Sometimes I feel like he’s responding to Demna at Balenciaga when he doesn’t need to. I could just be projecting these thoughts onto Nicolas though, which is not my intention. Just something I observe.
I like some of the long coats, they’re made well. Other than that, I could never connect with his vision at LV. I hope his own namesake brand is a different vision and idea. Just ready for him to start that brand whenever...
Maybe you are right, maybe he is responding to Demna. I did not think about that but it can make sense that today, he sees him as a fair competitor or at least someone pushing fashion enough for him to use that energy to expand his aesthetic...
After all, Demna is at Balenciaga...A house we know Nicolas revived and Demna’s influence to recent fashion and to way people dress is kinda similar to the way Nicolas influenced the way people dressed for the majority of his career. Add to that the fact that Demna worked for Nicolas at Vuitton...
And in a way, there are some parallels between the two. They have used sportswear as a creative thread even if Nicolas’s interpretation have always been more creative or at least more forward looking. Nicolas did sweaters but in silk and neoprene. He did down jackets with jacquard incrustations. He did boots that turned into trousers...
Nicolas has always been into the 80’s, the clash of silhouettes, fabrics or influences but it’s true that since Demna has made the ugliness mainstream, Nicolas has been on this exploration of ugliness. He said last year that he wanted to do something challenging for the eye.
I definitely think that as a designer it’s more interesting to be in « competition » with what’s new than your contemporaries. Karl’s career is a testament to that. That’s how he survived 6 decades. I don’t think that if in the 90´s he saw YSL, Scherrer or Ungaro as compétition, his career would have been this long.
Suddenly, I like the idea of Nicolas feeding himself with the creative energy of Demna or JWA or whoever. The only designers of his generation that I think still have something to offer to fashion are Elbaz, Tisci and Philo. Slimane and Raf Simons are not designers I would be interested in competing with....
