Phoebe Philo - Designer

[jeanclaude]

Saw the third edit...and I saw acid-washed denim!! Bye Phoebe!!

 

[LadyJunon]

I'm actually going to disagree with you and say that the clothes have changed quite a bit since her tenure at Celine.

I can definitely see a strong sexual, brutalist undercurrent that wasn't present in her work at Celine. The colour preferences always veer towards neutrals, but the tones used are considerably harsher compared to her mostly soft neutral palettes at Celine. Her silhouettes retain that strong vertical line, but outside of a few coats, everyrthing is cut much closer to the body. We don't really see any billowy coats and dresses here.

I think that what she needs to do is style and shoot the clothes differently.

She's already embraced the moody grit in her designs, so why not bring it into her worldbuilding. The black, sooty grey and leather heavily imply that the Philo woman could be a nightcrawler. Imagine the look with that scarf-coat-thingy paired styled slicked-back hair and a bold red lip being shot in a gritty London alley at midnight. Add the red logo as a nice contrast against the dark colours.

That would stick out a lot next to the very clean, tasteful, polite images of her competitors.

 

[tricotineacetat]

Idk, I find the criticism over her brand being “too old-Celine” tired. Her brand isn’t even a year old yet. If Hedi Slimane had his own namesake brand, the clothes and presentation would be virtually the same as they were at Dior Homme, SL, and Celine. She started Celine from scratch and had multiple covetable hits, so I think it was smart for her to self-reference for her brand. Every designer that worked under Philo referenced their old-Celine work (Blazy, Lee, and Do). Plus, its not really her fault that old-Celine is the foundation of most brands’ aesthetic.

To me, her brand cements the fact that you can give someone the ingredients, but the recipe won’t be the same. I love the most recent edit and I’m so excited to see more.

As I was implying earlier, it comes down to timing, positioning and presentation of her brand. She launched her collection after much delay at a point when the market was overcrowded of brands that are copying her Celine collections for years and all that she did by the time of her launch was to put up an e-commerce with next to no presentation, other than a few lo-fi lookbook photos. Such way of presenting your newly-founded label puts all eyes on the product itself, which happens to be very highly priced, yet relying mainly on the authority of her name, not providing her customer an 'added value' (other than the headache of a seemingly disfunctional return process).

All of these factors don’t really align to a compelling whole and with the times moving on since her departure from Celine, I wonder how much loyalty her customers have when they certainly have build up relations with other brands existing in the niche left behind by her Celine.

I’m sure she still has a few super-devoted fans but I highly doubt people who only marginally followed her before are willing to go through the lengths and buy from her based on how uninviting it is at the present moment.

 

[PDFSD]

She needs to hire Pieter Mulier to bring her in to the 2025 vibez.

 

[philophile]

Idk, I find the criticism over her brand being “too old-Celine” tired. Her brand isn’t even a year old yet. If Hedi Slimane had his own namesake brand, the clothes and presentation would be virtually the same as they were at Dior Homme, SL, and Celine. She started Celine from scratch and had multiple covetable hits, so I think it was smart for her to self-reference for her brand. Every designer that worked under Philo referenced their old-Celine work (Blazy, Lee, and Do). Plus, its not really her fault that old-Celine is the foundation of most brands’ aesthetic.

To me, her brand cements the fact that you can give someone the ingredients, but the recipe won’t be the same. I love the most recent edit and I’m so excited to see more.

I love this part that I've highlighted in bold so much. It's so true!!!! And this is exactly why I disagree with a previous comment from another user on this thread asking why PP doesn't just 'change her aesthetic'. That makes me partly believe that this type of comment can only come from someone who is not a creative (designer, artist, musician, filmmaker, etc). The overall style of what you create is based on personal life experiences, education, background, personal taste, character, sensibilities etc, it doesn't just come out of the blue, since it's a representation of who you are. It's not like a musician like Steve Reich will suddenly change the aesthetics of his music to another like contemporary hip hop, just because he chooses to. It doesn't work that way. Even if she has a million copycats, the advantage is that no one can replicate her creativity, because as much as someone tries to recreate her work, it didn't come from their personal experiences, education, background, personal taste, character nor sensibilities. There's so much more where all that initially came for.

 

[PDFSD]

She needs to hire Pieter Mulier to bring her in to the 2025 vibez.

i was joking,...... of course not lol she is a better creative director then Pieter (not that he is the worst before his fan come for me again )

 

[rowjellies]

Why does this look like it was filmed on a potato

 

[Frida]

 

[donyan]

I’m not sure why but somehow it feels like this whole launch wasn’t as successful as I imagined. It’s a shame as I still love most of what she does but some of the luster seems to have been lost in the last few months. Something about it feels off but I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly

 

[tourbillions]

maybe its successful in its own way, but not exactly the kind that reaches the general consumers/tiktok crowd. Its more niche, iykyk type of launch. Unfortunately, her name doesn't have that much general public familiarity. Hopefully its all a long term plan.

 

[IloveDiorHomme]

I’m not sure why but somehow it feels like this whole launch wasn’t as successful as I imagined. It’s a shame as I still love most of what she does but some of the luster seems to have been lost in the last few months. Something about it feels off but I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly

Because the whole project feels déjà-vu.
It's not bad, ugly, or irrelevant.
But Phoebe's aesthethic became somehow maintstream...and when she joined Céline in 2008, only luxury brands could afford such a refined image, beautiful campaigns with tasteful styling, art direction.
Now Zara do the same kind of campaigns, and sometimes it's even better.

 

[Lola701]

Great for her.
But I think it’s even better that she has retail spaces in Asia.
I wonder h

Because the whole project feels déjà-vu.
It's not bad, ugly, or irrelevant.
But Phoebe's aesthethic became somehow maintstream...and when she joined Céline in 2008, only luxury brands could afford such a refined image, beautiful campaigns with tasteful styling, art direction.
Now Zara do the same kind of campaigns, and sometimes it's even better.

And while it’s her aesthetic, I feel like not having a fashion show doesn’t amplifies the fact that she is claiming back her aesthetic.

And I also think that the part of her work that would feel more forward looking now would be the more « normal size » stuff. Ok we can come back to cigarettes pants, straight pants. We can show a silhouette again in a tasteful way….

 

[Kennnnn]

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Interesting that they've left out China. I wonder if they're preparing a separate launch, or if it's an intentional move to distance the brand from that particular market.

 

[PDFSD]

Interesting that they've left out China. I wonder if they're preparing a separate launch, or if it's an intentional move to distance the brand from that particular market.

China ecom is not easy even for bigger brands logistically to handle and having right partners takes time.
I dont think its a conscious effort to distance from China makes not sense, it can make sense be better prepared to accomodate a big market like that.
but girl needs to be in stores this ecom only is not IT !!!!! even Supreme has stores lol

 

[GivenchyAddict]

So funny that she was whining about expanding e com at Celine yet being so much into it for her own brand. 😂

We want stores, shows, campaigns!

 

[PDFSD]

So funny that she was whining about expanding e com at Celine yet being so much into it for her own brand. 😂

We want stores, shows, campaigns!

the reason for it is she been into the supreme and palace style drops ..... she been visiting offices of her friends/companies prior to coming out with her brand during her research years /months for her brand.

honestly it could work but it needed a momentum that is physical and that people can be part of and see , they acted like a big brand yet being so nich while the world changed as well so much noise etc

i hope next year she switch it up and do things more small yet big

simple presentation few press slow build small drops ......excitement in design language that pushes out side her own celine world phoebe build would help allot ...

Do those big totes in full canvas and sweat shirt that are chic with red phoebe philo logo on them for 800 euro etc bit more pop dirty and punk how she was early years etc

for this you have to give The Row girls credit to build something out of nothing.

they should stop action so corporate at Phoebe and be more like a true start up fashion brand and be out side of the box .

 

[Lola701]

Interesting that they've left out China. I wonder if they're preparing a separate launch, or if it's an intentional move to distance the brand from that particular market.

It’s a wise decision…
I think she needs to figure out things around China and establish herself in the influential markets there (Japan/South Korea) before jumping to China.
China may be a logistic nightmare if not handled well.

Tbh, even if she doesn’t do shows, I think she should at least do trunk shows. I miss when designers were out and about the sell the stuff. And it’s a great way to push people to buy…

 

[style_expert]

I agree, she really does need to put up a show. I'm actually surprised by how soon her buzz has almost completely faded. No one is really talking about her anymore.

Her children seem to have grown up (with her daughter even modeling for Burberry)...one of her arguments has always been to spend more quality time with her family. Now she has regained a little taste for high fashion under her own name and given that this particular project isn't exactly THAT much of a game changing deal, would she be up for a CD role at a big house again?

 

[brandon J pierre]

It's all just so yummy 😋 I can literally just imagine how it feels it's everything the row isn't it has that nice little injection of sex but sex at her own discretion.

 

[90sfan]

I’m not sure why but somehow it feels like this whole launch wasn’t as successful as I imagined. It’s a shame as I still love most of what she does but some of the luster seems to have been lost in the last few months. Something about it feels off but I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly

It sadly feels dated and not interesting. The photos dont help