{"id":133270,"date":"2021-04-30T21:14:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T19:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/?p=133270"},"modified":"2021-04-30T21:14:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T19:14:35","slug":"does-the-fashion-system-truly-need-new-creative-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/does-the-fashion-system-truly-need-new-creative-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the fashion system truly need new creative directors?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last ten years, the role of the fashion creative director<\/strong> has changed profoundly. In fact, looking at the careers of John Galliano<\/strong> for Dior<\/strong>, Alzer Elbaz<\/strong><\/a> for Lanviv<\/strong> or Nicolas Ghesqui\u00e8re<\/strong> for Balenciaga<\/strong> we could see how the fashion system has moved away from the historical iconic<\/strong> director<\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The market and consumers\u2019 needs have changed and the multinationals<\/strong>, such as LVMH<\/strong> and Kering<\/strong> perceived it. It became clear that it was necessary to replace the role of the idolized creative director<\/strong> with new talents in order to avoid producing predictable items that risk to become ordinary.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

If we were to trace map<\/strong> of the designer\u2019s commitments when leading an important maison,<\/i> we would discover that such a prestigious<\/strong> job lasts only two or three years<\/strong>: a period of time too short<\/strong> to be able to effectively develop a new image for a brand.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clare Waight Keller<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>for Givenchy<\/strong>, is the perfect example<\/strong>. The fashion designer has been at the head of the French brand for only three years. In spite of her minimal job<\/strong>, so perfectly in line with the maison\u2019s founder Hubert<\/strong> vision<\/strong>, she is today exclusively remembered for Meghan Markle\u2019s dresses, created\u00a0<\/span>in occasion of the\u00a0<\/span>Royal Wedding<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>with Prince Harry. <\/span><\/b>Replacing Keller<\/strong> was <\/span>Matthew M. Williams,<\/strong> the other face<\/strong> of creativity, who brought a wave of innovation into Givenchy<\/strong>, in accordance to the streetwear view<\/strong> of fashion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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As you may have noticed, the problem is somewhere else.<\/strong> Every day, browsing on the Internet reading fashion news means to be witnesses to what it seems like a battlefield<\/strong> where many lose and a few survive.<\/strong> The creative director seems only a temporary<\/strong> leader. In fact, Alessandro Michele,<\/strong> for example, in charge since 2015 at Gucci<\/strong> appears like a Guinness World Record. The Kering<\/strong> group, which checks the brands\u2019 movements, doesn\u2019t seem worried about Michele\u2019s job, not even after the 2020 decrease of 10,3%<\/strong> in income.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take another example, <\/span><\/strong>in total opposition to the first one. LVMH<\/strong>, which is the French multinational to own the most important <\/span>maison<\/i><\/span> of the fashion system, <\/span>such as <\/span>Fendi, Celine<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span>and\u00a0<\/b><\/span>Louis Vuitton<\/strong>, doesn\u2019t want to end the \u201cgame of musical chairs\u201d. Among the multinational\u2019s \u2018missions\u2019 there is the aim of achieving remarkable<\/strong> profits, also comparing the individual brands\u2019 earnings. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After a gold<\/strong> three months term and a growth of 32%<\/strong>, the two creative directors of Kenzo, Felipe Oliveira Baptista<\/strong>\u00a0and of\u00a0<\/span>Berluti, Kris Van Assche, <\/strong>were hopeful. They seemed to have shed a brighter light on the two brands, but, unfortunally, wasn\u2019t enough. LVMH,<\/strong> looking at the incame of the first trimester of 2021, which recorder an excellent performance of Louis Vuitton<\/strong> and Dior,<\/strong> realized that the brands Kenzo <\/strong>and Berluti <\/strong>didn\u2019t keep up with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After halting<\/strong> the two collaborations, LVMH<\/strong> found itself in a dilemma<\/strong>: to appoint another creative director or not.<\/strong> In the Berluti<\/strong> case the decision was clear: no creative designer for the brand that prefers to focus on a less structured seasonal calendar and on a greater number of collaborations. In the case of Kenzo,<\/strong> the multinational instead seems to be oriented towards appointing Charaf Tajer<\/strong>, founder of<\/strong> Casablanca,<\/strong><\/a> as new director.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since the death of its founder, Kenzo<\/strong> has exclusively survived<\/strong> thanks to its role as \u201cpremium brand\u201d, showing good results mainly proposing branded items such as the popular and well-known t-shirts-with-tigers created by the designer\u2019s duo Humberto Leon<\/strong> and Carol Lim<\/strong>, in charge until 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

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According to reliable sources, Charaf Tajer<\/b> would confirm LVMH\u2019s general strategy<\/strong> to choose designers with a lot of visibility on the mediascape. On the other hand, the brand, in a very short time, has proved to be a promise<\/strong> in the fashion system and so for Tajer<\/strong> it shouldn\u2019t be difficult to lead it from its current reality to the stars. But, why bet on a new designer instead of extending its predecessor contract?<\/span><\/p>\n

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One answer<\/strong> could be what Robert Burke on \u2018Vogue Business\u2019<\/strong><\/a> said: \u201cThe constant change of a designer causes a great deal of stress and fatigue in a brand. The less frequently it happens, the better\u201d.<\/em> It\u2019s true that a relaunch of the brand is necessary, but it\u2019s also true that this continuous \u201cgame of musical chairs\u201d risks to generate a checkered mechanism<\/strong> that could cause wide financial losses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, the data company Bernstein<\/strong> after observing the financial movements of large luxury companies, published a report showing that the maximum period for the creative director\u2019s career<\/strong> is 5 years to truly be able to improve a brand\u2019s performance. So why they terminate a contract early? <\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, the answer is in the sales, which especially in this pandemic period do not provide many escape routes<\/strong>. When multinationals don\u2019t see positive answers from consumers to the new creative direction, they think that the only solution is to change person, but that\u2019s not always the right way.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another example is Glenn Martens<\/strong> at the direction of Diesel.<\/strong><\/a> Last year, the Otd group by Renzo Rosso<\/strong> chose to reposition the brand in the luxury segment of fashion and for now the new collaboration seems to be going well. Thus, keep your eyes on the first Diesel’s fashion show<\/strong> scheduled on June 21th in Milan<\/strong> to see how it will turn out.<\/p>\n

To sum up, the assignment of a creative director<\/strong> appears too often hanging by a thread and a risky move, by contrast, not very daring can mark his career forever. This is the reason why many designers prefer to remain in the shadows of fashion. It will be interesting to see how this ‘pivotal’ role can change in the next ten years, but, above all, if the time ever comes when genius and creativity are put before mere profit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last ten years, the role of the fashion creative director has changed profoundly. In fact, looking at the careers of John Galliano for Dior, Alzer Elbaz for Lanviv or Nicolas Ghesqui\u00e8re for Balenciaga we could see how the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69417,8,69448,9],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133270"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133270"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waitfashion.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=133270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}