Most signs point to Nicolas Ghesquière scooting into Marc Jacobs’ vacant seat at Louis Vuitton, following 16 groundbreaking years at the house. LVMH’s denials seem to only fuel the speculation, especially as Ghesquière would be surely interested in the vast array of resources he’d have at his disposal.

But here’s the thing, the seat isn’t vacant just yet, and won’t be until later this year, when Jacobs’ and Robert Duffy’s contracts officially end. Overlapping transition periods don’t seem plausible.

Which likely means the pre-fall 2014 collection will once again come from Julie de Libran, the brand’s women’s creative director responsible for its Icons range and both the pre-spring and pre-fall collections, and who’s assisted Jacobs on the main collection for five years. Following that, she may also be tapped to design the fall 2014 collection as an interim designer, and who knows where that could lead.

So yeah, we’re floating her name for the top spot. She’s already friendly with two important women at the house: Sofia Coppola, who’s likely to stay on as house muse and sometime bag designer, and Katie Grand, show stylist for Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs who met Julie de Libran when the two worked at Prada.

Also, LVMH will surely want to see the direction the legal wrangling between Ghesquière and Kering is headed. The parent company of Balenciaga is suing their former creative director for disparaging remarks he made to System magazine, apparently in violation of a confidentiality clause. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, October 15. If it appears proceedings will go smoothly, no matter the outcome, Ghesquière will be all the more attractive to LVMH.