What’s Behind Del Core’s Quietness

MILAN — Del Core may be the latest fashion brand navigating troubled waters.

According to industry sources, Kassandra Srl, the brand’s Milan-based licensee, is in liquidation and several staff members were let go. Reached by WWD for comment, Del Core declined.

It is understood that founder and creative director Daniel Del Core is still at the brand, but he has been particularly silent this year. The last runway show the designer staged tracks back to September 2024, when he presented his spring 2025 collection as part of Milan Fashion Week, as per his standard practice.

Shortly before that show, Del Core revealed plans to present a collection off-schedule at the Paris Couture shows in January 2025 and, in the longer term, to show in the French capital once a year as a service to private clients and a way to build a stand-alone business out of his evening and occasion wear, while still continuing to unveil ready-to-wear in Milan.

Yet those plans didn’t materialize. The brand also skipped the February edition of Milan Fashion Week, and didn’t present a resort 2026 collection.

Meanwhile, its two stand-alone stores located in London and New York continued to operate. The former, opened in New Bond Street at the end of 2022, is carrying the spring 2025 collection, while the town house on Madison Avenue unveiled last year is currently acting more as a showroom, displaying samples rather than offering designs to try on and purchase.

A former special projects and VIP designer at Gucci — where he worked with former creative director Alessandro Michele on the creation of dramatic looks for celebrities including Lana Del Rey and Björk — Del Core established his womenswear brand in December 2019 but didn’t unveil his first collection until February 2021.

Raised in a small village in Germany’s Black Forest, the designer moved to Italy as a teenager for a cultural exchange and then settled there, where he studied fashion and graphic design. Prior to joining Gucci in Rome, Del Core worked for a range of other houses, including Dolce & Gabbana and Versace in Milan and Zuhair Murad between Paris and Beirut.

Such previous experiences informed the flamboyant gowns that helped him to immediately catch the industry’s attention with his namesake label, which were soon flanked by sartorially rigorous looks telegraphing his tailoring prowess, too.

Over the years, his creations also attracted a pool of celebrities, ranging from Florence Pugh wearing a silver Del Core couture dress with elevated straps at the 96th annual Academy Awards, Sharon Stone and Carolyn Murphy choosing the brand for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party last year, Sydney Sweeney wearing a peeling pencil dress at the SXSW Conference and Film Festival to Taraji P. Henson, who donned a couture gown at the 55th NAACP Image Awards.