Designer Labels Going Out Of Fashion?

LENA i've thanked you at the post i made originally . you really are ' spot-on' ! i will take your advice and drink more coffee , regards KIT .

 

I would note that it isn't written by the Observer's fashion-editor Jess Cartner-Morley and also that:

Klein is old and still badly addicted to Vodka and Vallium. I always thought his talent was advertising not clothes anyway.

Tom Ford wasn't forced out of the Gucci/YSL group he chose to leave because they wouldn't meet his conditions.

Givenchy has had a troubled existence since the Marquis Hubert de Givenchy's trademark 'innocence' began to be seen as prissy. Not even Galliano could fully restore it to the position it used to hold and the appointment of Boateng is probably a promise of a brighter future rather than a dark omen.

McCartney is not an established designer and never has been among the top designers. Various London based designers described her dresses as 'amateurish' and 'overpriced'. Her London store sold three dresses last week.

If you look at the fall in fortune of all these designers it was bound to happen. Ford is too much of an egotist to stay at Gucci/YSl, Stella is too rubbish to make a deep impact, Klein is too old and drugged-up to remain in charge of his label, Givenchy is on the up (IMO) anyway and Versace is a relic of eighties.

I would also note that Armani, Dior and D&G have seen a profitable past season and are looking forward to a sucessful year again. Fashion designers come and go but the people who are interested in fashion stay. When Cristobal Balenciaga retired it was similarly predicted that couture would die, instead a young designer called Yves St.Laurent filled the gap...

 

Lena, thanks for posting. Now let me at this so-called journalist.

This article is unfocused and poorly researched. Writer John Alridge is lobbing headlines in his piece and they're not landing on the point he's trying to make.

"So many top stylists have recently either lost their jobs..."

"Stylists?" I thought this was about designers. Assuming that's what Alridge means, who specifically? Does he mean Tom Ford at YSL? If so, I'd hardly call that a job loss. That was about corporate control. Calvin Klein sold his stake and took a back seat. That's not losing a job either. Then he mentions Donna Karan. Look:

"Calvin Klein and Donna Karan have quit their labels."

Then he writes:

"Today, Karan has sold up and Klein has resigned."

Well? Which is it? Ms. Karan is still there but Alridge can't make up his mind.

As for the people "forced to admit...financial trouble," he means Stella McCartney and Donatella Versace. Fine, so Stella McCartney isn't selling. Does this merit the "So many" generalization?

As for Versace he says:

"...while Versace is so hard up that she has abandoned catwalk shows."

Did I drop a tab and imagine the Versace and Versus S/S 04 shows in Milan several weeks ago? I think Alridge is talking about Atelier Versace's one show this past summer during Paris Haute Couture Week that featured two models, plus presentations. But according to him, this means Versace doesn't do shows anymore. Suspect reporting.

He quotes Elle's (UK) Sarah Bailey as saying, "It's been the liveliest time anyone can remember" and "It's worrying for some but it's also really, really exciting." Yet Alridge would rather focus on the minority "some" and ignore the rest of Bailey's observations.

Alrigde writes that "Only Giorgio Armani, a few months off his 70th birthday, is soldiering on more energetically than ever. However it's recently been reported in WWD that Armani would be open to investors as well. So much for Alridge's theory that selling part of your company must mean you're in trouble.

After another tangential involving the merits of having celebrities show up at fashion shows, Alridge ends his piece with:

"One thing observers do agree on is that changing times will create fresh opportunities for new, young designers, many of them British. London-based Christopher Bailey, currently at Burberry, Hussein Chalayan, now at Asprey and Luella Bartley, Roland Mouret and Jonathan Saunders are among those tipped for big new jobs. Rose Marie Bravo may check out of Burberry and into a new role. Further afield, John Paul Gaultier, currently at French house Hermès, is rumoured to be in the running to take over from Ford at Yves St Laurent, while the Dutch duo, Viktor and Rolf are linked with a new post each week."

So basically, and contrary to his entire article including the title, designer labels are certainly not going out of fashion.

After 9/11, SARS and the stated war in Iraq, we're seeing a resurgence in luxury spending. This news article would have us believe it's all in shambles.

 

PRINCE OF CATS and ATELIER make highly relevant points with which i would not presume to argue. however , the reason that i found the article to be interesting,the journalist being ill informed or not being a side issue . was there not a sub-text to the article - that of 'CHANGE' ? are we not at a watershed with all the ' moves ' hither and thither ? the mid 90's brought a radical sea-change with tom ford's 70's revival collection together with the provocative radical aesthetic of helmut lang and his followers . are we now on the brink of something ' NEW ' ? perhaps the journalist was jumping on a bandwagon and rehashing old ' news ' but i do feel that the article left us with an interesting point to ponder imho . KIT

 

Exactly. As kit also mentions, it does raise issues for discussion. That's the important part.

 

Very exiting news I'm very happyt o see fashion movinga way from mass power suepr popualre celeb driven albels.

I aprticulalry live this quote

'With the departure of some big names, we will see a return to individuality. We're heading back to a more emotional era when smaller-scale designers do something they believe in and find out whether there is a market for it later. In this mini revolution what will matter will be the clothes, not the people who design them or the celebrities who wear them.'

 

Thanks for the article Lena. It was an interesting read. I couldn't agree more with Caryn Franklin.

"Now the big labels are opting for a homogenised, sanitised vision of style that they flog off the back of celebrities,' she says. 'A celebrity such as Victoria Beckham simply accrues wealth for herself and the designers whose clothes she wears. It's obscene, overblown lifestyle, not fashion. I think - I hope - that the recent changes reflect a cultural distaste for celebrity excess".

 

I enjoyed reading the article!Thanks for posting it!!I can't wait for the day when clothes will be worn for themselves and not because some top celebrity happened to be wearing it!!

 

As nice as it may sound about individuality and smaller,independent designers,I don't think think this celebrity obsession is going to end anytime soon. As the WGSN editor was saying,"its just warming up".

 

Always fashionable!

 

absolutely :

fashion NEEDS to move away from this. celebrity ego is hardly fashion. the whole ' look at me, i wear _____'( fill in the blank ) is misguiding . people think fashion is a useless world and a tool of the wealthy, when in fact it is expression( among other). Fashion Needs to re-estblish itself with the public and spread expression, indiduality, and message.(i mean fashion in the purest sense. ) im so bored with celebrity. let the clothes shine in the spotlight- and leave the greedy face in the dark.

 

I believe that Armani muttered something about not using celebrities in his catwalks...

 

I'm still half way through reading this and this is why I think people are moving away from big-name lables..

One because fashion is now going through individualism. People no longer want to look right-of-the-runway, people want to make looks their own.

Second because the times now are hard. Not much people can afford Gucci or Versace.

.. and lastly people don't want look thatw as on everybody - on celebs, over photographed on the runway and advertising - they want something unique and new.

Thanks for this, Lena!

 

PrinceOfCats

Atelier

I agree!
And when he said that about Versace giving up show, i almost closed the page. this journalist is full of crap! And I don't know who this guy is and what his thing is with Stella but she was never "up there" and she isn't good enough to be (IMO)! He does lead everyone on to believe designer labels are in shambles. I just think that ppl are now changing and understanding that wearing a designer name is about the designer's tastes, styles and individuality. Let your clothing be an expression of you and what you like. For a while it's been about wearing the most popular name and how much you spent for it! Maybe now they will go back to saying 'i wore this dress because it screams "whatever their name is"' and not b/c it screams Versace or Gucci! ya know?

 

After smaller presentations, today's Women's Wear Daily reports that Atelier Versace's full HC runway show is back. The girls will take to the catwalk on January 19.

Lena, didn't Donatella stage down-sized presentations but not actually skip HC Week?

 

If advertising is a good indicator then YSL, Dior and Gaultier are selling well! I've seen that flippin' Gaultier Classique advert at least twenty times this week...