CEO Patrizio di Marco and Creative Director Frida Giannini plan to step down from Gucci in early 2015 (in January and February – after Giannini’s AW15 collection is shown at the Milan Fashion Week – respectively).

Di Marco will be replaced by Marco Bizzarri, who joined Kering in 2005 as CEO of Stella McCartney and was appointed CEO of Bottega Veneta in 2009. Giannini’s successor has yet to be announced.

Giannini and di Marco, a couple with a daughter together, have yet to comment on their next move.

So what’s the reason for such a drastic overhaul? 

Well, it seems that Gucci has recently fallen prey to one of the biggest and almost unavoidable traps in the luxury fashion industry: getting too successful and damaging your own brand in the process.

As Gucci has become more popular, a significant proportion of its core customers have switched to labels that they perceive to be more exclusive.

Although the effect of this has, so far, been pretty minor – a fall of 1.9 percent in the third quarter – if Burberry, who experienced a similar though much more drastic loss of its core customers because of increased popularity, are anything to go by, getting this problem under control will be crucial to the brand’s ongoing success.

Deciding who will replace Giannini will be the biggest strategic decision moving forward, since Giannini’s trademark approach has defined the company since she first took over the role in 2006.

One potential candidate that springs to mind is Riccardo Tisci, whose own aesthetic could be a potentially good match for Gucci. However, Tisci has experienced so much success at Givenchy that’s it’s hard to imagine him leaving.

Who do you think will replace Giannini? And what’s next for Gucci? Email us your thoughts.