Can Gucci Frida Giannini Become The Next Maria Grazia Chiuri?

Advocating respectability and reputation.

In the industry, the creative directors of those midfield players, no matter what brilliance they have created, will inevitably be labeled "embarrassed" when leaving office.

But fortunately, because of its rapid metabolism, the fashion industry also keeps the drama coming back.

According to the world clothing and shoe net, we left in 2015.

In the past four years, the former creative director Frida Giannini has faded from the public view, but recently she told Italy Daily's "Il Sole 24 Ore" that she was ready to return to the fashion world. "I should return to fashion and hope to be more attractive than Gucci.

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It is reported that she has submitted several quotations, and has also given up some luxury brand appointments, but has not disclosed more details.

This is not a common comeback.

The most important point is that Frida Giannini changed its mind in half a year.

In September last year, the New York Times produced a special topic entitled "life after T". Interviews with creative directors such as former Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz and Bouchra Jarrar, former Oscar de la Renta, Peter Peter, former director of creative execution director, former director of creative creative director, etc.

Most of these creative directors have been working madly for 20 years, and suddenly have more time to enjoy life, while doing some small creative cooperation projects. They generally reflect that life has become happier and broadened since leaving the large commercial brand.

Frida Giannini is no exception. In the interview, she said that after leaving office, she started small cooperation in fashion and high jewellery in addition to focusing on her family.

She retire behind the scenes, usually writing clearly in the agreement to ensure that her name is not mentioned in the cooperation project.

At the same time, she worked with her old family Gucci in charitable work. In 2017, she became a member of the "save the children" board and went to Jordan and Syria for field visits and fundraising activities.

She emphasized that it was a full-time job and enjoyed much satisfaction.

"I don't want to say bad things about the fashion industry. I have memorable experiences and meet excellent people, but now I am quite different from what I was four years ago. There are more and more DJ in the industry, but fewer and fewer designers. I don't know if I can become a part of the world."

Obviously, in September last year, Frida Giannini, which had little interest in formally returning to the fashion industry, now has a 180 turn in its attitude.

Despite the fact that after leaving office, Gucci and her old family have made a lot of charitable cooperation, but the "hope to be able to join the brand more attractive than Gucci" this targeted rhetoric still inspires many imagination in the industry. At present, Gucci is in the ascendant, and has been fighting the LV status step by step.

In the interview, in addition to hoping to "return to the countryside", there are also creative directors who are looking forward to returning to the mainstream. For example, in a turbulent Lanvin, they want to continue to run their own brand Bouchra Jarrar for a short stay. But for Frida Giannini, her return may be more difficult than other creative directors.

In fact, when everyone was immersed in the new Gucci Carnival created by creative director Alessandro Michele, Frida Giannini and her husband, Gucci original CEO Patrizio di Marco were both "expelled" plots almost completely overrun by the stalled industry rhythm, becoming the old allusion of the previous era.

In mid December 2014, Gucci's parent company Kai Yun group abruptly dismissed Patrizio di Marco and Frida Giannini. CEO and creative director almost quit at the same time, creating the biggest personnel shock in the fashion industry.

Earlier, Frida Giannini also clarified the resignation rumors to the outside world, but less than half a year later, she left, even more than a month earlier than expected. She was scheduled to quit in 2015 after the autumn series was released in Milan in February 25, 2015. However, she rushed out of office in early January and failed to conclude the Gucci 2015 autumn winter men's fashion show in January 29th.

Dramatist, Patrizio di Marco gave a speech to Gucci employees before leaving, and sent a 3000 word statement, saying that his resignation was forced. "Leaving my sacred place and leaving an unfinished career is against my will".

He also said that the opponents inside Gucci had plotted their own downfall behind the scenes, or because they could not bear to see him with Frida Giannini.

However, the departure of CEO and creative director at Gucci is not the first time.

In the middle of 90s, creative director Tom Ford and CEO Domenico de Sole jointly rescued Gucci, so that the brand realized a textbook reversal. In the ten years from 1994 to 2004, sales increased from the initial 200 million US dollars to 3 billion US dollars.

In 1999, LVMH and Kai Yun group's predecessor PPR carried out a protracted war for Gucci.

At that time, LVMH took advantage of regulatory loopholes and spent 1 billion 400 million US dollars in a short span of 20 days to acquire Gucci 34.4%'s stake.

In this case, Gucci proposed to buy LVMH completely, but was rejected by the latter because Bernard Arnault wanted to control Gucci at the lowest cost.

Surprisingly, after being rejected by LVMH, Gucci decided to expand its shares and sell 42% of the total share capital to $3 billion for PPR.

After the expansion, PPR became the largest shareholder of Gucci, while LVMH's share in Gucci was diluted from 34% to 20%.

Moreover, Gucci also reached a strategic agreement with PPR to ensure the independence of Gucci and continue to develop multi brand strategy.

Gucci's move angered LVMH.

Bernard Arnault filed a lawsuit against the Holland court. The court held that Gucci was acting unfairly, but did not decide to cancel the paction between Gucci group and PPR.

LVMH appealed to the Supreme Court of Holland.

After repeated consultations, LVMH group finally agreed to pfer the shares of Gucci group to PPR in 2001.

So PPR finally bought the Gucci group at a price of 8 billion US dollars.

But shortly after the change of ownership, the internal power struggle forced Tom Ford to leave with Domenico de Sole in 2004, and the two later created Tom Ford's namesake brand.

Gucci appointed Mark Lee as chairman and CEO of Gucci, the brand creative direction is three, Alessandra Facchinetti is responsible for women's clothing, John Ray is responsible for men's wear and Frida Giannini is responsible for the proportion of income is very important accessories.

After two short seasons, Alessandra Facchinetti and John Ray quit their jobs. In March 2005, Frida Giannini was entrusted with heavy responsibilities.

When people define Gucci Tom Ford for a long time, the Frida Giannini from inside is facing unprecedented pressure to start the new Gucci era.

Frida Giannini, who was born in Rome in 1972, joined Fendi in 1997 and later served as the head of accessories.

In 2002, after a brief talk with Tom Ford, she entered Gucci as the director of handbag design.

After taking over as the creative director, despite the tremendous pressure to break through the Tom Ford, she soon set up an aesthetic style that embodies both the Italian style and the working woman's ability. She also takes rock music as a long-term inspiration.

Its design perspective from independent women soon updated the stereotype of Gucci in the era of Tom Ford.

In 2009, Patrizio di Marco joined Gucci from Gucci sister brand Bottega Veneta.

He tried to reduce the use of iconic double G logo, narrow the product range, reintroduce classic style with luxurious materials, and push the brand into a more high-end market.

In the same year, Frida Giannini and Patrizio di Marco became lovers.

However, as time went on, the creative direction of Frida Giannini's initial harvest began to become blurred, and internal management was also chaotic.

In 2011, Robert Polet, who succeeded Mark Lee as president and CEO of Gucci from 2008, also stepped down because of the failure to save Gucci, and Patrizio di Marco took over.

At the same time, PPR group CEO Fran ois-Henri Pinault took over the brand personally and made a major reorganization, changing its group of Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen and other brands into luxury business department.

In 2013, PPR Group officially changed its name to Kai Yun group.

Frequent turbulence brings negative feedback to sales data. In the same year when Gucci dismissals the pair, only Gucci sales of the three core luxury brands declined compared with the previous year, and recorded a decline of 2% to 3 billion 490 million euros.

In the third quarter of 2014, the brand sales fell 1.6% to 851 million euros, while the second quarter fell 5.7%, and sales fell 3.2% in the first quarter.

In 2014, Gucci arrived at the most dangerous moment. In January 1st of the following year, Bottega Veneta's performance hero Marco Bizzarri was in danger and joined Gucci's new CEO.

At that time, Gucci had completely lost patience. The source said the brand shortened the purpose of Frida Giannini contract at that time, and the main purpose was to determine the future direction of brand creation as soon as possible.

After Marco Bizzarri came to power, the designer promoted Alessandro Michele as the brand creative director. The creative director then used the idea of attracting young people to drive the brand to achieve 11 consecutive quarters of growth in business myths.

Patrizio di Marco was later introduced to Dolce&Gabbana, and currently serves as the chairman of the board of Italy fashion brand Golden Goose Deluxe Brand.

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In an article entitled "watch out for Frida Giannini to leave Gucci to tell us something", New York Times fashion director Vanessa Friedman believes that fashion design began to become fashionable in reality, including Nicolas Ghesqui re re, Hedi Slimane, Raf Raf and so on.

At the beginning, relying on the work women's image to subvert the Tom Ford, the Frida Giannini, which was set up by Bermuda shorts and other daily costumes, should be one of the initiator of this trend. But it gradually fell behind in the course of time, and became consumers' "no longer related". Apart from the logo elements such as bamboo bags, the brand did not tell more substantive content, perhaps the reason why Frida Giannini was out of the dark.

However, this is obviously not the crux of the problem.

The famous angle director James Scully refutes the view of Vanessa Friedman articles on The Daily Front Row. The main idea is that people do not need to clean for Frida Giannini. The Gucci designed by her is not bad, but boring, like herself, there is no attraction.

He thinks fashion is about desire, and it is an independent world. If people can't trust the world created by designers, they will not buy their clothes.

Beautiful clothes are not enough. The core of creativity is to create the whole world around products and stimulate consumers' wishes.

From the market strategy, Reuters also summarized the reasons for the failure of Gucci in the Frida Giannini era.

The first is the lack of innovation. Apart from articles on bamboo bags, there is no breakthrough innovation. The second is that the price rises too high, rising more than 40% in 4 to 5 years, and there is a deviation in market positioning.

Other analysts believe that between 2010 and 2012, Patrizio di Marco and Frida Giannini were the first people to upgrade the market of handbags. But in the past two years, although the demand for luxury has been further enhanced, the clothing series has not been able to keep pace with the progress, which in turn has affected the performance of handbags.

Just as Raf Simons and Calvin Klein broke up recently, the separation of Frida Giannini and Patrizio di Marco and Gucci has become a very critical time node in the history of fashion business.

Without the end of this chapter, the luxury reshuffle and the fashion industry's big reshuffle will not happen after the Gucci as a fuse.

After the internal integration and turbulence, Gucci finally opened up with a new type of firepower, represented by Alessandro Michele "new ideas", and Marco Bizzarri jointly created the "new management" for the creative director's loose space and generous marketing support, and jointly created the second wave leap growth since 90s.

Reviewing the development process of luxury brands, the display or limitation of individual strength is often proved to be a specific manifestation of the macro trend of the industry.

If we can not get rid of the timing factor, it will be difficult for us to decide whether Frida Giannini is capable of mediocrity or bad luck.

After all, the Frida Giannini, which converge with the millennial era, has witnessed the great upheaval in the era of democratization in the bright era of fashion industry from the helm brand for ten years, and the industry has few creative directors, like Karl Lagerfeld, who remain unafraid of changes.

The success or failure of the creative director is closely related to the internal management structure, the industry structure and the timing of the brand.

In the case of Raf Simons, the creative director with high quality word of mouth often suffered from "failure". People's standards of good and bad have changed. Compared to history, people seem to be more inclined to see what happens in the future.

Luca Solca, director of luxury banking at Paris bank, said, "the departure of managers is a natural law, and the brand will continue to exist."

As a result, the uncertain fashion industry now provides an opportunity for the return of Frida Giannini.

Of course, Frida Giannini is clearly aware that the fashion industry after four years is a completely different new world.

If four years ago, she could not create a "desire world" that attracted consumers enough for Gucci, then four years later, when "desire" was magnified by social media and became a currency of circulation, Frida Giannini was faced with a new reality that the order was completely subverted.

This is a time when social media opinion leaders cross border fashion, not the age of professional designers, or even the era of star creative directors.

Cruelly, the most deadly is not mediocre design, but mediocre personality.

The fashion industry has always welcomed the odd character of Alessandro Michele. As Frida Giannini has grown up in the design team, it is most urgent to get rid of the mediocre label.

What is more curious is that since Frida Giannini is clearly aware of the current situation, what kind of position will make her intentionally re entering the WTO? This adds more suspense to her next move.

Under the new competition pattern, there is analysis or even speculation that Frida Giannini's sudden change of mind may be related to LVMH, a rival of Kai Yun group.

This year's 47 year old Frida Giannini may be able to refer to the development path of Maria Grazia Chiuri, now the creative director of the 55 year old Dior. The two are not only rare female creative directors, but also good at accessory design.

The latter succeeded Raf Simons as the creative director in 2016, and had worked for Valentino for 17 years.

Over the past two years, Maria Grazia Chiuri has brought new vitality and feminism to Dior through its series of youthful innovations through its daughter's inspiration. Despite its partial controversy over its design style, excellent sales data have gradually stabilized the position of chief creative officer.

This seems to indicate that late blooming does not mean a conservative attitude. Compared with mediocrity, the fashion industry even welcomes a daring breakthrough.

In the talent saturated fashion industry, if the creative directors who are out of the midfield and unwilling to retire, if they fail to bring the latest ideas of keeping pace with the times, there will be no doubt that they will lose the last chance.

So can Frida Giannini become the next Maria Grazia Chiuri?

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