Alessandro Michele, the hitherto creative director of the fashion brand Gucci, stepped down on Wednesday after eight long years in the role. Womenswear Daily reported earlier that Michele might leave Gucci over differences with the chairman of Gucci’s parent company Kering after suggesting “a strong design shift” for the brand.

He confirmed his exit in a statement shared on social media on Wednesday. The 49-year-old designer spent 20 years with the brand, since joining them in 2002.

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“There are times when paths part ways because of the different perspectives each one of us may have,” Michele wrote. “Today an extraordinary journey ends for me, lasting more than 20 years, within a company to which I have tirelessly dedicated all my love and creative passion.”

Who is Alessandro Michele?

Alessandro Michele was born on November 25, 1972, in Rome, Italy. Michele is well-known for his maximalist designs and he gave Gucci’s designs a twist by introducing a Greek-Chic aesthetic into it. He is widely credited with maintaining the brand’s global image and all of Gucci’s collections.

His mother worked as a personal assistant to a film executive, and his father was an Alitalia mechanic. Michele finished his fashion design coursework at the Accademia di Costume e di Moda in Rome in the early 1990s, learning the trade of designing both theatrical costumes as well as fashionwear.

Tom Ford, who served as Gucci’s creative director from 1994 to 2004, invited Michele to join the company’s London-based design team in 2002. Initially, he was in charge of the business handbag designs. He was appointed senior designer of Gucci’s leather goods in 2006.

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Frida Giannini, Gucci’s creative director since 2005, made him associate creative director in 2011. He also took on the role of creative director of Richard Ginori in 2014, the Florentine porcelain company that Gucci had purchased in June 2013.

In 2015, he was made the interim creative director of Gucci by Marco Bizzarri when Frida Giannini vacated the role in 2014. He stepped up to the challenge and created the “new Gucci: nonconformist, romantic, intellectual” in a week.

Two days later, the interim status was removed and he was made the creative director of the brand.