Everybody will hate me here, but i would love to see Michele at Fendi.
He worked under Karl Lagerfeld and Silvia Venturini Fendi in the late 90's and helped to achieve great results with it's leather goods. I believe he's still on good terms with Silvia. He is even capable of doing Couture. Fendi it's in a dire need of a restart.
Bonus: Arrivederci Kim!
It sounds good actually. One of my favorite Fendi collection is FW2000, which in terms of maximalism and excess can rival with Michele and in his later seasons, Karl was really in that « Forest Fairytail » vibe.
My issue with Michele is still how much is take on the past can be overwhelming. How can it be modern without it looking like straight from the Thrift store.
Because Fendi RTW or Couture under Karl never looked « Passé » (I even loved that infamous controversial First Haute Fourrure collection). But he needs to have a voice in menswear too I think.
A bit off topic, but I would like your thoughts on this video concerning new creative directors and people who judge them:
While I'm getting the overoptimistic toxic positivity that I usually get from most of his videos concerning criticism towards designers, but I want to know if it's just me or something else
I think we were really too spoiled in the 90’s and 00’s because the standards were too high. There was a competitive atmosphere (even before the corporatism of the fashion industry) so behind that idea of getting a seasoned designer was also the idea of someone being confident and aware of his aesthetic.
So, it was expected for a designer’s first collection to set the tone of his tenure. So, while I think the YouTuber is making some points, he is missing the bigger picture. Add to that, the general low standards in the industry today.
Michele’s first collection for Gucci was radical even if it looks more commercial than anything he did before. But Michele was clever because the greatness of his collection was that it was familiar to what people have loved and enjoyed about Gucci under Tom Ford or even Frida but still radical in terms of aesthetic and presentation.
Not every great tenure start with a bang. Karl at Chanel started slow, the same for Balenciaga by NG, Lanvin by Alber. What is interesting about those tenures among others is that they are still about that idea of classicism, of being able to show that you get the house you are entering but that you are confident enough to show your personality. Even someone like Miuccia Prada. Her first collection for Prada in retrospective said it all already but she was building her language in the following seasons.
But I think nowadays, there’s a lack of designers knowing the history of the house (and when I mean history, it goes beyond watching the shows on Vogue.com). You have to know the clientele, everything and on top of that, have a clear vision and a clear goal.
When you look at the work of Ludovic de Saint Sernin or the guy at Nina Ricci, even if we can agree that one succeeded and the other failed, it doesn’t seem like they get it.
