Millennials Are Taking Over Fashion, Too - The New York Times |
- Millennials Are Taking Over Fashion, Too - The New York Times
- Immigration! Influencers! Climate Change! What to Expect This Fashion Month - The New York Times
- Moore From L.A.: Amidst Environmental Outrage, Can Fashion Week Save Itself From Extinction? - WWD
- Spring Fashion Week looks to shake things up - Boston Herald
| Millennials Are Taking Over Fashion, Too - The New York Times Posted: 05 Sep 2019 12:01 AM PDT  In the fall of 2018, Jean-Philippe Hecquet, the newly installed chief executive of Lanvin, was looking for a designer to save the oldest French fashion house in continuous existence. The stakes were high. The brand's collections had been critically savaged since parting ways with Alber Elbaz, its former creative director, in 2015. It had quickly run through two other creative directors without success, and sales were plummeting. The house had a new owner, the Chinese group Fosun International, and it wanted a turnaround before Lanvin drifted off to the land of irrelevance. So what did Mr. Hecquet do? Cherchez the millennial. He hired Bruno Sialelli, age 31. Mr. Hecquet made a big bet on a very young, unproven name. And in doing so, he became the latest in a growing group of established brands to hand the keys to the creative kingdom to a new generation of designers. Aside from Mr. Sialelli at Lanvin, in the last year alone Daniel Lee became creative director of Bottega Veneta at age 32 (he is now 33); Daniel Roseberry joined Schiaparelli, age 33; and Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh landed at Nina Ricci, ages 36 and 29. Then Rihanna, 31, became the first creative to get a new label at LVMH since 1987. They joined a club that includes Jonathan Anderson at Loewe (35), Francesco Risso at Marni (36), Julien Dossena at Paco Rabanne (36) and Olivier Rousteing at Balmain (33). The buzziest names of fashion month, which begins this week in New York before rolling out to London, Milan and Paris, are all under 35: Kerby Jean-Raymond of Pyer Moss (32), Telfar Clemens (34) and Brandon Maxwell (34), the Council of Fashion Designers of America Womenswear Designer of the Year 2019, in New York; Grace Wales Bonner in London (27); and Simon Porte Jacquemus (29) and Marine Serre (27) in Paris. "The new luxury has brought a major aesthetic discontinuity, which is getting some brands and designers out of sync with the zeitgeist," Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at Bernstein, wrote in an email. "This has been driven by younger consumers embracing a more informal definition of fashion. This is also producing a generation shift in the designer ranks." Fashion loves a trend, not to mention a new discovery, and it's possible that this is simply the latest example. But the sheer number of designers of a certain age range, and the span of countries and kinds of brands they now run, suggests the change may be more systemic in nature; may, in fact, signify a meaningful shift in the demographics of fashion power. Gen Y has reached critical mass. And that has repercussions not only for consumers and the industry, but also for the Gen X creatives who came before. Younger, Younger, Younger"They always want younger, younger younger," one headhunter in Paris said of the fashion executives for whom he worked. (The New York Times agreed to grant him anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.) "We have put forth talent in their mid-50s who were exceptional, and they were summarily rejected." Fashion — even the most expensive, traditional kind — has long had a yen for the disruptive stylings of youth; has long been mining their wardrobe reinventions for ideas. But this development is less about aesthetics than behavior and points of view. And it is part of a historical pattern. There have been such tectonic shifts before: times when major groupings of designers seemed to arrive en masse, as opposed to the lone breakthroughs of wunderkind outliers like Yves Saint Laurent, who took the reins at Dior at age 21. Often they rode the wave of broader social movements: in the 1960s, the youthquake was given shape by Mary Quant, André Courrèges and Betsey Johnson; in the '90s, the Y.B.D.s (young British designers), John Galliano, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, took over the French establishment at the time of Cool Britannia. "Fashion has its own class system, and this is what I call the fourth class: the youth," said Colin McDowell, the author of "McDowell's Directory of 20th Century Fashion." "They rise up every few decades." The main forces driving the move this time are the rise of the millennial consumer and the technological transformation of 2007, when the smartphone — and many of the social media platforms it enabled — emerged, changing human interaction just when Gen Y was entering its majority. Yet no executive or headhunter will acknowledge that fashion brands increasingly see age as a criterion for hiring a designer, for understandable legal reasons. Rather, they discuss the importance of "digital," of "having a community," of "a willingness to change," of understanding that the world now wants not so much "beautiful products" as "beautiful products that reflect values." There's no question that such qualifications can be found in designers of any age. Alessandro Michele, the creative director of Gucci, is one of the pacesetters for the industry, and he's 47. But there is also no question that these are values most often associated with millennials. 'You Don't Need to Train Them or Teach Them or Force Them'Gen Yers don't necessarily make different clothes — or not dramatically different clothes. They aren't the so-called street wear generation (Gen X is actually behind a lot of that — at least the commercial exploitation of it) or the gender-fluid generation. But they do think about how those clothes reach the end user in different ways, and they do talk about them differently, and see their roles differently. So when François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of Kering, which owns Bottega Veneta, was interviewing designers for the top job at that brand and wanted to speak to them about sustainability, he said that what struck him about Mr. Lee was that, "it is a given." "He didn't even understand why we were asking him about it," Mr. Pinault said. He also said that when they first spoke, Mr. Lee didn't even talk about products — just the abstract meaning of the brand. Similarly, Mr. Hecquet of Lanvin noted that designers who grew up in the social media age are "digitally savvy." "The way they think, they way they operate in their personal lives, there is less resistance to the way of communicating on social networks," he said. "You don't need to train them or teach them or force them — it's natural, and customers can feel that." It's no accident that Olivier Rousteing of Balmain was among the first major designers to have a public personal Instagram profile, or that Daniel Roseberry staged his first show for Schiaparelli by plunking himself down in the middle of his runway, sketching, instead of hiding mysteriously backstage. People were wondering who the new guy they had never heard of was? Well, there he was! Check him out. "For many candidates, the number of followers is a key part of their résumé," said Michael Boroian, the founder of the executive search firm Sterling International, which specializes in the luxury industry. Also, of course, relatively young, untested designers tend to be cheaper, at a time when geopolitics and the possibility of a recession are sending tremors through the industry. "The existing creative directors have been making a ton of money," Mr. Boroian said. "One of the people I know was on an eight million euro package. The new crew tends to go from 500,000 euros to two million, though the latter would have to have a following, so from the very beginning their name would be a mover of product. But the compensation structure is less onerous for the brand. And in return, they get loyalty." In fact, a brand gets more than that: It also gets a name that will not overshadow the brand name, because most of these designers were second in command, working behind the scenes before being elevated. And, said Mr. Hecquet: "They don't have any bad or comfortable habits. They are not used to having a huge team." They are not committed to a two-season cycle, private planes and yachts, sable and vicuna. They are relaxed about the idea of change. Disruption for them is business as usual. Image  Follow the MoneyIn addition, as Achim Berg, the head of McKinsey & Company's apparel, fashion and luxury group, noted, "younger designers are closer to the consumer." This may seem obvious, but given the potential pitfalls involved in opting for an unknown, it's also risky. That is why big brands like Dior and Givenchy often stick to big names like Maria Grazia Chiuri and Clare Waight Keller, both of whom are Gen X designers and had proven track records at the top of other brands (Mr. Chiuri at Valentino and Ms. Keller at Chloé). Choosing to turn the generation wheel adds a dimension of "is he up to the job?" scrutiny to the work of designers who are already under significant pressure to reinvent an aesthetic, not to mention lead groups of people who may often be older than them. Still, the millennial consumer has become the market every brand wants to own, and it is possible that the millennial designer is the fastest, most effective way into their mind-set and wallet. "Millennials are a key audience for today and tomorrow," Mr. Hecquet said. "Not the only one, but for sure it helps to have a young designer because the way he does things will naturally attract the younger consumer." "They don't just buy products, they are buying a message," Mr. Hecquet continued. "That's what you need to build a movement." (This is especially important if a brand has lost much of its identity.) "The new generation wants to see the back story, they want to know who a designer is. He is the face of a brand, so, of course, having a 31-year-old brings a new audience." This is even more crucial when it comes to China, which despite trade wars and political tension, is for many brands still the promised land of future growth, and where millennials are the highest-spending age group. According to McKinsey's 2019 China Luxury Report, the approximately 10.2 million Chinese millennial luxury consumers are the "driving force of the country's luxury appetite," accounting for more than half the total spending on luxury in 2018 — which is to say, more than half of the $115 billion (770 billion RMB) spent at home and abroad. By 2025, Chinese consumers are expected to account for 40 percent of worldwide luxury spending.In the United States, millennials accounted for approximately $200 billion in consumer spending in 2018, according to McKinsey. Ka-ching. The Gen X PuzzleCombined with fashion's own desire for change and freshness, be it in garments, retail strategy or actual employees, this has created an environment increasingly receptive to the idea of looking past the usual names — those that have been, for the last few years, on the short list for every job that opened up at a big brand. It also explains why they may have been bypassed in the end. Gen X designers, after all, were forged in a time when luxury had a different understanding of its own identity. "For years the sense of purpose of a brand could be implicit in exquisite bags and clothes, but today, because of the global challenges, companies need to be very explicit about their sense of purpose," Mr. Pinault said. "And I think this means more and more young designers will appear. They get that." (That said, it is worth pointing out that the corporate side of things is still dominated by Gen Xers and boomers). Mr. McDowell believes the momentum may be irrevocable, and that while designers in their late 40s and 50s are no longer the names of first resort, they will still be in demand for the one-off collaboration and guest star role. But "are they going to get another big job?" he said. "No. I don't think so." There will be exceptions, of course, but the physics of fashion are working against them, as is the industry's deep-seated and defining desire for newness. It's part of the myth that fashion tells itself about itself. And now it's reality. "I don't regret for a minute taking this risk," Mr. Hecquet said.  |
| Immigration! Influencers! Climate Change! What to Expect This Fashion Month - The New York Times Posted: 04 Sep 2019 02:00 AM PDT  It's back-to-school time: Parents and kids everywhere are filling their backpacks, charging their computers, readying their water bottles and making shopping lists. That this time of year coincides with fashion month has always seemed something of a cosmic joke, or a telling coincidence. The shows, after all, are effectively a back-to-work moment for all. Or a what-you-will-wear-when-you-go-back-to-work moment (maybe this month, maybe in 2020, depending on whether a brand is on a see now/buy now schedule). And a what-you-will-see-in-the-stores-when-you-go-back-to-work moment (ditto). Definitely a what-you-will-see-on-celebrities-and-influencers-for-the-next-three-months moment (either way). Prepare yourself! Forewarned is forearmed! And all that. So what should you expect? Diversity, hopefully, of race, size and age. And a lot more. There isn't a lot of designer churn, but there are a lot of disappearing brandsFor the first time in a while, the designer shuffle has let up. But that does not mean you should become complacent; there are still undercurrents of change. Some brands are moving their shows to different cities: Peter Pilotto left London for Milan, and Boss left New York for Milan. Telfar has swapped New York for Paris, at least for the collection reveal. First its designer, Telfar Clemens, will be showing a "nonlinear film" in New York that will be a preview of what we'll see in the City of Light. What we won't see: Sonia Rykiel, which has been liquidated and will not be showing. Also sitting out this season: Kenzo. Its designers, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, departed in July, and Felipe Oliveira Baptiste, the new creative director, is taking his time with reinvention. In Milan, Roberto Cavalli, which lost its designer this summer and filed for bankruptcy, was sold and is on hiatus until the new owners, a Dubai property developer, figure out what to do. In New York, following in the footsteps of Calvin Klein, which said goodbye to the runway last season, Derek Lam has decided to close his high-end line, skip the runway and focus on his contemporary label, 10 Crosby Street. And Diane von Furstenberg is eschewing a runway show for a power lunch. Chew on that. And speaking of power … Politics is backAs if it ever went away! Things just got a little quieter for a while. Maybe it's because the last day of New York Fashion Week is also the day of the next, winnowed-down Democratic debate; maybe it's because of Brexit; maybe that's just how the world works. At any rate, neutrality is no longer the best look. News broke in August that Steve Ross, the billionaire investor in Equinox, SoulCycle and Hudson Yards, was throwing a big Trump fund-raiser in the Hamptons. Faster than you could say "we are the opposition," Prabal Gurung and Rag & Bone, labels that had planned to show at the Shed, the arts space at Hudson Yards, announced that they were taking their collections and moving elsewhere. Which probably should have been expected given that Mr. Gurung, celebrating his 10th anniversary, has entitled his show "Who Gets to Be American?" Implication clear. (Not surprisingly, Mr. Clemens at Telfar is also focusing on the theme of migration as he … migrates! to Paris). Finally, Kerby Jean-Raymond is returning to the New York schedule after skipping last season, unveiling the final chapter in his trilogy of Pyer Moss shows that use fashion to reframe the African-American experience. Then, in London, Brexit will be top of everyone's mind. The British Fashion Council began September by issuing a statement noting, "a no deal Brexit is a scenario that should be avoided." Will Carrie Symonds, Boris Johnson's girlfriend, make an appearance at any shows, à la Samantha Cameron, and try to effect some détente? Or will she skip them as she did the Group of 7? Will fashion, which was virulently anti-leave, make its feelings heard once again? And in Paris, will the yellow vests return? Wait and see. But, meanwhile, listen to the talk about … Image Climate changeEarlier this month 32 fashion brands from all the fashion cities, including Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Gucci and Hermès, signed a pact initiated by François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of Kering, announcing that they were committed to being more sustainable. (Yeah, feels kind of wishy-washy to us too.) This will be the first opportunity to test their commitment. Not everyone is convinced of their sincerity, however. Extinction Rebellion, the climate activists, have announced plans to disrupt London Fashion Week. There will be protests. Traffic will be bad. And speaking of action: Stella McCartney, who announced the United Nations sustainable fashion charter at the COP 24 climate conference, has taken her brand, after a brief interregnum as an independent, to LVMH, archrival of Kering, her former group — and a noted nonsignatory of the fashion pact. Presumably Bernard Arnault, the LVMH chief executive, or his kin, will be sitting front row and center at her show as he throws down the gauntlet of competition. Indeed, the two big Paris groups seem to be engaged in a race to one-up each other in the sustainability stakes: LVMH pledged 10 million euros, just over $11 million, to fight the forest fires in the Amazon, with a news release that quoted its board member Yann Arthus-Bertrand saying, "Protecting the environment is not just about words or speeches or declarations of principle, it also requires taking concrete collective actions." Let the fireworks begin! And speaking of entertainmentIt's definitely back on the schedule. Ralph Lauren is holding his show at a one-night-only Ralph's Club, with a dress code that requires black-and-white evening wear. (So Truman Capote.) The richest rock star and first celebrity to get her own LVMH label — I am speaking, of course, of Rihanna — is back with Savage x Fenty, her non-LVMH lingerie line. (The fact she gets to keep that deal even as she gets a new fashion label is a measure of just how much power she has.) It will be shown in some sort of over-the-top happening involving models, actors and dancers, "music, fashion and culture," that will later be streamed for all on Amazon Prime. Yes, Amazon is getting into fashion, too. FOMO in action. As it happens, Rihanna is represented by WME, the talent agency part of Endeavor, the globe-straddling behemoth that also happens to own New York Fashion Week. And her show is being produced by Endeavor Content, another arm of the company. In other words, the synergies promised (or the monopoly acquired, depending on how you look at it) when the company bought NYFW are being delivered. Packaging! It's so fashion week. In this vein, the Blonds are collaborating with the gang from the new Broadway musical "Moulin Rouge" to stage its NYFW show (inspired by the movie) in the theater with some of the cast performing, and some tickets will be available to the public. Just as they will be for the next #TommyNow Instagram-ready extravaganza, held in the Apollo Theater and featuring the Tommy x Zendaya collection. And just as they will be at London Fashion Week, which is becoming the first official fashion week to organize shows for the ticket-buying public during the regular schedule. House of Holland and Self-Portrait are the guinea pigs. Front row tickets are £245, nearly $300 (they include other perks). By contrast, the Telfar Clemens film will have a free public screening just after the industry unveiling, though tickets start at $599 for "NYFW: The Experience," which is how you gain access to the Blonds' "Moulin Rouge" event. Just how much is fashion worth? The answer raises the meta question of how you define a "show."  |
| Moore From L.A.: Amidst Environmental Outrage, Can Fashion Week Save Itself From Extinction? - WWD Posted: 04 Sep 2019 09:03 PM PDT  Over the past few years, drag queens have come to make up more than just a niche community. They are true arbiters of pop culture, masters of camp and lovers of makeup. They are, as Randy Barbato, an executive producer of "Drag Race" and cofounder of World of Wonder Productions, which coproduces RuPaul's DragCon, put it, "the new pop stars." A decade after "RuPaul's Drag Race" first premiered, WWD looks back and reports on how queens are finally claiming their rightful crowns (wigs, rather) as beauty leaders. Read more on WWD.com. 📸: @maddiecordoba Report: @alexa_tietjen . . . . . #wwdbeauty #MayhemMiller #Kimora Blac #KameronMichaels #Mariah Balenciaga  |
| Spring Fashion Week looks to shake things up - Boston Herald Posted: 04 Sep 2019 09:00 PM PDT Hard to believe it's here already, but tomorrow marks the beginning of another New York Fashion Week — this one for the Spring Collections of 2020. And with Tom Ford coming in last spring as the new head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (taking over for longtime head Diane von Furstenberg), he's sworn to shake things up, selected new board members who better reflected the industry's diversity and is focusing on reinventing the shows.  The biggest change so far: A shorter schedule this time around. Instead of stretching out the calendar into sometimes even a week and a half as they've done in the past, shows will be kept to a tight six days. Meanwhile, there's already been one dust-up over where the shows will be held. After it was announced that the new Hudson Yards would be the spot, and word got out that Hudson Yards real estate developer Stephen Ross held a $250,000-per-ticket fundraiser for Donald Trump, designers like Prabal Gurung and Rag & Bone started pulling out. So for this season, at least, the official venue will remain Spring Studios.  There, you can look for shows that will open with Telfar and end with Marc Jacobs, who usually closes the week. In between will be everyone from Khaite and Ulla Johnson to Christian Siriano, Tory Burch, Tibi, Jason Wu, Jonathan Simkhai, Anna Sui, Carolina Herrera, Proenza Schouler and Michael Kors.  One highlight should be Tommy Hilfiger's show, as he partners again with actress Zendaya, to bring us a presentation full of inclusion and diversity in its models, and with themes of empowerment. Another don't-miss: the return of Tokyo designer Tomo Koizumi, who made a huge splash last season with his rainbow tulle gowns. And likewise, there will be the over-the-top creations across tech platforms, too — like Rihanna's Savage X Fenty lingerie runway show, which she'll stream on Amazon Prime on Sept. 20. Before that, look out for the Instagram account of The Blonds; promised is a theatrical-meets-runway extravaganza on Sept. 9.  Check back here in the days to come for coverage of the first days of New York Fashion Week, Spring Collections of 2020.  |
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