Pierpaolo Piccioli - Designer, Creative Director of Balenciaga

[TurkicMongol]

Pierpaolo, look at your thread! People talk about everything but your work at Balenciaga. Maybe it is time to have your daughter pull a Rachele Regini for the brand.

 

[PDFSD]

Yes; but that´s what how they were selling secondary lines in the 90s (same halo for less money). Now is same halo for the same amount of money of primary line...so it has lost the point. Miu-Miu has become basically into Prada 2.

It is both sides of her: the grown up serious version Prada and Miu Miu the adolescent rebel version she wished to be more often ..even if i agree they want Miu Miu to be know for its own DNA its still from one person Maria Bianchi aka Miuccia Prada this has never gone away.

Honestly is great concept to do a second brand your younger soul and older self separated expressions its also in the name the concept
one could argue miu miu was in her before and she did things some miu miu things in Prada till she could feel free to express her miu miu side more profoundly.

 

[jeanclaude]

I'll actually argue that Miu Miu hasn't been positioned as Prada's diffusion line for 20 years. Since they moved the shows to Paris in 2006, they've been trying to market Miu Miu as a standalone brand. Even Miuccia herself claims that she'll have collections be redesigned in the weeks between Prada and Miu Miu's shows to keep them distinct.

Yes, that´s true. Miu-Miu being a cheaper Prada line was only during the late 90s.

 

[Cocteau Stone]

But it was already the case before no?
I mean the diffusion lines were made at first to appeal to a younger generation, essentially mine. They were at lower prices but the rythmn of production was essentially the same as the businesses grew.

Dolce & Gabbana discontinuing or rather merging D&G and the mainline all together made sense. In terms of price point, D&G was going toe to toe with the mainline.

And let’s not forget that it happened around the crisis and what created even more confusion were the licenses lines of the diffusion lines.

Versace had Versus which was in all fairness only a great brand in the 90’s and when Kane became CD. But they had Versace Collection for the department stores, Versace Jeans Couture. Cavalli had Just Cavalli but also Class Cavalli.
Those diffusion lines created more confusion than the system we have today.

I mean look at Marc Jacobs. The diffusion line became more, much more important than the mainline. And again, they still streamlined some of the business.

I remember that he had Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc, Stinky Rabbit, a bunch of other stuff.

Even Valentino had Red Valentino. The distribution was larger than the mainline but they were clever to close it when the brand started to really have a great success with the mainline.

The problem was that those diffusion lines in many cases were indeed cash-grabs, created as licences in an economy that wasn’t as globalized. Burberry on top of the many lines in the western world had a bunch of lines in Japan if I remember well.
So there were compromises, teams weren’t that involved and things like that.

It’s a real casse-tête to deal with those diffusion lines. See Armani, Versace today.
Diffusion lines are most of the time business decision that may hurt on the long run the creative side and overall the integrity of the brands.

That’s true as well. The diffusions did make for more confusion but it’s interesting when they became more desirable or at least more understandable to the clientele than the mainline. Most of them didn’t need that many diffusions though. Like Marc Jacobs, to have that many it’s no wonder his brand has gone belly up (alongside the introduction then closure of the makeup/beauty side bar fragrances).

There was something complimentary about the younger lines or diffusions that could work today but there’s little know how. That being said, some of these newer designers already seem like diffusions of the more well known brands anyways. There’s little point to them but it’s a shame to see these heritage or longer standing houses lose sight of themselves because they’re trying to do everything at once in the one mainline. And take Versace… if it were just mainline, atelier and Versus they’d certainly look more appealing. But here they are still holding onto Jeans/Jeans Couture.