Just six short months after taking the reins as creative director of Brioni — the Kering-owned Italian luxury menswear brand favored by Donald Trump — Justin O’Shea is out.
Though O’Shea hasn’t officially released a statement regarding his exit, his fans noticed that the day before the announcement, the former creative director posted a rather prophetic photograph of a Brioni-branded coffin on Instagram.
“The @brioni_official coffin,” he captioned the photo of the coffin, emblazoned with a gothic-style gold “B,” which appeared to be positioned in a store window. Was the timing simply a coincidence? As fans of Insta-shade, we’d like to think not.
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O’Shea’s March hire made a splash considering he isn’t a conventional designer — in fact, he’s not a technically trained designer at all, but rather a former buyer and global fashion director of luxury ecommerce site MyTheresa, where he spent six year and six months longer than his time at Brioni. “Challenging boundaries has always been in Brioni’s DNA and this choice confirms it once again,” Brioni CEO Gianluca Flore told Business of Fashion at the time of the hire.
During O’Shea’s brief stint, the street-style star — with his signature bushy beard and tattoo sleeves — attempted to infuse his groomed rock star aesthetic into the classic brand, adding Metallica-inspired imagery (including the gothic font) to the label.
In a statement Tuesday, Flore noted that the “revitalization of Brioni that started at the beginning of this year is set to continue being implemented through a long-term plan aimed to further establish the brand as a leader in the luxury menswear category.”
