Since March 2024, the fashion world has stepped into an alternate timeline. In the last 12 months, we’ve seen a frankly ridiculous number of creative directors change jobs, with announcements happening days and sometimes even hours apart. Right now, the biggest houses in fashion are simultaneously refreshing their top teams – referred to by fans online as a game of “musical chairs”.

Whether you love that phrase or not, it’s here to stay, with everyone from Chanel and Gucci to Versace and Loewe catching the bug. While it’s fun to speculate who’s going where (as you’ll find out in this episode), we also question why this is all happening now, and explore what it says about how the industry values the creativity of its designers. Behind the constant commentary, there are also teams of very real people dealing with the rumours and subsequent fallout.

In this episode, fashion writer Elliot Hoste is joined by editorial director Ted Stansfield and fashion director, editorial and commercial partnerships Emma Davidson to discuss the “unprecedented” reshuffle and its online culture, run through all the rumoured appointments, address the white male elephant in the room, plus make some suggestions for vacant positions at Balenciaga, Fendi, Dior and more.

Listen to episode eleven of Dazed and Discoursed above, or find it on Acast, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.