The fashion rumour mill is in overdrive this morning amid reports that Phoebe Philo is set to leave her position as Creative Director at Celine.

The Fashion Law claims that Central Saint Martins-trained Philo will exit the Parisian brand upon completion of marketing for the autumn/winter 2016 collection, which will be shown during Paris Fashion Week next month.


Philo takes a bow following the spring/summer 2016 Celine show

If true, it is a huge loss for Celine. During her time there, Philo has turned the once-ailing fashion house into the most-covetable brand in the world, consistently setting the trend agenda from season to season.

The source further suggests that the designer’s next move will be to Azzedine Alaïa, another French fashion house. It’s assumed she will succeed the brand’s eponymous founder, its helmsman since its creation in the 1970s.

Alaïa is owned by Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company Richemont, which also owns Chloe, where Philo was Creative Director from 2001 to 2006.


Philo with Karl Lagerfeld

Whispers have been circulating for some time that Philo, who has three young children with gallerist husband Max Wigram, was looking to leave Celine in order to gain a better work-life balance. Whether that is true remains to be seen, though she has famously always put her family first.

When she took over at Celine in 2008 she moved the principal design studio from Paris to London so that she could be closer to her family.


Philo with husband Max Wigram

At Chloe, she became the first high-profile designer to take maternity leave in 2005, before resigning in 2006, at the height of her success there, to spend more time with her baby.

Similarly, in 2012 she opted out of presenting a catwalk show for Celine whilst pregnant with her third child.