Fashion’s Obsession: Design Continuity
When LS stated two month ago, in a piece entitled Superstar Designers: The End of an Era?, that fashion firms have embarked upon a new trend: design continuity, it was not completly wrong. Today’s events have further proven that this statement was not ‘rubbish’.
But what is designer continuity? In two words, this new trend consists of promoting internal individuals/experts up to creative positions, instead of hiring big personalities from outside the firm. I would call it ‘family inheritance’.
Jessica Michault, online style editor of the International Herald Tribune, has also outlined this emerging trend in her blog. ‘Promoting from within the company’s design studio is fast becoming a more accepted strategy at the high end of the market. Instead of betting on the hiring of a new “name” designer from outside the house to renew interest in a label, [brands] are choosing to pluck new talent from within. Already up to speed on the codes and heritage of the label, these newly appointed leaders have risen up through the ranks and proved themselves before being tapped for the big gig.” The evidence to support this trend is:
On the consumer side, it seems like this trend is ‘something that they have always wanted’.When the news first broke that an unknown assistant from the Balmain atelier, Olivier Rousteing, would be promoted to take the place of Christophe Decarnin, it soon became apparent that so long as the Balmain client desired an evolution (rather than a revolution) of the brand aesthetic, executives had better not shake things up too much. New York Times reports the customer side: “I’m willing to bet that none of my Balmain customers know Decarnin’s name. If the brand continues to give them what they want — status and sex appeal — then they don’t care who the designer is,” said Marcelo Maquieira, the buyer for Ennu in Amsterdam.
Still, that is not to say that certain brands at certain points in their lifespan don’t require marquee names – or indeed a complete facelift. In its ongoing search for a replacement for John Galliano, Christian Dior is just one such a brand. Pundits who include Bill Gaytten, a designer who worked under Galliano since the 1980s, in the shortlist of serious contenders may be going a step too far. After all, there are brands and then there are superbrands. And superbrands tend to have an affinity for superstars.
