Velvet, sparkles and the Macron mini
Floriane de Saint Pierre has orchestrated big power moves in the fashion industry. She tells Caroline Leaper how she does it
The majority of attendees at Paris Fashion Week are out to assess the clothes; the buyers want to determine what will sell at whichever multi-million-pound retailer they work for, journalists want to pick out trends and find the newsworthy collections, celebrities and their stylists are hunting for the next red carpet dress. But for Floriane de Saint Pierre, the focus is on the makers – the teams of people, from creative directors to interns, who are working behind the scenes at the world’s biggest brands.
As the industry’s most prolific (and stylish) headhunter, de Saint Pierre has been responsible for some of the most notable hires in recent fashion history. She put Alber Elbaz at Lanvin and Christopher Bailey at Burberry, recommended Alessandro Michele for Gucci and Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior. Imagine Gucci without Michele – there would be no maximalism trend, no surge in sales – placing the right designer in the right role can make a business, just as the wrong decision can break it.
She’s always on the lookout for talents – both creative and business minded – and for every level of the hierarchy. Who could be ready to progress to the next stage? Who has made a dramatic impact on the company they work for? Who could ultimately fill one of the 90-plus roles that she and her team are briefed to fill every year?
“It’s not just who do we know, and who can we put forward, it is much more than that,” she tells me of her approach to finding industry leaders. “You must consider the goals of the business and how the company needs to evolve. We are very rational when we are searching; it’s about knowing who does what, where.”
From her Hausmannian-style office on the boulevard Malesherbes and a second base in Milan, Floriane de Saint Pierre et Associés has more than 15,000 portfolios on file. “We have every field that is a visual or creative discipline, from fashion, accessories, jewellery, photography, graphic design and web,” she says. “Our clients are big and small brands.”
Matchmaking a company with a candidate, especially when recruiting for business executive roles, can also mean thinking beyond competitor fashion brands and looking at the wider lifestyle sector. “Pertinence is the most important,” she says. “You have to look at which companies are doing well, what business models are working and what brands consumers find inspirational. My role is to observe the zeitgeist and notice these things.”
Business for de Saint Pierre has been brisk recently, with designers at several top-level fashion houses playing musical chairs.
Dior, Gucci, Chloé, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga have all appointed new creative directors in the last three years, with Clare Waight Keller (until recently of Chloé) making her debut at Givenchy this week in Paris. The pace of work for those top roles is undoubtedly faster than ever – many now must produce 10 collections per year, including men’s – and shareholders are more demanding. Is all that movement a sign that designers are asked to do too much?
“When you think about the longevity though, even with recent changes like Clare Waight Keller, or Riccardo Tisci [who left Givenchy] or Marc Jacobs [Louis Vuitton], they had all stayed for around 10 years,” de Saint Pierre argues. “When you look at the bigger picture, turnover is very low. Raf Simons was a different case as it was his decision to leave Dior, but otherwise it is low.
“From companies that are independent you might see more changes [ie terminated contracts] as their shareholders can be impatient and you need a lot of investment to make sure that the creative direction has an impact on the business.”
Another demand to contend with is social media. In this Instagram era, doesn’t every CEO hope to find a “face” to front their brand? “I’m not sure,” de Saint Pierre considers. “Look at Phoebe Philo [of Celine], she is extremely discreet and she’s doing amazing work. The designer doesn’t have to be a public person, I think you just must feel their spirit.”
One figure who has proven to be both a critical and commercial success story is Alessandro Michele, the creative director at Gucci since January 2015.
As the brand’s former head accessories designer, his appointment broke hiring trends when CEO Marco Bizzarri chose to promote someone unknown to the press from within his firm, rather than looking externally for an established name.
“It’s always teamwork with the client,” she says of her role as a consultant.
“In that case it was the CEO who spotted him. He said, ‘Can you just tell me, what do you think?’ and we were able to say, ‘Yes, take the risk’. It is always an option to look at people who have been number two at a company – at some point in their career they should become number one. It’s encouraging to people within the organisation, also.”
Another headline-making appointment that de Saint Pierre worked on last year was the planting of Maria Grazia Chiuri, the former Valentino co-creative director, in the top job at Dior, a hire widely celebrated as Chiuri is the first female to lead the house in its 70-year history, and has made quick work of putting feminism on the fashion agenda with her “We should all be feminists” T-shirts.
“I don’t think it was about gender,” de Saint Pierre says of the choice. “Some women are at the helm of companies that were founded by men and [vice versa]. But I do think it’s interesting that when the Chambre Syndicale started [couture’s governing body was formed in 1868] there was an equal number of women and men who founded it.
“I’m much more concerned that there are very few women photographers at the top level,” she adds. “It’s time that beauty and fashion were more inclusive in terms of women making the visuals. It’s important to have that more balanced representation of society in image making.”
It is not only chief executives and design leaders that de Saint Pierre is concerned with finding. She and her team are currently developing a new digital platform, Eyes On Talent, a creative Linkedin of sorts that she hopes will aid companies looking for candidates for jobs at all levels. “I hope it will be the professional digital place for creatives and for anyone who is interested in finding creative talents,” she says. “Companies can search directly and they can follow what’s going on around the world. You cannot attend every graduation, you cannot attend every festival, so this tool will help.”
She enjoys spotting graduates and works routinely with universities to award star students with work placements. Her own big break came at 26 when, after six years working as a finance controller for Christian Dior and just a few months working for an executive recruitment firm, her former boss became her first client and encouraged her to set up her own talent-search agency.
“I will be grateful all my life,” she says of the opportunity. “My first client was Christian Dior Couture. They offered me a big role to find. I learned to empower young people – most of the time, it works very well!”
As for the French brands she has been keeping an eye on this week, de Saint Pierre cites Koche, Kitsuné, Ami and Julien David as ones to watch. “Let’s talk about the new guard,” she says. “Gentrified streetwear and always rock chic, this is what you see when you watch Parisians now.”
‘We are very rational when searching; it’s about knowing who does what, where’