that’s f*cking depressingI think this is a very interesting conversation. I’ve never seen a talented fashion student, not in private not in public school in around 6 years.
Most of the people I saw had the brain of a chicken. None of them felt a passion for fashion. None of them knew anything about it. They just liked going shopping and getting dressed.
I think with social networks people are more basic and absurd than ever.
I do know a pretty talented guy that didn’t go to a famous school. He tried everything. Hyeres, non paid Interships… he was poor. He never made it.
That guy helped, for money, a student from CSM. The CSM guy had literally zero talent but quite a lot of money. That guy is kinda famous now.
That’s how it works.
Exactly, there is literally no hope. The only way is doing the master at CSM if you want to work in Paris or London or Milan. If you want to work in Paris, la Chambre, and if you are from Italy you can try Marangoni and you for sure will end up in an Italian brand.Despite having worked in the so-called high fashion business for a brief period as a fresh grad, I would always remember that it was such a snobbish and hypocritical environment that I did not even want to finish the internship at that time. But I always know that high fashion business has never meaned to be inclusive so I eventually change my career path without a second thought. Time flies! For me, it has been good to visit the TFS even in the past the memership was not open to everyone.
Depressing, but so true.I think this is a very interesting conversation. I’ve never seen a talented fashion student, not in private not in public school in around 6 years.
Most of the people I saw had the brain of a chicken. None of them felt a passion for fashion. None of them knew anything about it. They just liked going shopping and getting dressed.
I think with social networks people are more basic and absurd than ever.
I do know a pretty talented guy that didn’t go to a famous school. He tried everything. Hyeres, non paid Interships… he was poor. He never made it.
That guy helped, for money, a student from CSM. The CSM guy had literally zero talent but quite a lot of money. That guy is kinda famous now.
That’s how it works.
There is a real need for structure in the creative side. Well there is a structure already but it's a bit ugly, nepotistic and not very meritocratic.I agree, the world is bigger but the problem is that it has added confusions.
Because fashion is more glamorous than ever before (to people), there are a lot of talents. And with the corporatization of fashion, it was about to happen.
I hate sometimes to talk about things with the theory logic because there’s pragmatism and economic realities. And at some point, when you choose all the talents who comes from business schools to handle the business side, there’s maybe a need for some equivalence and balance of ego from the creative side.
The reality was that fashion for a longtime was an industry that people joined through passion or connection. I was a « Nemo baby ». If my grandmother wasn’t a petite main at a fashion house, I would have probably never worked in fashion. I had a passion but I discovered the industry while I was in it…
For me it make sense that the industry is structuring itself. It also make sense that people have career paths that exclude being a Creative Director. Yes, Pharrell is the CD of Louis Vuitton menswear but without the permanent designers, who probably enjoy their job better than if they were CD, it would be impossible.
So, yes, in theory, it would be fabulous if a talented human being would be discovered in the suburbs of Calcutta to become the next CD of Chanel. But it won’t happen. It’s a beautiful fairytale but it won’t happen.
And Schools are doing a good lobby job to attract brands to their schools.
I have 1 nephew and 1 niece who wants to work in fashion. I would never advise them to go to CSM.
This is truly a huge problem.About 10 years ago, I would work as a guest lecturer in a fashion design course at an applied arts university - I noticed at the time that this new crop of students was fully accustomed to sourcing any fashion-related information exclusively online. My suggestion to go into a high fashion boutique in order to took at garments up close, felt like a very daring act to them - Which is what I did when I first got interested in fashion. It was there that I would see designers like Yohji Yamamoto, Alaia, Helmut Lang or Miuccia Prada for the first time, in the mid to late 90ies.
I feel this 'in person' experience was fundamental in shaping my approach to fashion design well beyond clicking through frontal runway shots on a screen. There's a whole lot you don't get to see or feel when you only have a picture or live stream as reference. I also felt this more analogue-driven research, despite being more laborous, gave me a much more thorough knowledge than relying on the convenience of the internet.
That, along with a curiosity of the past, the desire to trace the origins of things I was interested in, naturally lead my interest towards all the historically important eras and couturiers of the past - Grès, Vionnet, Balenciaga etc. - I feel these things matter little to the youngsters of today whose knowledge lets them think of Demna as the intellectual owner of what was generously taken from Margiela. When your heroes can get away with copying or flooding the market with merchandise with little design ambition, how can you expect these kids to develop a broader horizon? They are very much lead to believe that high fashion is an entirely corporate place whereas in the early 2000s it was a lively place for many exciting up-and-coming designers, a promising new discovery to be had almost by the season.
why do you keep ignoring the fact that plenty of new generation designers were given a chance at big houses. But none of them delivered so far only those who are in smaller houses are delivering fresh fashion. That is why even in this forum people would rather recommend seasoned designers for important positions than picking from the crop of new gen designers. ancora guy, mcqueen guy, ludovic, feragamo guy all failed to do anything fresh.But gen z is not even working at the moment, and if they are, they are definitely not taking the decisions. The thing is that it’s (almost) the same people working now than 10 years ago. In terms of designers, what’s new? We still have NG, MGC, Galliano… very mature designers in general. And luxury customers are around 40 years old in almost every brand.
I don’t think it’s a generation problem in this case, to me more it’s more that the business evolved and it’s too big and too corporate now.