Creative director Michael Rider is leaving Polo Ralph Lauren

Michael Rider, creative director of Polo Ralph Lauren Women’s, has announced he will be leaving the Ralph Lauren-owned brand at the end of May.

Rider joined Ralph Lauren in 2018 and was tasked with revitalising the Polo line. According to a statement from the company available to the industry magazine Vogue Business, Rider has made the decision to leave Ralph Lauren after six years. The US label has not yet responded to an enquiry from FashionUnited.

Rider’s successor has already been found in Karen Brown. The designer, who will take on the role of creative director, has already worked for the brand for 18 years and, according to Vogue Business, is said to have been “instrumental in repositioning Women’s Polo alongside Michael”.

While it may be clear who will follow in his footsteps, Rider’s future raises far more questions, as his departure from Polo Ralph Lauren is fuelling the fashion rumour mill. Rumours have been circulating since April that Celine creative director Hedi Slimane wants to vacate his post amid “delicate contract negotiations”, as reported by industry magazine Business of Fashion, among others.

At the same time, Rider was named as Slimane’s likely successor, a rumour fuelled by his sudden departure from Ralph Lauren.

Rider’s supposed move to Celine would be a happy reunion, because before he moved to Ralph Lauren in 2018, he was already design director for ready-to-wear at the French label under the direction of the then creative director Phoebe Philo.

This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.DE. Translation and edit by: Rachel Douglass.