Pieter Mulier is the new chief creative officer at Versace, the company announced today. The Belgian designer joins from a successful turn at Alaïa, where he was appointed in 2021, as the first creative director of the house since Azzedine Alaïa’s death in 2017.
Mulier’s appointment will be effective from July 1, 2026. He will report to Versace chairman and Prada Group scion Lorenzo Bertelli.
“When we considered the Versace acquisition, we identified Pieter Mulier as the right person for the brand,” Bertelli said in a statement. “We believe that he can truly unlock Versace’s full potential and that he will be able to engage in a fruitful dialogue with the brand’s strong legacy. We are excited to begin this journey together.”
Mulier fills a role left vacant by Dario Vitale, whose short-lived tenure as Versace’s creative director ended just after Prada Group’s bid to buy Versace from Capri Holdings was finalized on December 2. Vitale was appointed to the role in March, just before the Prada deal was announced in April. He showed one collection before his departure on December 12.
An architecture graduate from Brussels’s Institut Saint-Luc, Mulier was famously discovered by fellow Belgian designer — and current Prada co-creative director — Raf Simons at a graduate judging in 2003. Mulier cut his teeth at Simons’s own label, before serving as his right-hand across several creative director appointments, including Jil Sander (2005-2012) and Christian Dior (2012-2015). When Simons was hired as chief creative officer at Calvin Klein in 2016, Mulier served as global creative director. With such broad big-brand experience, Mulier may be well equipped to navigate the machinations of Versace and the Prada Group.
The designer also has experience in breathing new life into a culturally significant, but commercially challenged brand. While honoring Alaïa’s late founder, Mulier launched a new, contemporary era of the label, delivering critically acclaimed collections and commercially successful, viral products to boost the bottom line, from sellout mesh ballet flats, a top item for fashion sourcers throughout 2024/25, to the It-bag Le Teckel. Alaïa owner Richemont doesn’t break out brand revenues, but group sales grew 11% year-on-year at constant exchange rates to €6.4 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2025, ended December 31, outpacing consensus expectations of an 8% rise.
Mulier, now, will be in charge of Versace’s turnaround. The brand has suffered from declining sales and a lack of a clear identity under previous owners, US-based Capri. In fiscal 2025, Versace’s revenues declined 15 per cent to $193 million. Under Prada Group ownership — and back home in Italy — Versace has the brand recognition and affinity to thrive, analysts say.
Alaïa’s designer making the jump to Versace also opens up yet another creative director vacancy after more than a year of a domino-effect cascade of hires and departures. Let the speculations as to who will take that job — and what job might be left open in their wake — begin.
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