London – Last week Yves Saint
Laurent deleted its Instagram history, a four year narrative of images
uploaded under the Draconian supervision of its previous Creative Director,
Hedi Slimane. The slate was cleared to make way for his successor Anthony
Vaccarello, but in doing so there was a message: that a luxury house
remains firmly rooted in its existence and its business cannot be solely
defined by the Creative Director in charge. We have now entered a new era
in fashion where changing designers is part of the ‘normal’ life cycle in
modern luxury.
For a designer to spend four years at a house, effectively 8 seasons, used
to be but a mere blip in time compared to how long founding creatives
stayed and developed their brands. I’m thinking here of Giorgio Armani (41
years and still going strong), Valentino (48 years), or even H&M’s Creative
Advisor Margareta van den Bosch, who has been with the Swedish brand nearly
30 years.
Consumers identify brands by their creatives because to develop a signature
takes time. Luxury goods companies require the consumer to invest in their
products, which they are buying because they believe it will give them
value over time. The message that companies can chop and change designers
is arguably one of power and money, but also one of the changing landscape
of the industry.
Slimane’s rigorous changes to YSL’s visual landscape, its collections and
its stores, took a good year for consumers to understand. When an
internationally loved and respected brand gets a name and logo makeover
practically overnight, it takes time to grasp the new vision and want to
get on board. Now the world seemingly adores Mr Slimane’s wares and his
looks dominate the high street from London to Tokyo, a success only matched
by Gucci since its appointment of Alessandro Michele. At retail Slimane’s
collections are stellar earners, highlighted by the fact that YSL’s parent
group Kering saw buoyant revenue increases and posted annual sales of
nearly 1 billion euros in the last financial year. Slimane has firmly
planted the Saint Laurent aesthetic into the current zeitgeist, and boosted
its value in doing so.
And so, four years later, after all the investment of transforming the
brand and communicating its vision to consumers, the astronomical costs and
painstaking time associated with refurbishing global flagships around the
world to complete the new aesthetic now appears obsolete. Has YSL gone back
and done a full re-boot? Judging by its Instagram account it has.
Perhaps Kering expected Slimane’s departure. In hindsight it was a
badly-kept secret accompanied by little surprise when it was announced on
April 1st. Whether negotiations failed due to the designer’s demands or
not, what is relevant is the creative seat at a fashion house is now a
short term position. Whereas we may be more apt to blame the corporation
for this ‘short-termism’, the truth is, designers also don’t want to sign
extensive 5 year contracts, let alone 8 or 10. In fact getting a commitment
of 3 or 4 years is the maximum a designer will sign.
This of course makes perfect sense. Designers are no longer churning out a
few collections a year, they are expected to deliver multiple collections,
from mens and womenswear to pre-collections, mainlines, resort,
accessories, capsule ranges and market-specific collections. The treadmill
never stops spinning in the creative studio of luxury houses and designers
are contracted to be on board spinning at full speed or you’re out.
Everything is measured by performance.
Raf Simons left Dior because he had no time to think between collections
and let the seeds of a new season develop over time. Alexander Wang left
Balenciaga because he couldn’t focus on his own label while committed to
the Paris-based house. Time, it appears, is the ultimate luxury, and
corporate fashion companies have profits to earn, stores to operate and
rails to fill. We, as consumers, need constant stimulation, even the six
months it takes for catwalk collections to be available in-store gives us
fashion fatigue.
An imminent solution, therefore, seems nigh on impossible within such a
complex matrix industry. Thankfully, fashion has always embraced the new,
so however daunting Mr Vaccarello’s tasks are after the legacy left by Hedi
Slimane, he will certainly be given a chance. No doubt the spring 2017 show
in Paris come October will be the one to watch.
Image:Saint Laurent