Is High Fashion Going To Die? Revealing The Truth Of The Change Of Luxury Brand Personnel

Is high fashion going to die?

The more anxious the middle class expresses their identity, the quicker the fashion will be.

Behind the increasingly intensive trend of power, the structural subversion of the fashion system is beginning to take shape.

Even those who do not pay much attention to fashion observers, LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods group, announced that Virgil Abloh, founder of fashion brand Off-White, could be aware of the dramatic evolution of fashion world after being the creative director of Louis Vuitton menswear.

This is clearly not an isolated contingency decision. Combined with LVMH's recent structural adjustment of power, the seemingly unexpected decision is actually the anxiety of the group.

At first, Louis Vuitton, the creative director of the original men's clothing Kim Jones, abruptly announced her resignation in January this year. There are various reasons for this. It is reported that Versace had intentionally invited him to join us.

But now it seems that this is only the first step in the LVMH re layout. The group obviously does not want to lose this creative talent who has taken the Supreme joint series to take the new direction for Louis Vuitton, and has achieved a rare balance in creativity and business.

No one even thought that LVMH would take the lead in the second core brand Dior, both male and female creative directors.

In March 19th, Kris Van Assche, who has been in office for 11 years, abruptly announced her resignation. The position was taken over by Kim Jones, and its first Dior Homme series will be launched in June.

The third step is to win the Virgil Abloh. This controversial move is considered to be the profound change of Louis Vuitton from the symbolic combination of the Supreme series to the trend culture and the radical subversion of the creative production mode of luxury brands.

Virgil Abloh, a non professional, is not necessarily unfamiliar with the collection process of inspiration, sketches, fabrics and colors, and the complete production process of the traditional fashion series, but almost certainly does not recognize this set of processes that are far below the trend in reproducible and productive efficiency.

Copying and embezzlement, a large number of repetitions and arbitrary combinations are the creative ways of Virgil Abloh. Off-White continues the simple and creative process of the fashion brand, packaged into the fashion fashion, becoming the "class" trend brand that first came to Paris fashion week.

Virgil Abloh's ability to adapt to the current "rhythm" is what luxury brands want to absorb.

The picture is Off-White founder Virgil Abloh.

The fashion industry's doubts about Virgil Abloh's ability to innovate have existed for a long time, but many people neglect that its high influence comes from adapting to the current market "rhythm", which is the lack of luxury brands.

The drop of street fashion brands can always bring fresh feelings to consumers, and simple and fast creative production processes just satisfy the greed of the market.

In the traditional fashion world, which is constantly being squeezed by fast rhythm, creative directors often create 6-8 fashion series for the brand every year.

The discussion on the urgent high pressure working environment and the weariness of designers has been in the industry for many years, but what we know is that it is almost impossible for the fashion industry to slow down.

With the rapid pace of production changing, the creative director and the designer of today's work have undergone tremendous changes. From the collection of inspiration data to the actual production of series, they will pfer more and more functions to assistant designers and teams, and how to control their own direction, and how many personal thoughts have long been difficult to define.

In other words, today's creative director is quite different from what people imagined in the Yves Saint Laurent age.

The faster the fashion, the shorter the production process.

In a sense, the creative mode of production represented by Virgil Abloh is the extreme form of the existing creative mode, which seems to indicate the inevitability of Virgil Abloh accepted by the fashion industry, and also the embodiment of paradigm shift that he often talks about.

The paradigm shift he mentioned is less about design itself and more about the creative production mode of the fashion industry.

It is pointed out that fashion is not the same as art, and the creative space of creation is more restricted by social production conditions and business environment. This is the precondition for the evolution of the fashion industry.

According to the latest report of fashion business express, LVMH revealed that its core brand Louis Vuitton currently has a vertical supply chain comparable to the Zara parent Inditex group. Louis Vuitton workshop manager Val RIE Dubois revealed that a handbag can be produced and delivered to stores within two weeks, and the brand's goal is to shorten the delivery cycle to a week.

To this end, Louis Vuitton will add two state-of-the-art workshops, which are scheduled to be put into operation in early 2019.

This again proves the higher demand of luxury brands for rhythm.

From the root, the fast rhythm of fashion comes from the anxiety of middle class consumers.

German sociologist Georg Simmel wrote in the 1904 Fashion. Journal International Quarterly that fashion is driven by imitation and differentiation of these two forces.

The middle class reflects their social status by pursuing the latest trend, and these trends are gradually imitated by the bottom of society.

When the middle class finds it impossible to distinguish itself from the bottom of society, it starts to chase the next trend.

The more anxious the middle class expresses their identity, the quicker the fashion will be.

The picture is Off-White2018 autumn winter series.

The view put forward by Georg Simmel in 1904 is still applicable after 100 years.

It is not the sudden emergence of the millennial generation that has changed fashion, but fashion has always been so.

Nor is it a sudden change in Chinese consumers.

Instead, the global wealth center shifted. No wonder that the millennial generation born in the middle class family has become the promoter of the current structural overturn.

Now, the middle class from Asia has become the core purchasing power of global luxury goods.

According to a report released by Bain early in 2017, China's luxury goods sales reached RMB 142 billion yuan, or about US $22 billion 70 million, up 20% from 2016, the biggest increase since 2011.

Bern Shanghai partner Bruno Lannes said that the reduction of China's market price by the major luxury brands, and the government's encouragement to spend at home, played a key role in the rebound of the luxury market.

Another anonymous luxury brand executive said, "five years ago, China's luxury consumers were 10 years younger than other countries. Now this group is nearly 20 years younger than other countries."

Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke, speaking in an interview with the New York Times, said, "Louis Vuitton is not a top fashion house.

From the middle of the nineteenth Century to the 20s of last century, and to today, the brand is catering to the new expensive class, not the old rich. "

To accept Virgil Abloh is the most direct way to cater to the upstart.

If Louis Vuitton is the foundation of new upbringing catering to its brand genes, then the LVMH group's 70 year old fashion house Dior caters to the old rich class, but things are changing now.

Since Maria Grazia Chiuri took office, the Dior garment series has become the focus of controversy. The first few series of cowboy elements directly expressed their democratization.

The upcoming Kim Jones of Dior Homme has also been an important promoter of the Supreme x Louis Vuitton joint series.

The effect of explosive payment most directly reveals that the main body of the Dior clothing and accessories products is the millennial generation, but it can represent Dior's traditional aesthetic system.

LVMH emphasized earlier in its earnings report that its Dior fashion department, which acquired over $6 billion 500 million last year, has made a significant contribution to the growth of sales.

According to statistics, in the first three quarters of last year, Dior recorded an organic growth of 12%. The Group expects Dior fashion sales to expand to 3 billion euros in 2020.

Last night, Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of Dior women's clothing, moved from Paris to Shanghai, a 2018 year old senior custom ordering spring and summer summer store. It is worth noting that the show is the first time since its establishment in China, the first female fashion show has been released in China. It is also the first large-scale event held in China by Dior CEO CEO Pietro.

Some analysts believe that Dior's rare move is aimed at further narrowing the distance from high-end consumers in China.

The picture shows the Dior 2018 spring summer summer show in Shanghai.

The LVMH group's frequent power changes are also aimed at solving its anxieties about Kai Yun group, which is moving at full speed.

Kai Yun group's Gucci is completely turned over by the help of millennial consumers.

In terms of creativity, Gucci is becoming more and more fashionable rather than extravagant. After the sale of products, the price is increased, and the threshold is higher and its scarcity is highlighted.

In addition to the re layout of the two core brands of Louis Vuitton and Dior, the group has also made intensive adjustments to the second tier brands. According to the latest news, Haider Ackermann has left the post of Berluti creative director of LVMH group.

Some analysts believe that although Haider Ackermann is indisputable in creative talent, Haider Ackermann may not have a subversive effect on the brand for Berluti, whose brand image has been aging.

Insiders believe that the group will pfer Haider Ackermann to other brands.

Obviously, LVMH's patience is getting smaller and smaller.

Earlier, C e line appointed Hedi Slimane to be the creative director, which is considered to be the symbol of LVMH betting C e line as the next super brand and engine of growth.

Even though Hedi Slimane is criticized for its inconsistency with brand aesthetic style, LVMH seems to be more eager to see the future, more business oriented and more eager to establish direct links with the millennial generation of the middle class.

But it is worth noting that the massive street culture invasion and democratization of fashion are not the turning of the bottom culture, but the active use of the culture by the middle class.

Virgil Abloh and Kanye West represent not only the hip-hop culture and trend culture born from the slums, but the middle class's acquisition, reproduction, amplification and consumption of such cultural symbols.

Vetements, regarded as an anti fashion system, did not subvert the system with fresh concepts two years later, and finally became one of the many trends pursued by the middle class.

From the point of view of product pricing, the brand has nothing to do with the real anti fashion consumer group.

Georg Simmel also argues that the top level of society is the most conservative class. What they are most unwilling to see is change. Therefore, their choice is advanced customization, maintaining consistent stability and not changing with the tide.

And when fashion brands begin to embrace new creative production patterns and styles and abandon traditional fashions, a small group of crowds will turn to high-end fashion customization.

Givenchy Hubert de Givenchy, who recently died, said in an interview recently: "fashion is dead, and fashion houses are now only dependent on accessories.

Even the fashion shops in Champs Elysees are in the name of fashion, actually selling handbags.

His death was also considered by many commentaries to be the end of the era of advanced customization.

As early as 2002, Yves Saint Laurent had made an assertion of "advanced".

Dead. "

However, in the contemporary context, fashion, fashion and advanced customization have long represented different meanings.

At some point in the future, people begin to forget high fashion, and high fashion into advanced customization. The latter is a way to maintain class privileges and will not die.

The fashion of fast updating has become a lifestyle that binds stars, music, social networking, click volume and joint names, with clothes as its carrier, but it is fading away from traditional fashions.

Haute Couture will not die, but it will become more and more popular.

Irrelevant.