Last week, legit news agency Reuters reported that, according to their “sources”, Valentino’s joint creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri is moving to Christian Dior where she will become the house’s seventh (and first female) couturier, replacing Raf Simons who left the role in October 2015. This morning, Valentino announced that Chiuri is in fact leaving the house “to pursue a new professional experience.”

The announcement comes the morning after Valentino’s haute couture AW16 show, which we now understand to have been her last for the house. Speaking in an interview with WWD, Chiuri said she was “ready to embark on a new professional challenge.” She also said she had “shared with Pierpaolo a great part of (her) professional life and it has been an experience made of many successful creative achievements together.”

For though this marks the end of her tenure at the house, it also signals the end of her 25-year collaboration with Pierpaolo Piccioli, who she worked with at Fendi before they joined Valentino’s accessories department. It is understood that Piccioli will continue at Valentino as the house’s sole creative director. In a joint statement today, they highlighted 25 years “of creative partnership and of professional satisfactions” and said that they are taking the opportunity of “continuing our artistic paths in an individual way with the reciprocal desire of further great achievements.”

As for Dior – Reuters’ source said, “I understand that it will be announced after the (July) couture show.” Said show was on Monday meaning that, if this source is true, the announcement of the house’s new creative director could be, well, anytime now. Stay tuned.