In 2024, the creative directors of more than a dozen old fashion houses, including CHANEL, Dior, Gucci, Alexander McQueen, and Valentino, have undergone major personnel changes. The frequent changes of luxury brands seem to have become a "normal".
The frequent transfers of designers, in the final analysis, are still a problem of revenue growth. If the old capitalists see that the situation is not right, they will start a major internal change.
No matter how powerful the creative director is, to put it bluntly, he is still just an employee.
CHANEL
Virginie is the best example. Virginie Viard, who worked at CHANEL for 30 years, announced her resignation on June 5 this year. As early as 1987, she joined Chanel and worked in the embroidery department of haute couture. Soon she became Karl Lagerfeld's right-hand man with her talent. In 1992, she followed Karl Lagerfeld to leave Chanel and go to Chloé as design director. Five years later, she returned to Chanel and gradually became the creative director of haute couture and ready-to-wear series.
It's just that during the five years that Virginie served as creative director, CHANEL received constant negative reviews, and people even joked that "Grandma Chanel" had become "Ugly Grandma". She couldn't subvert the structure like Karl Lagerfeld or Coco Chanel, and could only start with the most straightforward design itself, so her lack of talent was obvious. For example, in her last haute couture series for Chanel, the only highlight was the shiny white tights that appeared in many looks, and she was mercilessly ridiculed for this.
After taking over CHANEL, Virginie, who lacked talent, could only follow in the footsteps of Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, and finally became a fake. But the fashion circle has always been picky and vicious. Faced with the plummeting reputation, Virginie's departure was decent.
After Virginie left, CHANEL snatched Matthieu Blazy, who was growing rapidly, from BV. He is not as active in the public eye as Karl Lagerfeld or Demna. Matthieu himself is vague, but his designs are absolutely eye-catching. He is one of the few designers who have shown avant-garde style in the middle-class fashion style in recent years.
His avant-garde is not about how exaggerated the technique is or how subversive the silhouette is, but he goes the other way, interpreting a clean and simple shape with complex leather craftsmanship like a trick - leather imitation flannel shirts and jeans are famous, and "dynamic craftsmanship" has become BV's iconic design language. Avant-garde, but not out of line, calm, but not cold.
The more contemporary and high-quality products have targeted the consumer demand in the economic downturn, allowing BV's ready-to-wear line to beat a number of old fashion houses and gain a large number of loyal buyers. CHANEL may have been attracted by Matthieu's "money-printing potential" and his natural expression of "high-end feeling", so it invited this "God of Wealth" when its reputation was declining.
CELINE
CELINE, whose market performance and industry reputation have also declined frequently in the past two years, announced on October 2 that Hedi Slimane, the creative director who had worked for 7 years, had resigned. In fact, in the first few years before Hedi joined CELINE, CELINE's achievements were obvious to all. He completely reshaped CELINE's brand image, overturned the simple aesthetics of Old Céline, focused on Generation Z, and began to add a lot of youth culture and rock elements. This series of operations has achieved great success in both management and volume.
Although Hedi has brought unprecedented vitality and change to CELINE in the short term, in the long run, his strong personal style and absolute control over the brand's creativity and communication have become a shackle to the brand's development. Those once trend-setting and eye-catching hit items seem to be hard to find, replaced by the repeated reappearance of Hedi Slimane's personal style. When the boundary between the brand's cultural heritage and personal style becomes increasingly blurred, or even overshadowed by the latter, the seeds of crisis have been quietly planted.
Especially in today's market environment, Hedi's "subculture" aesthetics is a bit unsustainable.
At this critical moment, CELINE brought in Michael Rider, a veteran of Old Céline. Michael has served as the ready-to-wear design director of Old Céline under Phoebe Philo for nearly ten years. He is well versed in the way of simple aesthetics, so this time can be said to be a historical reappearance in the transformation of the CELINE brand.
Valentino
Valentino, which has been performing poorly for many years, also announced a change of leadership in March this year. Pierpaolo Piccioli (PP) left Valentino after working there for 25 years. Since joining the brand in 1999, PP has created many representative design elements, such as Rockstud rivets and PP Pink.
However, the fashion industry is highly competitive, and PP's gorgeous and slightly noisy design style is still difficult for consumers to buy into, and it is even said to be "Kangxi is coming" style. No matter how popular PP Pink is, ordinary people really can't control it. After all, as a creative director, not only must you be able to dream, but you must also win the favor of consumers in order to maintain your position.
So Valentino invited Alessandro Michele, who once created a business myth for Gucci, to be the new creative director. During his eight years at GUCCI, his annual sales increased from less than 4 billion euros in 2014 to 9.73 billion euros in 2021, laying a solid foundation for GUCCI to enter the 10 billion euro club. However, the final outcome of the two was not perfect. When Michele left the company, he wrote, "There are always disagreements, so we parted ways."
So after joining Valentino, Alessandro seemed a little unconvinced and was full of ambition to return to the center of the fashion circle. In the 25 early spring series in September this year, he released more than 100 looks at once. The whole series was just like what he wrote in the show notes: "Beauty is a slender and precious spider web that allows us to float above the void." Compared with the exaggerated gorgeousness of PP's hands, Alessandro's maximalism is lighter and softer, which is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the "old money style" that is popular nowadays.
Although many people commented that "it is similar to the original Gucci", those who understand it will find that this narrative method is just the mark of Alessandro himself. He just brought Gucci to Valentino in the past, and now he has returned to Valentino.
Maison Margiela
Some brands change designers because the future of the brand is worrying, and some brands have a worrying future because the designer shouts that he wants to leave. On July 23 this year, John Galliano confirmed his departure from Maison Margiela.
The story began in 2011, when John Galliano was fired by Dior for his anti-Semitic remarks. His drunken video was uploaded to the Internet and continued to ferment. For a time, the genius designer was demoted from the clouds to the mortal world. It was not until 2014 that John Galliano joined Maison Margiela as creative director in a low-key manner. The outside world believed that this was his self-rescue for his career.
After joining Maison Margiela, John Galliano created countless legendary shows, including the zombie bride of spring and summer 21, the hellish couple of 22 haute couture, and the ceramic dolls of 24 haute couture. These jaw-dropping designs entered the hall of fashion history at the moment of their birth. When the sharp public opinion was washed away with time, only those dazzling genius works could be left. John Galliano used his talent to "vindicate" himself in the past decade.
During his tenure, Maison Margiela's sales more than doubled. The brand repeatedly asked him to renew his contract for several years, but Galliano still decided not to renew it. How lonely he was when he came, how much applause and flowers he received when he left. As soon as the news of his resignation was released, all fashion media left the headlines to John Galliano. In addition to respect for Galliano, there was also concern for Maison Margiela.
As we all know, Maison Margiela has always lacked classic items that can support itself through economic cycles, and its show image is relatively separated from the commercial scene. Its success in recent years has almost entirely relied on John Galliano's talent. Now that he has resolutely left, Maison Margiela's future is uncertain.
Other brands
In addition, Tom Ford, who has repeatedly made a name for himself in the cosmetics and perfume lines but has never made much splash in fashion topics, also announced on July 22 the departure of Petter Hawkings, who has only been creative director for less than a year. Subsequently, the brand officially appointed Haider Ackermann as the new creative director on September 5. Haider also took the position of Canada Goose's first creative director in April this year, while also taking care of his own brand of the same name. He is one of the busiest people in the fashion circle.
Sarah Burton, who worked at Alexander Mcqueen for 26 years, also turned to Givenchy, which may be unexpected. However, this is not the first time Sarah has come into contact with Givenchy. She also participated in the design when Lee Alexander Mcqueen was the creative director of Givenchy.
LAVIN finally announced the new creative director Peter Copping on June 27 this year. This name may be unfamiliar to everyone, but he has served as the brand creative director of Nina Ricci and Oscar de la Renta in Paris and New York. He is now working at Balenciaga in charge of the haute couture series, and he will lead the workshop to restart the haute couture series.
2024 is undoubtedly a turbulent year for the fashion industry. As frequently changing as creative directors are, fashion trends are also changing. "Nerdy chic", "sister-in-law style", "quiet luxury style", "nomadic style", hot spots are always one after another.
However, no matter how turbulent the fashion is, Galliano will always be a hot commodity among brands, and it will not affect the contract between Demna and Balenciaga for another ten years, just like the old saying "fashion is easy to pass, but style is forever."
