Is Louis Vuitton Replacing Nicolas Ghesquière With Jonathan Anderson?

It's been a year of incessant upheaval and musical chairs in the fashion industry, and it's only July. To recap for those who are struggling to keep up (a.k.a. all of us): Raf Simons left Dior (reportedly, he's going to Calvin Klein) and was recently replaced by Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri. Not long after Raf's departure, Alber Elbaz left Lanvin, to be replaced by female artistic director Bouchra Jarrar. Slimane left Saint Laurent and was succeeded by Anthony Vaccarello, while Jonathan Saunders closed his eponymous label to take the creative helm at DVF. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Various houses have made huge changes to their business structures or shaken up traditional show schedules and formats this year, too. Today, buzz about another massive (potential) creative director switch-up has kicked off. Reuters speculated that LVMH's CEO Bernard Arnault is about to replace the current creative director at Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière, with Jonathan Anderson. The British designer currently helms his own label, J.W.Anderson, and also serves as creative director at Spanish luxury brand Loewe, which is LVMH-owned. The shift may come as soon as October, according to close sources, reports Reuters. If it happens, the move would follow the spring 2017 show in Paris; that's not even three years after former Balenciaga designer Ghesquière took on the position at Vuitton, succeeding Marc Jacobs. However, Ghesquière's five-year contract isn't up until 2018. Shortly after Reuters' story went live, Business of Fashion reported that Louis Vuitton "categorically denied" that the brand is considering a new creative director, reiterating that Ghesquière's contract still has two years left on it. But if the rumors are true that Ghesquière is in fact leaving, then Anderson, who won both Womenswear and Menswear Designer of the Year at last year's British Fashion Awards, and is one of the most lauded talents on the London Fashion Week schedule, seems like a promising candidate indeed.