Fashion’s game of musical chairs
Does constant hiring and firing of brands’ creative directors affect the DNA of the design houses and their sales? Here’s what Indian designers have to say
Prerna Gauba Sibbal
It’s been a recurring cycle of endless hiring and firing at international fashion houses. The latest example is Raf Simons joining Prada as cocreative director after a stint with Calvin Klein of less than two years. The Belgian designer, who had previously departed Christian Dior after three-and-a-half years, will work alongside Miuccia Prada on their first joint collection due in September. Another designer is Alessandro Dell’Acqua, who bid adieu to Rochas after six years at the helm! These are the telling signs which make one question if creative directors face constant pressure to create offerings which reap rich dividends. And also if brands no longer shy away from diluting their core identities in the interest of millennials and Gen-Z buyers.
In 1983, when Karl Lagerfeld took over Chanel, he injected fresh life into the brand and carved a new space for the luxury house in the fashion realm. For almost 35 years, Karl held the reins of the French label and became the synonym for Chanel. A few more long-term directors of that time were Phoebe Philo at Céline for eight years, Tomas Maier at Bottega Veneta for 15 years and Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy for 12 years. But today, creative directors are facing more uncertainty as only after a few seasons, they are handed out their walking papers. Also, their works are wiped off the labels’ Instagram accounts and sometimes even from stores.
SHAKE-UPS KEY TO CATALYSE INTEREST
These shake-ups in fashion’s upper echelon have left many asking ‘Why are they switching so soon? And do these rounds of rebranding affect a brand’s core ethos?’ Designer Nimish Shah, the creative director for Bhane, opines, “It is crucial to shake things up. Brands need a catalyst to innovate and wake up. Everyone wants to make noise, and hence, these announcements are instantly noticed. There is no stability, people want trophy products, it is need of the market.”
LEND A NEW EXPRESSION TO THE BRAND
In the quest to give a brand a new direction, it sometimes loses its heritage values and starts looking like a pale shadow of its former self. So when Hedi Slimane moved from YSL to Celine and turned it upside down with his club kids driven sensibility, eyebrows were raised and his works were compared to Anthony Vaccarello’s — the creative director at Saint Laurent. Nicolas Ghesquière did wonders when he was with Balenciaga and his signature silhouettes and sci-fi sensibility can be felt in his current stint at Louis Vuitton. “Some brands have carried ahead the ancestor’s aesthetics and some have reinvented. Like Valentino is no more contemporary, Pierpaolo Piccioli gave a new expression to the brand. Similarly, Christopher Kane was a great fit for Versace’s younger line Versus and Raf seems like a great fit for Prada. They bring freshness and also keep the brand’s key aesthetic intact. There are intangible ways to break creative fatigue, but you should still feel the whiff of the brand,” explains designer Nachiket Barve.
FASHION’S COMMERCIAL SORCERY
However, changing the guard at the creative helm of a fashion house is also important to shoot up sales. “The generations of consumers change and so, a change in guard is important for design houses. A creative director has to be versatile and act like a creative chameleon, so that offerings don’t become repetitive. Tom Ford gave a different direction to Gucci, then it was Frida Giannini and now Alessandro Michele, who has infused the house with a different surprise element. Huge economics are involved; Gucci sales scaled to 70% as he lent a newness to the Italian house,” says designer Rahul Mishra.
According to Business of Fashion, in 2014, three years after Hedi Slimane took over the creative reins of Yves Saint Laurent, the business drove €707 million in sales revenue. Céline, under Phoebe Philo’s direction, drives upwards of €750 million in sales for LVMH.