Martine Rose for Balenciaga?

PARIS, France — Rumors abound, but for once, these fashion tales foretell good news.

According to Puck, British menswear designer Martine Rose is the name du jour floating for the soon-to-be-vacated creative director position at 107-year old brand Balenciaga.

Rose has a vibrant history with Kering-owned Balenciaga, having served as a creative consultant and advisor for 3 years (2015-2018) to then appointed creative director Demna reinvigorating its menswear proposition and buoying the total business to the tune of 1 billion USD of annualized sales by 2019.

Credit: Andreas Larsson

Rose maintains a rarefied space as both a creative talent and an entrepreneur behind her nearly two-decade eponymous label. Her designs have threaded the peaks and valleys of fashion’s fascination with streetwear, certainly bolstered by the multi-hyphenate hype man Virgil Abloh and others who pushed streetwear with luxury sensibilities to the fore.

Now to understand the magnitude of this potential new appointment is to take a journey back through the much challenged landscape for independent labels — with the pandemic and its varied repercussions to shifts in supply chains and tariff dysfunction, the past ten years have laid bare its many casualties.

As recently as this year, Rose’s business was no exception. Her commercial partnership with a London-based fashion accelerator fell apart due to its own insolvency and the downside impact to Martine Rose Ltd meant cancelling (and then not cancelling) production orders planned for Fall 2026. From a desirability perspective, Rose has operated a cut above her peers, simply as it appears that she doesn’t seem to care about the establishment (at least not in the ways that make her self-conscious about her work).

Famously or not, Rose did not appear at the 2025 Met Gala and its thematic evening dedicated to black dandyism despite sources confirming she was extended an invitation to participate. Her designs still made an appearance on the carpeted steps à la British Vogue Head of Editorial Content Chioma Nnadi, but her abstention was notable, further reinforcing the subversive qualities within her creative practice.

Her menswear muses are real and grounded. Her references broad, and her maturity as a designer on the public stage hard-won. If the rumors are true of her takeover at Balenciaga, we’re all for it.

Lead Image courtesy of Martine Rose x Supreme Fall 2026 Collaboration