There Is A "Betting Agreement" Between The Creative Director And The Brand In The Luxury And Fashion Industry.

The luxury fashion industry is in an irregular period of shock, and there seems to be a hidden "gambling agreement" between the creative director and the brand.

The first independent men's wear series after Hedi Slimane's entry to Celine was released on Sunday in Paris men's wear week. However, compared with its debut in Celine, the fashion show did not make much waves.

This is both abnormal and unexpected.

In view of the conservative performance of Hedi Slimane in the first series of last October, people should have realized that this creative creative director who sticks to his style with a stubborn self will not bring works beyond its aesthetic category.

As expected, the new men's wear series is the expansion of men's wear in the middle and small parts of the women's wear series. The style is also consistent with Hedi Slimane's height at Dior Homme and Saint Laurent.

Consumers are becoming less and less tired of social media hotspots.

The frenzy of last October seemed to have drained the enthusiasm of social media, which made little interest in this first men's suit, though this strategy was strategically important.

Launching the first independent men's wear series for Celine is the key step for LVMH's adjustment to the brand strategy of the parent company, which is not only to force the hot men's wear market, but also to target the Saint Laurent of the rival group, which is targeted by the competitors. Behind it is the fierce competition between LVMH and the two luxury giant of the open cloud company.

As early as the debut of the first show in October, insiders pointed out that the new Celine changed the style 180 times, or intended to "take advantage of" Hedi Slimane to win back the original group of people who belonged to him from the Saint Laurent. While many luxury brands engaged in the combination of women and men for the integration of resources, the choice of joining Paris men's clothing week proved this goal.

Massimiliano Nardiello, purchasing director of Antonia boutique in Milan, said in an interview that she chose Celine suit suit and Saint Laurent skirt when ordering, but the two were too similar for buyers to make certain trouble in purchasing.

In the two years after Hedi Slimane left Saint Laurent and turned against the open cloud group, the latter continued the creative style of Hedi Slimane pformation through creative director Anthony Vaccarello, so that the brand still benefits from the commercial success of Hedi Slimane when it is in office.

As the second largest luxury brand of Kai Yun group, the loss of consumers of Saint Laurent will cause irreversible damage to the group.

This statement is not groundless.

According to the latest earnings report, Saint Laurent third quarter sales grew 16.1% to 447 million euros, slower than the second quarter 19.8% and 22.2% growth in the same period last year.

In the period of Hedi Slimane, the growth rate was almost half.

Some people have speculated that the Hedi Slimane's deep fan base in men's wear is also the main reason why LVMH invited him to join. This is equivalent to the bet agreement between LVMH and Hedi Slimane. The group provides unconditional support for Hedi Slimane pformation Celine, while Hedi Slimane is responsible for attacking the city and hunting for men's clothing market.

At present, the men's wear market is a new growth point.

According to data released by market research firm Euromonitor International Europe, the retail sales of global apparel and footwear market increased by 4% to 1 trillion and 700 billion US dollars in 2017.

Men's wear and women's wear increased by 3.7% and 3.3% to 419 billion dollars and 643 billion dollars respectively. Men's clothing outgrew women's clothing.

It is estimated that from 2017 to 2022, men's clothing sales will increase by more than that of women, with a compound annual growth rate of 2%.

After Hedi Slimane's marketing of a series of "cleaning" brands of Celine, especially after two fashion shows, the crux of the problem is whether or not he can regain the cruel problems that once belonged to her fans. Finally, he will implement the new Celine's commercial performance. In other words, everyone's eyes will be put on the new Celine to make money.

Social media opinion is detrimental to Hedi Slimane.

The protests of Celine's loyal fans in October are so vivid that the Hedi Slimane, who has always been mysterious, has spoken for herself.

French journalist Loic Prigent published an e-mail interview to Hedi Slimane in last year's TV program, which first responded to the public opinion controversy after the new Celine series was released. "Public opinion is always harsh, people are always talking about others.

This fashion show was originally relaxed and happy, but nowadays people always question the relaxed things. I experienced this problem in Saint Laurent.

You are dealing with conflicts of interest, factions, attitudes and exaggerated conservatism.

Violence is a reflection of our times, a fanatical spirit of social networking. Although it is a powerful community tool, it no longer has any restrictions and hatred is magnified. "

The impact of social media on brands is becoming more and more profound. The Dolce&Gabbana insult event is the most typical case in the near future. But the luxury industry also knows that the social media users who look up and discuss fashion are often not the same group of consumers who are actually buying luxury goods.

Social media seems to have the destructive power to decide the brand's life and death, and its uncertainty is playing an increasingly important role in stirring up the luxury fashion industry.

But dialectically, business interests are the main driving force.

Just like the Dolce&Gabbana men's show in Milan a week ago, Chinese models and buyers continued to attend. 18 of the 25 Chinese customers invited by the brand Gao Ding series were present at the fashion show.

Therefore, even if the Hedi Slimane series gets more polar differentiation or even negative evaluation, but in the commercial battlefield, the new Celine grab Saint Laurent market share still has great potential.

LVMH Group Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault expressed his appreciation of the new Celine Series in the interview with Loic Prigent. Earlier, he had admitted that she hoped that the Hedi Slimane designer could add up to 3 times the income of Celine in the next five years.

There are more anti sense phenomena in the real luxury market. For example, although freshness is a new currency in the luxury industry, lack of innovation is often a fatal wound for designers. However, a highly consistent design style like Hedi Slimane also effectively meets the seasonal instability of the industry.

At the beginning, the performance of Alessandro Michele was similar to that of Gucci.

Compared with other brands that are distinctly differentiated according to the inspiration of each quarter, although Gucci has set the theme for each series, it has followed a coherent aesthetic system in fashion style, and has not distinguished the theme of each season distinctly.

This is obviously contrary to the common sense that "brand should use different themes to provide consumers with freshness", but it makes the brand compete with the luxury industry's instability and achieves continuous high speed growth over 11 quarters.

In the fashion industry, which is famous for its season and fashion, it can attract fans quickly, but losing its followers is also easy.

Hedi Slimane has cultivated a number of consumers' foundations that are more important and stable than other brands and designers by consolidating the distinct personal style system. These consumers constantly follow the footsteps of Hedi Slimane, which also adds weight to the new Celine force men's wear market.

Not only between LVMH and Hedi Slimane, but now the cooperation between luxury brands and star creative directors is more and more meaningful for gambling.

If the demand for both sides is clear enough, the ultimate goal will be easier to achieve.

The original Dior Homme creative director Kris Van Assche released the first series of Berluti, and Virgil Abloh in Louis Vuitton just released second series is the same reason, "valuation adjustment mechanism" is in the fashion industry fermentation.

The cooperation relationship between Calvin Klein and Raf Simons is broken, or it should also be attributed to the deviation between the expectations of the two sides and the neglect of the invisible paper agreement behind the cooperation.

Calvin Klein has never clarified when paying high salaries to the star creative director. The question is whether Raf Simons is undertaking the task of upgrading the brand image or stimulating the sales of the brand.

At the same time, in fact, more and more luxury brands are abandoning the creative director of the stars, choosing to support designers who are not experienced as creative directors, in fact, they are betting the possibility that these young designers can bring.

Yesterday, Lanvin appointed Bruno Sialelli, a 31 year old former Loewe menswear designer, as creative director.

Before him, Bottega Veneta also handed over the heavy responsibility of reviving the brand to the Daniel Lee, who was only 33 years old, had worked in Celine and other brands, but never officially assumed the post of creative director.

The first show of Bruno Sialelli and Daniel Lee will be unveiled in Paris fashion week February.

Compared with the creative director of highly paid stars, the initial cost of hiring young designers is small. Although they lack experience, they have greater plasticity in the process of gambling.

But this does not mean that the group will be over creative director. After all, the Alessandro Michele promoted from Gucci has gained enough free space in the process of reshaping the brand image.

Of course, whether young creative directors can keep pace with the ambition of luxury oligarchs, and the game between business and design is still the biggest challenge for brands.

In fact, in addition to the luxury brand and creative director, there is a hidden gambling between the brand and the star resources.

Whether stars need to take the flow of the brand or help the brand establish a new image in the Chinese market, only when the two sides have made this clear in the early stage of cooperation, can the logic of brand cooperation be self consistent.

In 2017, Valentino announced that Zhang Yixing was the brand ambassador of China. In August 15th last year, it became the first Asian Pacific spokesperson for Bottega Veneta brand.

In September, Ermenegildo Zegna announced that William Chan was the spokesperson for the global image. Etro announced that Jin Dong was the ambassador of the Greater China brand. In October, Wu Yi Fan became the spokesperson for Louis Vuitton brand.

In January of this year, Berluti announced that Eddie Peng was the brand spokesperson. Fendi announced that Wang Jia was the brand ambassador. BOSS announced that Mark was the spokesperson for the Greater China brand.

Gambling is indeed making the luxury goods develop in the direction of more utilitarian, but it also makes the efficiency of cooperation higher and helps the brand clarify its needs.

In the fierce competition, many brands seem to be doing the same thing, but often only a clear thinking, clear target brand can grasp the future.

Back to Hedi Slimane, although today's creative director can not ignore social media, he has already understood that when he took over the job, his ultimate goal was not to create a happy illusion, but to achieve "some kind of tacit understanding" with the brand.

Facing this increasingly uncertain industry, gambling is becoming a way for LVMH to protect itself regardless of winning or losing.

The only thing to worry about is that Celine has fallen victim to the competition of luxury oligarchs.

Author: Drizzie