What kind of “creative director” does the brand need? See trends from 45 designers

For high-end fashion and luxury brands, the existence of a “creative director” (or artistic director) is an important guarantee for the brand to lead (rather than follow) the global fashion trend, inherit and carry forward the brand's unique DNA. At the same time, whether it is a century old, or a rising star, we must carefully balance the weight of creativity and business, so that the brand is both "satisfied" and "speaking", fame and fortune.

The market is changing, the brand's strategy is changing, and its employment is changing. So, what kind of "creative talents" do you need in this era?

We have witnessed 29 designers taking up their posts and being smug; at the same time, 16 designers have separated from the brand and they are seeking another job. By combing the personnel changes in these creative positions, we have summarized the five most recent trends in the use of international brands:

Young trend culture forces fully penetrate the luxury industry

Designers stay, more for short-term sales data

Brand vs designer, the power game is more subtle

Joint cross-border breaks the binding system of "one card one person"

"Young" and "understand", the brand chooses the new keyword of creative director

Young trend culture forces fully penetrate the luxury industry

French luxury brand Louis Vuitton hired Virgil Abloh, the New York street fashion brand Off-White, as the artistic director of menswear, becoming an extremely rare European luxury brand by African-American designers.

As one of the first luxury brands to hit street fashion, Louis Vuitton Chairman and CEO Michael Burke said: “Virgil Abloh has the innate creativity and ability to subvert pop culture, his luxury and proprietary The technical acumen will inject new vitality into the Louis Vuitton menswear."

Whether Virgil Abloh “sucks the eye” after “eye-catching” is waiting for more data. However, Louis Vuitton opened a new men’s flash shop in Tokyo in early 2019. The sales in 48 hours are the same as the Supreme series in 2017. In time, sales are still 30% higher.

However, a long-established luxury brand, how to use a good brand designer, is not easy to pat the head. Louis Vuitton has been actively cooperating with a variety of avant-garde artists for the past ten years. In 2017, it launched a joint series with the New York street brand Supreme. In just one series, it sold more than 100 million Euros.

And Virgil Abloh's predecessor, Kim Jones, after moving to Dior as the men's art director, made the first decision to invite Yoon Ahn, the co-founder of Japanese street brand Ambush, as the jewelry designer for the brand men's wear. Known for interesting style jewelry, such as mini teddy bear silver pendant, gold pin collar, cool high-tech headphones.

As soon as the news of Riccardo Tisci's entry into Burberry was released, the brand's share price rose by 4%. In 2005, Riccardo Tisci took his dark Goth (Gothic Wind) to the bankruptly Givenchy and helped him turn a profit. Burberry chose to work with Riccardo Tisci, perhaps because of the dark and black humor in his Givenchy design style, hoping to add a bit of "rebellious" color to the brand's old gentleman's genes.

Burberry brand CEO Marco Gobbetti said in announcing his appointment: “Riccardo Tisci is one of the most talented designers of our time. His design is modern and elegant, and it combines streetwear with high fashion. This skill is closely related to today's luxury consumers. His participation has increased the confidence of our design team."

Designers stay, more for short-term sales data

In the fashion world, the relationship between the designer's personal style and the brand's business goals has long been a unity of opposites, and contradictions are inevitable. However, in the digital age, the speed of this contradiction is accelerating, and the designer's stay is more about short-term sales data. "Fast-forward and fast-out" has become the norm.

Whether it is Haider Ackermann, Yin Yiqing, Raf Simons, Nathan Jenden, Olivier Lapidus, or Nina-Maria Nitsche, they have been in office for up to two years, and the shortest is only seven months. If you stay together, you don't have to go, maybe you don't have to worry about it, but it also makes the designer's trial and error space smaller and smaller. Ten years of grinding a sword may have become the most extravagant dream.

In today's fast-changing market environment and consumers who are new to the old, "How to continue to innovate, quickly respond?" - become a sharp problem that most brands and designers can't get around.

The running-in cycle between most brands and designers is forced to be greatly shortened, and the way to select and evaluate designers is more direct. More brands have also chosen to move closer to the business model of Tide brand and launch the new version of Drop, such as:

Burberry From October 2018, the brand will release a limited edition of fashion and other new products on the 17th of each month. It will be sold through social platforms such as Instagram, and the total release time is 24 hours.

Moncler CEO Remo Ruffini has said that he hopes the company will launch a new down jacket series every month;

Tod's launched the “Tod's Factory” project, which will release several series every year. In addition to the regular series of one year and two seasons, there will be capsule series and limited series. The creative director of the brand has been vacant for nearly three years. Internal creative team completed;

The collaboration between the French-born French designer Haider Ackermann and the French luxury menswear brand Berluti lasted only a year and a half (three seasons). Haider Ackermann simplifies Berluti's sophisticated and sophisticated menswear style and has received a good response. However, the brand CEO is dissatisfied with the designer's spending too much time and energy on his eponymous brand, failing to deliver on promises, and often absent from the Berluti brand.

Chinese designer Yin Yiqing spent a lot of effort on Paul Poiret, the originator of the Paris Haute Couture, which was just returned. The first series has meticulously restored the original oriental style of the brand and won praise from the industry. The reason for the "flashing off" between the two sides may be that Paul Poire's owner and Korea New World International have other ideas on the future development of the brand, which is inconsistent with Yin Yiqing's design route. According to industry insiders, New World International invests in the Paul Poiret brand, not the designer. In the future, they may want more media exposure, fan support, and significantly increase sales to support the fragrance beauty project. They may also hire a big designer to be the new art director.

The most popular of the last year's breakup story was the Belgian design master Raf Simons and the American brand Calvin Klein.

After leaving Dior, Raf Simons, who joined the American brand Calvin Klein, was initially smug, given full creative freedom and was fully responsible for the design of the men's and women's collections. However, he has not been in charge for two years, and he has been publicly accused by the brand parent company and the CEO of PVH Group that its design is too far-off and the price is too high. The total investment in the new series of Raf Simons is as high as 60 million to 70 million US dollars, but the return is far from expected. In the third quarter of 2018, Calvin Klein's sales increased by only 2% year-on-year. Creative and marketing expenses increased, and EBIT fell 17.4% year-on-year.

In September of this year, Calvin Klein decided to take back some of Raf Simons' rights, including store design, visual merchandising, e-commerce, public relations and communications, and corporate social responsibility, and will no longer report to Raf Simons, but the chief marketing officer. Although the company filed a renewal with Raf Simons, Raf Simons, who was dissatisfied with the weakening of his creative authority, rejected the new contract and the two sides broke up in advance. The entire process is only 28 months.

Brand vs designer, the power game is more subtle

It is worth noting that when Raf Simons left the position of Dior brand women's creative director in October 2015, there was also a source saying that the reason for the departure was that Dior was not willing to delegate power.

The documentary "Dior and I" truly depicts Raf Simons' preparation for the first show after joining Dior. From this, he can deeply feel how a designer who has just entered the classic brand is like a thin ice, how to adapt to the original design team of the brand. How to deal with the brand CEO, when to be strong, and when to compromise, requires a very delicate trade-off.

After Hedi Slimane, the new creative director of LVMH's other brand, Celine, the direct feeling to him was “strong” and even unreasonable. A series of attempts to erase the traces of the past, such as changing the logo and clearing the history of the brand, have attracted a lot of emotional rebounds from many brand fans. In the face of accusations of arrogance, Hedi Slimane once said bluntly: "I join the brand with stories, cultures and personal languages ​​that are different from others, and I must rule out self-improvement."

This kind of strength has attracted a lot of controversy, but it also makes himself and the brand more existential and visible on social media.

The new creative directors often incorporate personal style into the brand's DNA, giving the product, store and fashion show a new look. But for a brand that has been deeply rooted in people's minds, its public image and marketing calibre are unrecognizable because of the arrival of a designer. Then through the spread and fermentation of social media, it usually leads to both positive and negative voices, and even leads to fierce debates. It will make the brand's sensitive nerves more vulnerable.

In the age of social media, the more controversial, the stronger the contrast, the more likely it is to differentiate, the more users can get involved. But are these flows that are considered “tap water” equal to the real market and users?

Star designers who used to call for rain, how much do today's brands rely on them? What can they bring to the brand?

The answer to these questions depends not so much on the individual designer, but on the strategic development and execution capabilities of the brand management.

What's more, today's brands are more popular than ever before: the joint cross-border.

The brand's fire has made many brands realize that joint cross-border is an effective marketing tool, and the joint cross-border, also silently promotes the creation of the brand's own IP, but also subtly breaks the previous brand only tightly tied "The relationship of a creative director." Just in 2018:

Moncler turned to the new Moncler Genius project with the two designers Germattista Valli and Thom Browne, who were responsible for their women's clothing line Gamme Rouge and men's vice line Gamme Bleu, respectively – with Valentino creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli, the founder of the fashion brand Fragment Design Hiroshi Fujiwara and other eight fashion industry famous designers and creative people launched a joint cooperation series;

Burberry announces the launch of the joint series with British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood;

Supreme announced four joint names in October: Levi's, the American classic denim brand, the skateboarding brand Vans, the outdoor brand The North Face, and Hong Kong director John Woo's 1989 film "Blood and Blood";

Uniqlo is more of a “combined harvester”. The partners include: Murakami Takashi, Disney, Marvel, KAWS, Jil Sander, Christophe Lemaire, etc., and successfully built the “cross-border + T-shirt” of its T-shirt product line UT. Commercial sales model for a system

......

"Young" and "understand", the brand chooses the new keyword of creative director

“Young” and “understood” are two important keywords that Lanvin and Bottega Veneta have seen when they explain how to hire a creative director.

In order to revive Lanvin's past glory, China Fosun International Group has become an important part of its revival plan after completing the acquisition of the majority share of the brand. After a thousand elections, it was finalized that Bruno Sialell, who was only 32 years old, filled the vacant position for nearly 10 months.

For the reason for choosing Sialell, Lanvin explained: After repeatedly selecting a number of outstanding designers, Sialelli's contemporary vision of Lanvin, the dynamic and nuanced interpretation and understanding of the brand's overall essence, and the exciting future of the brand. Clearly portrayed and stood out. It is worth noting that Lanvin thinks that the most impressive of his presentations is the interpretation of the younger essence of the brand's heritage.

Daniel Lee, the new creative director of Bottega Veneta, a brand of Kaiyun Group, is also only 32 years old. He has neither a personal brand nor a creative director of any brand. Even his design style is poorly understood. Director: Tomas Maier, a 61-year-old German designer who has worked for the brand for 17 years and has made outstanding contributions, is quite different.

Why did you choose this fledgling designer to take on the task? Bottega Veneta CEO Claus Dietrich Lahrs said: “Daniel Lee has a deep understanding of the brand's current creative and development challenges. He will inject a new and unique creative language for Bottega Veneta, which has been built over the years by the brand. The cornerstone of Hongda continues to lead the brand to greater success."

In addition to Bruno Sialell and Daniel Lee, more and more post-80s designers take on the responsibility of brand creative directors. For example: Louis Vuitton's Virgil Abloh is 38 years old, Carolina Herrera's Wes Gorden is 32 years old, M Missoni's Margherita Missoni Maccapani is 35 years old...

Conclusion:

In this business world full of uncertainty, what forces drive brands and designers, business organizations and creative genius to recognize and trust each other? We believe that it is a strategic vision to judge the situation, a deep understanding of the brand DNA and a cognitive update, but also a courage to "change" and "innovation." Let us look at the performance of these brands in the coming years.