What comes after quiet luxury?
A thirst for newness in fashion, which is fueling unprecedented creative upheaval at European fashion houses, observers say.
“A classic industry solution is new creative energy and ideas,” luxury analyst Luca Solca wrote in a recent report for Bernstein, which argues that the global slowdown in luxury goods has unleashed “the creative director carousel.”
The report is illustrated with photos of merry-go-rounds and charts recounting open positions — Chanel, Fendi women’s and Dries Van Noten among them — and lists as “under threat” Dior women’s, Gucci, Burberry and Jil Sander. Among houses where the designers “could choose to move on”: Maison Margiela, Loewe, Alaïa, Burberry and Diesel.
According to Solca, creative directors in the high fashion and luxury world “tend to repeat themselves over time and become predictable.” Hence chief executive officers at Dior and Gucci could push for new creative directors “to stem revenue declines,” he writes.
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Bernstein outlines five predicaments that are prompting creative churn at brands: “moving on” from long-serving creative directors under new management; “searching for the right solution” after a revolving door of different designers; “taking off” under new leadership; “stable” under long-serving creatives, or “hyperstatic” by possibly sticking for too long with the same creative director.
Delphine Vitry, cofounder of Paris-based luxury consultancy MAD, concurred economic pressures are fanning the current flurry of change, which has already seen new creative directors installed at Celine, Givenchy, Valentino, McQueen and Chloé over the past 12 months.
“The heart of the luxury industry is creation. Furthermore, it is a market of offer, much more than a demand market,” she said. “When the market is generally tense for macroeconomic reasons, the emergence or renewal of a creative offer is logically an essential asset for the recovery.
“It also depends on the time given to leaders to restore a problematic situation,” Vitry continued. “If it is an independent and listed company, the room for maneuver is much less than if the shareholding is family and not listed. Time matters.”
In her view, large luxury players “have an interest in supporting designers at the service of a brand, rather than putting a brand at the service of a designer. However, it is not always just a question of CEO choice. The DNA of the brand matters to understand the place that should be given to the designer.”
Solca cautioned that naming a new creative director is not sufficient for a broader “brand re-ignition” effort, which requires “simultaneous consistent changes in merchandising and collection structure, media communication, social media content, visual merchandising, in-store environment, events, PR, ambassadors, key wholesale account ‘hijacking,’ etc.”
“A critical mass of consistent changes with the new creative vision is indispensable to produce ignition and attract consumer attention back to the brand,” he said in the report.
Karen Harvey, founder and CEO of her eponymous consulting firm in New York, urged stronger partnerships between brand managers and creative directors.
In her view, houses should not look to new creative leaders to be the sole saviors “of a brand, of a situation, of an economic downturn, or of the loss of energy at the brand…. We have to realize they are not alone in this, and they shouldn’t be.”
Instead, she lauded dynamic business-creative duos who innovate, take risks and “hold hands to make these things happen.”
Harvey noted that creative figures should not always acquiesce to the CEO. Still, they should also take into account business requirements and “put the consumer more at the center of the business.”
“There’s a need for a design-led vision that meets consumers where they are,” she said.
Recent history has seen some clean sweeps and sharp left turns when new creative figures arrived at European heritage houses.
Harvey lauded Anthony Vaccarello for “not coming in with the idea that everything should be blown up and changed” when in 2016 he succeeded Hedi Slimane at the helm of Saint Laurent, the latter designer responsible for rebranding the house and removing Yves, the first name of the founding couturier. “Then Anthony added a lot of really interesting aspects.”
Among worrying factors for Harvey is a lack of training on couture and atelier skills among recent fashion graduates, which may require “a correction” in the next decade or so.
That said, she argued large-scale brands have an opportunity to create a 360-degree lifestyle experience, which fosters consumer loyalty beyond core products and lets consumers “feel the entire DNA.”
Emma Davidson, managing director of luxury fashion recruitment firm Denza, suggested that business people have been gate-keeping for too long.
“I know names on lists for creative directors get put aside because they ‘aren’t press-savvy enough and are too shy’ or ‘aren’t business-savvy enough.’ Last time I looked, a creative director had to be creative, not a communications director or CEO,” she said.
In her view, “anything that could be financially risky gets discarded and everyone is looking for the sure bet.”
The result? “Bland hospital food,” Davidson said, lamenting the industry’s addiction to so-called “star designers,” which has become a euphemism for “sure bets.”
“Imagine a landscape where words like talented, unique, surprising, fresh, humorous, rich creative universe, exciting or exploratory get used about a designer or brand,” she said. “There have been few new talents being given the opportunity to enter into the top-level arena with the big names doing the house tours.”
She hastened to add: “I am not saying those who hold those positions now aren’t exceptional. I am saying that brands have not been investing in their own teams or succession planning.”
Floriane de Saint Pierre, who runs an eponymous executive search and luxury consultancy in Paris, took a different tack.
“Decision-makers often start with names. They should start with governance,” she said in an interview. “Each brand being unique, the governance of brand assets and creative resources should be uniquely designed.”
In her view luxury firms mulling a creative change should first ask themselves key questions: “What are the expectations? How to reach these expectations? How to set up the governance of brand assets for success? What is the most suitable organization? And then who are the best talent?
“A shareholder, a board, a CEO have to go through such questions when designing a brand strategy,” she argued.
In her view, governance is “the main driver of global performance,” and therefore “brand assets management and creative leadership are the key success or failure factors of influential brands.”
She said brand stewards should identify its unique assets and then define their governance.
“Is the creative leader the only leader in charge? Is the CEO involved; if so, how? Is the shareholder involved; if so, how?” de Saint Pierre asked.
The scope of responsibility given to a creative leader must be sharply defined, along with how “brand and creative assets cascade to the audience, and to the client.”
