Demna Gvasalia - Designer, Creative Director of Gucci

[reese06]

Interesting promotion for Demna. I’ve always enjoyed his work at Balenciaga—he’s consistently delivered desirable products, which is why he’s been so successful. He’s capable of much more than just streetwear, but the question is whether he’ll explore that at Gucci. I don’t think he’ll bring exactly what he did at Balenciaga to Gucci, since Balenciaga has always been about silhouette, and he’s remained true to that even in his streetwear. I think he’ll explore Gucci’s history in a unique way.

He’s definitely a wild card choice, but far from the worst. He knows how to create moments, produce great products that sell, and if you look at his early collections, he can do sexy and edgy very well, it’ll be interesting to see where he takes it.

Also, I can’t take this place seriously when people act like Haider—who couldn’t sustain his own brand or have a successful tenure at a major house—is the ideal choice for another big brand like Tom Ford. Meanwhile, Demna, who has a proven track record, has created commercial and cultural success, and even withstood scandal and turned it around, gets the opposite reaction. It’s a double standard.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

Even though his work for Balenciaga was a commercial success, few designers have had a "wow" moment at the next brand they worked for.

A few examples:
- Nicolas Ghesquière
- Riccardo Tisci
- Daniel Lee
- Alessandro Michele
- Haider Ackermann
- Kim Jones after decent collections at LV
- even John Galliano until his last Margiela collection

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

Interesting promotion for Demna. I’ve always enjoyed his work at Balenciaga—he’s consistently delivered desirable products, which is why he’s been so successful. He’s capable of much more than just streetwear, but the question is whether he’ll explore that at Gucci. I don’t think he’ll bring exactly what he did at Balenciaga to Gucci, since Balenciaga has always been about silhouette, and he’s remained true to that even in his streetwear. I think he’ll explore Gucci’s history in a unique way.

He’s definitely a wild card choice, but far from the worst. He knows how to create moments, produce great products that sell, and if you look at his early collections, he can do sexy and edgy very well, it’ll be interesting to see where he takes it.

Also, I can’t take this place seriously when people act like Haider—who couldn’t sustain his own brand or have a successful tenure at a major house—is the ideal choice for another big brand like Tom Ford. Meanwhile, Demna, who has a proven track record, has created commercial and cultural success, and even withstood scandal and turned it around, gets the opposite reaction. It’s a double standard.

Interesting point of view.
It is undeniable that Demna's Balenciaga has had a huge impact in fashion and it was a commercial success.
In this sense, if we see as a logical step for Jonathan Anderson to move from Loewe to Dior, the same should apply for Demna's internal evolution to Gucci.

General scepticism might come from the fact that very often you couldn't differentiate his proposals for Vetements and Balenciaga (even when he officially left Vetements!)
He has reduced his aesthetic to something very recognizable but also limited, and the impact that had at the beginning has faded.
You cannot say the same about Jonathan.

I was very surprised with the announcement and I am curious to see what Demna does for Gucci.
But he needs to substantially change his proposal in order to succeed.

 

[yslforever]

Thanks for the insight, very good points.

I truely think that was the case of Daniel Lee at Burberry: he did applauded collections, which I personnally disliked, but they got lots of attention, and he offered the company tons of designs and goods to produce and sell.
BUT it was the CEO and C-suit decision to raise the price like crazy and I think, if they would have gone contemporary pricing instead of mega-exclusive luxury pricing, we could have seen lots of silly ducks trousers and bags in the streets (if they were 600 instead of 3 200).
And everybody would have hailed Daniel's tenure as influential and successful.
The failure of Daniel Lee at Burberry is 90% on the CEO.

Same thing at Ferragamo, the 1st runway of Maximilian Davis got people interested by the novelty but immediately prices go higher than Celine RTW and extremely limited and chaotic distribution of his runway pieces and RTW.

It matters how good and desirable are the runway and the CD, but, in the end, if the CEOs and shareholders don't follow, or adapt poorly, there won't be $$ results, and that's out of reach of nearly all creatives.

 

[NYLA22]

I do believe uninterested.
Every reputed or established, available or soon-to-be-available, CD (MGC, Jones, Gallieno, Hedi, PPP, Viard) knows Gucci is a shitshow and that Ancora guy was a second choice.
Coming right now would make them the third choice and not a savior.
Also every one of them know that the CD will be the fall guy, even if factually 90% or more of the financial successes depend on the c-suite : distribution, production, merchandising, advertising budgets, pricing strategy, small accessories, perfumes, beauty, watches, etc etc. All things that have very little connection with the 4/6 collections a year, the runway shows, the set design, the casting…
For instance : Saint-Laurent, AV provides two great shows a year, look books and campaigns, RTW is less than 7% of the revenue. And his own runway creation even less, if you take into consideration the carry-ons and RTW merchandise : denim, tuxedos, leather jackets, shirts and hoodies.

So what’s the point for an established name of going to Gucci if you know full well 90-95% of the financial results will not be yours put 100% of the blame will be put on you ?

Ancora was not an established name so he took the chances, took the money, and took the blame too. Good for him because he had not prior reputation.

Such an interesting analysis, thanks for this. Just curious, I wonder what Kering was willing to offer Demna in terms of compensation. I'm guessing somewhere around $4 million? Blazy reportedly is getting about that much at Chanel, perhaps a bit more.

 

[Creative]

Even though his work for Balenciaga was a commercial success, few designers have had a "wow" moment at the next brand they worked for.

A few examples:
- Nicolas Ghesquière
- Riccardo Tisci
- Daniel Lee
- Alessandro Michele
- Haider Ackermann
- Kim Jones after decent collections at LV
- even John Galliano until his last Margiela collection

This is so true, very good point

I’d add Raf Simons who was not bad at Jil Sander but quite bad at Dior and Calvin

 

[Lola701]

Such an interesting analysis, thanks for this. Just curious, I wonder what Kering was willing to offer Demna in terms of compensation. I'm guessing somewhere around $4 million? Blazy reportedly is getting about that much at Chanel, perhaps a bit more.

More 5,6€ I would say….And with the clauses and advantages (I hope he is draining them), the contract might worth 7M.
They are certainly paying him to move to Milan, they are certainly paying the rent of an apartment and of his travels between Milan to wherever. He is certainly getting a clothing allowance budget (it’s common practice at this point no?). I guess he is taking his husband with him to on payroll.

Blazy can’t be compared. It’s his first contract with Chanel. If he stays 10 years already he will earn a lot more.
Demna was renewed at Balenciaga two times. And now they are moving him to Gucci.

I must say by the way that this whole thing has been very messy. KERING just proved that they aren’t very professional or considerate. Ancora could have stayed. No matter what, his collections generated a certain kind of interest around Gucci.

I don’t know if having 2 collections designed by the studio (FW, Resort) will help their numbers. Sales will continue to decline harder between the announcement and the arrival of Demna’s clothes in stores.

 

[Creative]

More 5,6€ I would say….And with the clauses and advantages (I hope he is draining them), the contract might worth 7M.
They are certainly paying him to move to Milan, they are certainly paying the rent of an apartment and of his travels between Milan to wherever. He is certainly getting a clothing allowance budget (it’s common practice at this point no?). I guess he is taking his husband with him to on payroll.

Blazy can’t be compared. It’s his first contract with Chanel. If he stays 10 years already he will earn a lot more.
Demna was renewed at Balenciaga two times. And now they are moving him to Gucci.

I must say by the way that this whole thing has been very messy. KERING just proved that they aren’t very professional or considerate. Ancora could have stayed. No matter what, his collections generated a certain kind of interest around Gucci.

I don’t know if having 2 collections designed by the studio (FW, Resort) will help their numbers. Sales will continue to decline harder between the announcement and the arrival of Demna’s clothes in stores.

Good point, that’s also what I mentioned in SDS’ thread. I think it would’ve been much much much cleaner if Sabato had been given the opportunity to have a decent goodbye, not rushing to redo a collection in two weeks just cause you are having an assemblée générale… investors were way more shocked by the new appointment than with anything Sabato related.

Now Balenciaga has no CD, same for GUCCI… the Dior / Loewe way has been way more smooth.

I guess it was important to send a message of action, but still, not the right way to do it HR wise and image as I mentioned.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

Imagine how Balenciaga's sales will skyrocket in the next months as fans purchase their collectible items