Where Is The Hero When The Definition And Method Of Luxury Brands Are Constantly Being Overturned?

If a fashion designer chooses a designer who can better represent the industry's "universal vision", this person will probably be Kim Jones instead of Virgil Abloh.

For a long time, Kim Jones was regarded as an excellent designer with almost no defects, but his excellent balance of fashion and Commerce failed to attract enough attention from the industry.

In the past year of industrial upheaval, people have tried to clarify the logic of thousands of clues, but such an attempt is not easy. When fixed prerequisites are subverted, more uncertainty is placed before people.

However, with the completion of the new round of creative directors' shuffling in the whole industry, people feel vaguely that the adaptability and executive power of KimJones in the new environment may provide new reference and possibility for the industry trend.

This week, KimJones and his team took a trip to China.

It has been 15 years since the art director visited China for the first time in 2003. The last time he came to Shanghai was a few years ago. At present, the dramatic change of China's luxury market can no longer be described as a cycle. When KimJones receives new information in the increasingly active Chinese market, the fashion headline also takes the industry's common questions and seeks answers in the conversation with Kim Jones.

"If I hadn't left LV, the industry would not have changed so much, but these were benign changes, and brought a lot of fresh feelings and topics to everyone," KimJones said at the end of the interview.

In a sense, KimJones is the first Domino dominoes, triggering a series of linkage effects, and thus becoming an incision to enable people to see more clearly the changes in the industry through him.

If a fashion designer chooses a designer who can better represent the industry's "universal vision", this person will probably be Kim Jones instead of Virgil Abloh.

For a long time, Kim Jones was regarded as an excellent designer with almost no defects, but his excellent balance of fashion and Commerce failed to attract enough attention from the industry.

In the past year of industrial upheaval, people have tried to clarify the logic of thousands of clues, but such an attempt is not easy. When fixed prerequisites are subverted, more uncertainty is placed before people.

However, with the completion of the new round of creative directors' shuffling in the whole industry, people feel vaguely that the adaptability and executive power of KimJones in the new environment may provide new reference and possibility for the industry trend.

This week, KimJones and his team took a trip to China.

It has been 15 years since the art director visited China for the first time in 2003. The last time he came to Shanghai was a few years ago. At present, the dramatic change of China's luxury market can no longer be described as a cycle. When KimJones receives new information in the increasingly active Chinese market, the fashion headline also takes the industry's common questions and seeks answers in the conversation with Kim Jones.

"If I hadn't left LV, the industry would not have changed so much, but these were benign changes, and brought a lot of fresh feelings and topics to everyone," KimJones said at the end of the interview.

In a sense, KimJones is the first Domino dominoes, triggering a series of linkage effects, and thus becoming an incision to enable people to see more clearly the changes in the industry through him.

In fact, the word "change" is the most accurate generalization of the pulse of the times. It permeates every aspect of the luxury fashion industry, whether it is the market structure, the role of the art director, the creative production mode, the audience, or the media form.

As we all know, the dispute between LVMH and the luxury giant of Gucci's parent company, Kai Yun group, has become hot.

Gucci, which has been leading for 12 consecutive quarters, surged 36.9% to 8 billion 285 million euros in the same period last year. For the first time in history, it entered the 8 billion euro club.

And LVMH boss BernardArnault earlier in the annual earnings call conference revealed that the core brand Louis Vuitton sales amounted to 10 billion euros, which means that Gucci from the LouisVuitton income gap is only 2 billion euros, the record is closest to the industry, the industry estimates that its revenue will exceed 10 billion euros this year, which undoubtedly aroused the vigilance of LVMH.

DIOR, another core luxury brand of LVMH, has also been provoked by Gucci.

In May and September last year, Gucci moved to France and Paris from Italy, respectively, to issue 2019 early spring series, and released the 2019 spring summer series on the official schedule of Paris fashion week, officially firing the war on the LVMH base of rival DIOR parent company.

Subsequently, DIOR announced that the 2019 spring and summer fashion week in Paris would advance to the same day, or LVMH's response to the frequent provocation of Kai Yun group.

Under the leadership of Maria GraziaChiuri, the DIOR women's dress that is becoming younger is being accepted and loved by more and more millennial consumers, and the value of the brand has been further improved.

In the latest global brand 500 report 2018 released by BrandFinance, the UK brand value consultancy, Dior has been on the list for the first time, attracting industry attention.

Since LVMH paid DIOR fashion department in 6 billion 500 million euros in 2017, DIOR original CEO Sidney Toledano has been promoted to Chief Executive of group fashion leather Department, Fendi original CEO Pietro Beccari has joined DIOR, and the group is trying to endow the new growth vitality.

After finishing the pformation of DIOR women's clothing, LVMH turned to the men's department with the same growth potential. The sales volume of DIOR fashion department is expected to expand to 3 billion euros in 2020.

In the new market situation, LVMH quickly deployed troops.

In January 2018, Kim Jones announced her departure as artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear.

After the last fashion show of the supermodel NaomiCampbell and KateMoss, it ended the 7 years of cooperation with the brand, and joined DIOR, another core brand of the same group, as the artistic director of menswear.

The founder and creative director of Off-White, VirgilAbloh, took over the post of art director of Louis Vuitton men's wear, and the news came to light.

As a synergistic effect, the original DIOR menswear art director Kris vanAssche was pferred to Berluti, and the brand creative director Haider Ackermann finally left.

A series of personnel changes of LVMH announced a new era radically and completely. In addition to the emergence of HediSlimane and other important turning points such as Celine, the luxury industry a year ago was filled with confusion and unrest, and people were eager to find an answer in many uncertainties.

It is noteworthy that in just three shows, Kim Jones has opened an unprecedented new situation for DIORMEN'WEAR.

From the first show in June 2018 to the 2019 early autumn show in Tokyo in December and then to the 2019 autumn winter series released in Paris in January this year, he not only changed the name of DIOR menswear from DIORHOMME to DIOR MEN'WEAR, but also quickly built up a brand new image in ten months, which was different from the low-key and refined in the Hedi Slimane and Kris vanAssche era, and was injected with lightness and relaxation.

Every creative director is eager to open up a new chapter for the brand, but this task is very arduous.

Compared to many designers struggling in the new and old breakpoints of the fashion house, KimJones's pition was unpredictable.

"During LouisVuitton, I have enough experience in how to work in LVMH and to know what to do and what to do.

The past history files of the brand are very complete and wonderful, and there are many talented colleagues, such as the chief marketing officer OlivierBialobos, and the master StephenJones who has been working with the brand from the former DIOR art director John Galliano. They provide a lot of information and support.

This also makes us more efficient. When we discuss what needs to be done, we can start at the same time.

Then someone will point out mistakes or deficiencies, so that you can quickly get on the right track and focus on creation.

But people familiar with KimJones know that the ability to quickly open new situations in a short time depends on his ability to create a brand image consistently and systematically.

At this point, he was obviously influenced by the late designer KarlLagerfeld, whose advantage lies not only in the design itself, but in creating the image and creating the content.

In the June 2018 Kim Jones debut, DIORMEN'WEAR commissioned the American fashion artist KAWS to build huge pink dolls at the show, which designed the iconic honeybee pattern for the brand.

2019 early autumn series, KimJones once again chose to cooperate with artists. The Japanese contemporary artist Kong Shan Ji HajimeSorayama not only collaborated in the design of many single products, but also designed the show device, which made a futuristic female warrior's body sculpture stand in the show center.

2019 autumn and winter series, DIORMEN'WEAR set up a conveyor belt in the center of the dark beauty show, canceled the traditional form of walking show, standing on the conveyor belt by the model to display the new series.

Artist RaymondPettibon collaborated with the series in printing design.

The visual impact brought by the grand landscape installations, the freshness of the artists' cooperation, quickly draw a new brand image from the senses.

"I think last season (2019 autumn and Winter Series) is one of my favorite performances so far.

It is very powerful, and its elegance and advanced customization elements fully demonstrate the image of DIOR today.

In this series, the fine tailored suits are wrapped up in silk, embroidery, nails, and other elements that symbolize the spirit of advanced customization.

But more importantly, the new DIORMEN'WEAR is integrated into the spirit of street spirit in Kim Jones.

KimJones, born in 1972, is the representative of the new generation of designers.

He was born in England, but his experiences in Africa and other places made him interested in multiculturalism.

During the adolescence of Brighton, a seaside city in the UK, KimJones has begun to get in touch with the trend culture in Japan, and has learned the youth culture through magazines like The Face and i-D under the influence of the same elder sister who studied fashion design.

When he was in University in 2001, he was greatly inspired by his first time to see Undercover's clothes at Gimme Five shop in London.

Micheal Koppelman, founder of GimmeFive, is one of Kim Jones's bole. He introduced Bathing Ape, Undercover, Goodenough and Supreme to Britain.

"I started wearing Undercover around 2000, when no one knew what that was.

When I saw Louise Wilson at the central Saint Martin Institute of art, I was still asking me what brand it was wearing.

At that time, he was also in London club, like his friend Alexander Lee McQueen, who received the vigorous influence of subculture at that time.

Over the years, he has not only traveled frequently to Japan, but also established deep friendship with Teng Yuan Hao and other Japanese trend culture Godfathers.

Kim Jones, who was the artistic director of menswear in LouisVuitton, has repeatedly incorporated Japanese themes into men's wear design, drawing on Japanese fabric and garment technology.

Now, looking back, the coexistence of advanced customization and fashion culture in Japanese fashion culture also foreshadowed the future DIOR MEN'WEAR of KimJones.

In early 2017, the joint venture between LouisVuitton and Supreme, led by Kim Jones, caused great shock inside and outside the industry.

For young people wearing early Supreme KimJones, the trend culture has been integrated into the blood, and this generation of designers once again infused the cultural influence into the fashion culture is only a matter of time.

Kim Jones, which has grown up in the new soil, is bound to overturn the old role assumption. From him, people see the change of the creative director's role from the Yves SaintLaurent era's pursuit of the perfect fashion designer to the creative director who focuses on the overall situation.

The difficulty of the new creative director is to control the balance between creativity and business.

Like a new generation of young people, KimJones does not exclude or even welcome commercialization.

"I am very commercial, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and this may be why my series has good sales results from the beginning.

But at the same time, I have strict requirements for design. This balance is very scarce nowadays.

I admire the way KarlLagerfeld works. "

"You can be creative, have ideas, get professional recognition, but if you can't sell it, this mode will not last for a long time."

In his view, Comme des Garcons and RickOwens are a typical example of successfully balancing creativity and business.

The change of the role of creative director brings about changes in creative production mode.

The new creative director is emancipating the specific creative production tasks from his own hands. This not only means more collective creation of the brand team, but also means that the brand will give more creative power to creative talents with different perspectives.

In a sense, Kim Jones has revived the creative way of Dior, the founder of DIOR.

In 1920s, ChristianDior worked in the art gallery and made friends with artists such as Daly and Picasso.

A hundred years later, the tradition of artists' cooperation was re established in DIORMEN'WEAR, but the form of cooperation between fashion and art has changed dramatically.

"In the past, fashion did not attach much importance to artists' cooperation, but now it has completely become a Cultural Carnival, a Cultural Carnival in the context of fashion.

Especially for young people, they may not know who RaymondPettibon, Hajime Sorayama and Kaws are, but they like these works.

From this perspective, artists can bring some fresh feelings to fashion. "

In the traditional form of fashion design and product development, Kim Jones also gathered strength from all sides.

Starting from the first show, the founder of Ambush brand, Korean designer YoonAhn, was hired as the chief designer of jewelry, bringing jewelry design with a very social media theme.

MatthewWilliams, founder of Alyx from Losangeles, brings the logo design to the first series.

At the same time, his team contains more "permanent" creative forces, including Victoire De Castellane, senior jewelry director who works for DIOR for 21 years, and Peter Philips, DIOR design director, who started working in the early days of KimJones.

And Virgil Abloh, Apple Corp chief design officer JonyIve and other friends from different backgrounds bring a diversified perspective.

The luxury brand in the age of social media has become a content field. It includes not only fashion products, but also a series of peripheral contents, including art exhibitions, fashion shows and joint cooperation.

The purpose of cooperation between brands and artists is to continuously expand the brand connotation.

The richer the connotation, the more resonating with the wider spectrum consumers, thus attracting more potential consumers for brands.

The expansion of content makes collective creation more necessary.

From the chain of creative production, the creativity produced by collective production is finally pformed into content and spread in various media forms.

KimJones has long shown great sensitivity to new media.

As early as i-D, The Face and other paper magazines prevailed, KimJones had begun to participate in editing content production. With the development of new media technology, he also pferred to social media platform. "I may be the first designer to use MySpace and Facebook."

He has said in many media interviews that it is obvious that he is proud of his media sensitivity.

"I often receive information from many people on Instagram. Young students will ask interesting questions, and I will be happy to answer their questions.

I think Instagram makes the distance between consumers and designers closer, and it helps me understand them better.

When you publish a lot of things, you actually create common sense. "

He admits that the delicate life displayed on Instagram can be depressing sometimes, but he believes that the whole environment is still healthy. It is very important to share the enthusiasm of a life.

"Recently I have come to realize that it is a great pride to create happiness for others, and it is also a privilege of fashion.

People don't talk enough about creating people's better life. "

KimJones is very clear, whether it is the freshness brought by the fashion of the artists, or the brand image conveyed by social media, or the sense of scarcity conveyed by the advanced custom fashion, it will ultimately affect the minds of the young consumers. The most straightforward thing is to let people feel the enthusiasm through the fashion.

"People like to be a member of a community, whether he likes DIOR or Louis Vuitton.

Many consumers came to DIOR from LouisVuitton, but at the same time they would wear the Virgil Abloh design. I think this is a good thing.

Although the new DIORMEN'WEAR wants to emphasize men's clothing even more than street style, people can choose clothes from Supreme, Louis Vuitton, Nike and other different brands, positioning and pricing to mix and match.

The friendliness of young consumer groups is particularly reflected in accessories.

Whether it's a well received male saddle bag, jewelry designed by Yoon Ahn, or Oblique brand printed shoes, KimJones's attention to accessories after taking office, the logic behind it is attracting some young people who have not yet been able to buy clothing and absorb them into the influence of the brand.

Accessory is a unique category, and it can easily change and enhance the whole shape.

So people can save money to buy something that makes people feel different even when they don't have high spending power.

From the perspective of market structure, role of art director, creative production mode, media form and audience, it is not difficult to find that KimJones at every level represents a less radical but more contemporary perspective.

Just like people's attitude towards cooperation between Louis Vuitton and Supreme, from surprise to praise, KimJones's practice seems to be mild evolution, but in fact it is very subversive. It is different from VirgilAbloh's rejection caused by the attitude of the spoiler, but it is more like the power of change bred from the system, which seems to be more acceptable.

In his interview with System magazine, he pointed out directly that "innovation must take place from within DIOR."

In fact, a wider range of changes may also have to emerge from the interior of the fashion industry.

KimJones is undoubtedly "insiders".

Although he accepted the influence of street culture and gradually immersed himself in the fashion industry in London youth culture, he received education from the Central Academy of art of Saint Martin, and gradually climbed to the top of the high fashion system through personal brands, the traditional Dunhill and LouisVuitton of England, and finally gained control of the game.

Virgil Abloh is an outsider.

VirgilAbloh has not entered the market through the growth channel of traditional fashion industry. Its growth has taken advantage of the loopholes in the overall logic of the fashion industry. Through radical paradigm shift, it has broken the pride of high fashion to some extent.

He has made a large number of brands to follow the methodology of "brand explosion, high price and celebrity endorsement", and the use of simple products to achieve the greatest market benefits.

Efficiency is maximized and cost minimized. This is the essence of business.

Globalization has pformed fashion into an important business in a short span of a century. It actually keeps fashion close to the essence of business, but this inevitably leads to dissatisfaction with the authority of the traditional fashion industry.

In fact, the system does not want the balance to be completely broken.

The strength of the system is more likely to be recognized by the system than the outsiders.

This is why the designer who is more likely to carry the general vision of the system is KimJones instead of Virgil Abloh.

The Louis Vuitton of Virgil Abloh and DIORMEN'WEAR of Kim Jones are two different experiments of LVMH on the concept of future luxury goods: let no fashion pack and LouisVuitton represent the new class to do the most radical reform, so that inheriting the spirit of high fashion and representing the DIOR of the traditional aristocracy can solve the core problem.

When KimJones enters the high fashion house, it also means that the modernization of fashion industry has entered the second stage, from leather accessories to the core of high fashion.

Looking back a year from now, many people suddenly realize that KimJones is the key step in the personnel change of LVMH.

KimJones's accession to DIOR is not a matter of seeking the second best, but a truly modernized pformation of fashion brands, and a balance between the new and the old. Kim Jones naturally becomes the unique candidate to dominate this innovation.

The fashion industry can only be changed forever.

When the definition and methods of luxury brands are constantly being subverted, the heroic drama is still on the stage.