to look more like a very expensive game of musical chairs.

Piccioli knows the game well. He spent 16 years at Valentino alongside Maria Grazia Chiuri, then ran the house solo after Chiuri left for Dior in 2016. He departed Valentino in 2024 amid industry speculation about slowing sales. Alessandro Michele, himself out at Gucci after that brand stumbled, later took Piccioli’s old job. Demna left Balenciaga for Gucci. Piccioli then replaced Demna at Balenciaga.

His hiring represented a dramatic reset. Demna had turned Balenciaga into a dark, ironic, almost post-punk phenomenon beloved by Kardashians and other fashion-forward celebrities. Piccioli steered it back toward the elegance and femininity associated with Cristóbal Balenciaga — bright color, ruffles, silk and taffeta replacing much of the black, oversized vocabulary of the Demna years.

Piccioli came to Balenciaga with considerable Hollywood currency. During his Valentino years, he dressed Anne Hathaway, Elle Fanning, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Lady Gaga and Cate Blanchett, among others. His menswear could be just as memorable: Pedro Pascal’s 2023 Met Gala look, pairing black shorts with a sweeping red coat, showed Piccioli could do irreverence as easily as classical couture.

But the luxury slump has made even marquee names vulnerable. Gucci parted ways with Michele as its sales weakened. Valentino, now under Michele, has faced its own commercial pressures. Kering, parent company of Gucci, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, has been under particular scrutiny as it tries to revive some of its biggest brands.

And another chair may soon be empty. Anthony Vaccarello is widely rumored to be leaving Saint Laurent after a decade at the house, though in his case industry talk has it that the decision is his and that he wants to spend more time producing films.

That would set off yet another round of speculation over who goes where next.

Mark Piznarski, the much sought-after pilot director who helmed the first episodes of series including Gossip Girl, Veronica Mars and Everwood, has died. He was 71.

Piznarski’s name was listed in an “In Memoriam” section in the latest DGA Monthly issue, and a spokesperson for the guild said that he died April 4. The Hollywood Reporter reached out to his daughter, Lauren, who said the family did not want to participate in an obituary.

A teen-drama specialist who started out on My So-Called Life, Piznarski helmed 14 episodes of The CW’s Gossip Girl across all six of its seasons, including the 2007 pilot; the shocking 100th episode, “G.G.,” which premiered during season five in January 2012; and the series finale, “New York, I Love You XOXO,” which bowed in December 2012.

In 2004, he directed the first two installments of the Kristin Bell-starring Veronica Mars, created by Rob Thomas for UPN, and Christopher Lowell’s character on the show, Stosh “Piz” Piznarski, is named for him.

He also helmed the pilots of ABC’s Relativity in 1996; the WB’s Everwood in 2002; Fox’s Still Life in 2003; USA’s In Plain Sight and The CW spinoff 90210 (developed by Thomas) in 2008; and ABC Family’s The Lying Game in 2011.

For the big screen, he called the shots on the romantic drama Here on Earth (2000), starring Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski and Josh Hartnett, and the coming-of-age tale Looking for Sunday (2006), starring Michael Weston and Katharine Towne (he co-wrote that as well).

Born on July 7, 1954, Piznarski attended Downers Grove South High School in Illinois and the University of Northern Colorado, then spent a couple years at Columbia College in Chicago, which helped him land an assistant-director gig on Edward Zwick’s About Last Night (1986), filmed in the Windy City.

In 1994, he made it to network television by helming four episodes of the only season of ABC’s acclaimed My So-Called Life, executive produced by Zwick for his Bedford Falls Co. Up next, he directed and executive produced on the only season of Relativity, created by Jason Katims.

Piznarski guided six episodes of ABC’s NYPD Blue from 1995-2003 and five installments of NBC’s American Dreams from 2003-05 and worked with Katims again on NBC’s Friday Night Lights in 2006 and CBS’ Pure Genius in 2016.

Piznarski also helmed the 1999 NBC miniseries The 60s; telefilms including 2010’s Sundays at Tiffany’s, starring Alyssa Milano; and episodes of Once and Again, Crisis, Madam Secretary, the Thomas-created iZombie and, for his last credit, Riverdale in 2018.

Survivors include his son, Michael.

Tom Holland has found his dance partners. Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter are joining the star in his Fred Astaire movie from Sony.

Qualley will play Adele Astaire, Fred’s older sister and Broadway partner. Carpenter will play Ginger Rogers, the frequent film co-star of Fred Astaire.

Paddington filmmaker Paul King is directing the project, which comes after Holland’s big summer as the star of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey.

“I am thrilled and honored to have been entrusted with telling the story of Fred Astaire and his original dance partner — his big sister Adele — to the big screen,” said King in a statement. “Fred left a timeless legacy of dance on film — most famously in his collaborations with Ginger Rogers — while Adele’s work has been lost to history; indeed, no footage of her dancing survives. The cinematic challenge of bringing to life these icons of the twentieth century is one that I could not imagine without Tom Holland, Margaret Qualley and Sabrina Carpenter by my side.”

Amy Pascal and Rachel O’Connor produce, along with Holland on behalf of Billy17. Ben Holden and Josh Hyams produce for Lightbulb Pictures. Steven Levenson and King penned the script based on the book The Astaires: Fred & Adele by Kathleen Riley.

Qualley earned a Golden Globe and Critics Choice nomination for The Substance, and an Emmy nomination for FX’s Fosse/Verdon, as well as Emmy, Golden Globe, Actor and Critics Choice nominations her Netflix limited series The Maid. She is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Sloane and Offer.

Carpenter is one of the biggest names in music, with two Grammys and millions of records sold. On the acting side, she has appeared in Work It and The Hate U Give. She is repped by Paradigm, Foundation Media Partners, Volara Management, Perlman Management Group and Goodman Genow.