The
legendary
feud between two geniuses of French Fashion, Yves
Saint Laurent
and Karl
Lagerfeld,
that has been so well recounted in the book “The Beautiful Fall”
by author Alicia Drake, can be also seen as a constitutive paradigm
of the Fashion business during the XX Century.
The
two notorious enemies, in fact represented two opposite business
models facing each other: Yves Saint Laurent was the refined and
provocative creator who founded his eponymous label literally dressing
the
Seventies; whilst the other, Karl, was and still is a proper designer
who gives the best of himself when designing for established brands
that do not go under his name, for example, Chloé, Fendi and, of
course, Chanel.
Whilst
Yves Saint Laurent’s style was so radically personal, Karl
Lagerfeld has always had the ability of adapting to the brand he
worked for, moulding himself to its heritage, stile and history.
Lagerfeld’s Chanel has unquestionably been a success in terms of
business and has always been faithful to what Gabrielle had invented
decades before, in terms of both, iconic designs and ideal
client.
In
other words, we can say that Karl and Gabrielle have designed for the
same type of woman: elegant, dynamic, modern and rich.
Whilst
YSL has ruled over the Seventies and subsequently
met a slow decline in terms of popularity (not in terms of genius),
Karl has little by little increased his importance and influence,
without ever forcing his personal style over the brands he worked for
but, on the contrary, providing an interpretation of how the heritage
of the brand could adapt to its contemporaneity.
With
the XXI Century, fashion has witnessed the introduction of a
third type of designer: the one who, sometimes, does not have an
eponymous label, but gets hired by third parties, imposing his own
vision and style, obliterating the heritage and, of course, changing
the identity of the brand’s
ideal
client.
This
type of designer is always “cool” and that is usually the reason
why brands hire him. No other era could be more favourable to this
type of creator than the current one, which
requires a constant production of ideas and very short memory.
The compulsion
towards Amnesia
which dominates the current times, indeed, it’s pivotal to the
success of these designers because they can be fully prised only in a
world that forgets the past, the heritage, and even the founder of a
brand.
The
epitome of this model is Hedi Slimane. Slimane does the same thing
everywhere: rock’n
roll;
skinny trousers; wasted, anorexic, beauties reminiscent of drugs of
all sorts; and bad-boys coolness everywhere. Dior Homme, Saint
Laurent, and today Céline- promptly re-baptised Celine- for him
where just non-places
where he could display his own vision. The only certain thing is that
he has completely achieved his goal, even if that meant wiping away
the past; even if Saint
Laurent,
with him, had to drop Yves.
It is in fact interesting to note that when Slimane left the brand
has been replaced with Vaccarello who carries on with Slimane’s
style, rather than the founder’s: such is the amount of disruption
that Slimane brought into the French Maison.
No
brand could be furthest from him than Céline, and yet he has been
asked to take over after the glorious era of Ms Phoebe Philo. He
bravely accepted the challenge but quite “lazily” -if not
cowardly- he relied on his usual style, as if the brand didn’t have
a past and a faithful clientele and a heritage.
Now, just to be clear, we are not
criticising Slimane’s the ability to revamp a brand, neither we
think he is less than amazing at creating fashion. What is here
discussed is the business model, not the designer.
A similar thing can be said for Demna
Gvasalia, who carries on making Vetements at Balenciaga; or the
luckily forgotten (but still un-forgiven) Alexander Wang’s hyphen,
again, at Balenciaga, where he continued with his body-con sporty
dresses so perfectly newyorkese but so alien to Paris fashion.
This
third protocol of designers may be due to multiple reasons, one of
which is probably that today’s fashion is dominated by tycoons and
big conglomerates which,
following the logic of profit, go for “safe” choices, by putting
long established brands in the hands of “cool” designers who have
already a specific style and asking them to bring it to the Maison.
Anyway,
rather than looking melancholically at past models and glamourous feuds,
I stay still, sitting at my desk, observing what happens and waiting
for the birth of a fourth protocol and another business revolution.
