Sometimes it can seem as if the designers at the top of the industry’s best-known brands are engaged in a never-ending game of musical chairs. For every Karl Lagerfeld, presiding over the design studios at Chanel and Fendi for decades, and Giorgio Armani (ditto), a dozen more have come and gone as creative directors at luxury houses, often unceremoniously ejected from their gilded seats, sometimes in as little as 18 months.

But what happens afterward?

Just because they are no longer taking bows at the end of shows, quite a lot, as it turns out. From new professional projects to old hobbies, personal discoveries and unexpected passions, a group of fashion’s most prominent recent alumni spoke to The New York Times about their post-creative director lives.

Most notably, though they are all following different paths and have different feelings about returning (or not) to the runway, they agree on one thing: Their time away has made them happier. Interviews have been edited and condensed.