Can Gucci Borrow Met Gala To Regain Attention?

Lady Gaga changes 4 shapes in the red carpet joint, Katy Perry incarnated as a chandelier, and Ezra Miller draws 5 stereoscopic eyeballs on the face.

The opening of the annual fashion show MetGala has become the only headline of today's fashion media.

Behind all kinds of bright and beautiful dresses, a secret battle between luxury brands is also quietly unfolding.

MetGala is the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art charity dance. It is a preheated event for the annual exhibition of Metropolitan Museum of Art Fashion Museum. It has been regarded as the gathering place of "VOGUE" magazine advertisers for nearly 20 years, and is responsible for the team led by "fashionable devil devil" Anna Wintour. The theme of this year's exhibition is "Camp:Notes on Fashion", aiming at exploring the different expressions of irony, humor, drama and exaggeration in fashion.

In October last year, curator Andrew Bolton announced the theme of this year. The theme was inspired by the Noteson Camp, published in 1964 by the American commentator Susan Sontag. The article gave 58 definitions of Camp.

She explained that the Camp style is "to exaggerate and achieve dramatic effects, but it is not just a subjective attitude, but a way of looking at things, objectively existing in works of art and human behavior itself."

In general, it is to exaggerate, subvert style and angle to explain the mundane things, and to express it in fashion as an air of style, artifice and even grandiose style.

Compared to the religious theme of 2018, "Camp" gives stars and brands more room to play.

The theme of this year's exhibition of Metropolitan Museum of Art fashion house in New York is "Camp:Notes on Fashion".

After the end of Met Gala, this year's theme exhibition will officially open to the public in May 9th.

Behind a charity banquet, not only is the star's red carpet clothing sponsorship, but also the brand's more behind the scenes wrestling, including the nepotism with VOGUE.

In the critical period of the integration of American and international business in Kangtai Nash group, this year's success or failure of MetGala is particularly important.

Perhaps in order to better respond to this theme, the main sponsor of this MetGala is not only Kangtai Nash group, but also the Italy luxury brand Gucci, which has played the most gorgeous and weird style in recent years. The host of the dinner also chose celebrities who are famous for their exaggerated style, namely, LadyGaga, Harry Styles, Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele and tennis star Serena Williams.

What it means is that, in the first month before MetGala, the luxury brand DIOR, who has been supporting for many years, suddenly said that it would not attend. It was speculated that this was related to Gucci's sponsorship status. At present, the DIOR parent company LVMH and Kai Yun group two are fighting fiercely.

The brands that also exit are Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.

For a while, this Met Gala was filled with some smell of smoke. This year, AnnaWintour's first announcement of the guest list was interpreted as a remedy for the absence of the above brands.

In the earlier report, fashion headlines pointed out that as an activity to raise funds for the Metropolitan Museum of fashion, Met Gala is actually a complete commercial activity. The money spent by the brand and designer in MetGala fundraising activities is not just to show goodwill to the fashion show, but also to enhance the status and influence of the brand in the market.

For this reason, brands and designers often have to pay 200 thousand to 300 thousand dollars for a table sponsorship fee or 35 thousand dollars a ticket, as well as the travel expenses of the invited stars. Gucci, as the main sponsor, still needs to pay for the dinner and exhibition. Although the cost is high, it is still an opportunity for us to regain our attention to Gucci, which is facing a "freshly falling crisis".

Andrew Bolton describes "Camp" as a style without content, and the strangeness, exaggeration, satire and even ridiculous drama complex contained in this culture are all integrated into AlessandroMichele's series of works in the past 4 years.

In fact, since Alessandro Michele became the brand creative director in 2015, it has continuously established a brand new and self-contained aesthetic system for Gucci by means of art. It has some metaphorical animal patterns, gorgeous accessories, ethnic embroidery, tweed suit, and age wide shoulder dress. The seemingly random combination makes Gucci brand full of tension and recognition.

AlessandroMichele said in an interview with System earlier that since the end of 1990s, the whole fashion industry has become more and more product oriented, and creativity has almost disappeared.

To this end, he has incorporated special themes and forms into every series of Gucci. For example, the "Gucci2018" autumn series "surreal" cyberpunk is designed to encourage people to break the traditional shackles, to look at and think from different angles and create new possibilities. The 2019 series released earlier this year, with the help of the theme of "multiple masks", tries to help people reflect on the process of individual remodeling and self creation, which is a manifestation of Camp style.

Just like the Andy Warhol half a century ago, the Gucci under the control of Alessandro Michele has far exceeded the scope of other brands that can be interfered. Even in the YvesSaint Laurent, John Galliano period, DIOR and the once DIOR CHANEL were also no exception.

According to fashion business news, Lyst, the global fashion search platform, released a new report before the MetGala. The "Camp" style, which covers gorgeous elements such as sequins, feathers and wrinkles, is on the rise. Last year, the number of searches for "sequins" on the platform rose by 199%, and the search for feathers increased by 93%.

In the report, Lyst specifically called Gucci "King of Camp". Its data show that after the autumn and winter show of the cyberpunk theme of Gucci in 2018, the number of consumers searching for "GucciHeads" quickly exceeded 1000 times.

Such Gucci naturally becomes the first choice of the red carpet for many guests of this Met Gala.

As the protagonist of the party, AlessandroMichele appeared in a gorgeous rose red satin suit and HarryStyles in black chiffon blouse and high heel. Gucci brand ambassador Li Yuchun chose a set of delicate embroidered Phoenix dresses. The intention is obvious, that is, to further exert influence in China. At present, Li Yuchun has more than 11 million fans in micro-blog.

In addition, Jared Leto, Dakota Johnson and Florence Welch are also attending the Gucci dress. JaredLeto is more like the Gucci 2018 autumn winter show, holding its own simulation head model.

According to the fashion headline data monitoring, only Gucci official Instagram's paste on this MetGala has received more than 800 thousand points.

Because of the theme of Camp, this year's guests have been presenting the Met Gala red carpet in an exaggerated fashion.

Perhaps at Gucci's home, Louis Vuitton looks even more low-key than in previous years. Creative director Nicolas Ghesqui re re and actress EmmaStone set foot on the red carpet, and the two person is modeling the simple retro route.

Despite the absence of DIOR in the same group, the supermodel Gisele Bunchen still opted for the brand's advanced custom pleated skirt.

The supermodel NaomiCampell was present in the Valentino advanced custom dress. The only Chinese male star in the audience was Zhang Yixing, who appeared as the spokesman for the men's clothing in Valentino Greater China.

The most styled reality show star KimKardashian's dress is designed by Thierry Mugler, the designer of Kendall. The dress of Kendall and KylieJenner is provided by last year's most influential media Versace.

At the same time, John Galliano, Alexander Wang, and PrabalGrung, Schiaparallie and other high definition designer brands also appeared on the red carpet.

Among them, the Flamingo elements of Schiaprallie2018 autumn show were placed in the center of New York Metropolitan Museum.

Anna Wintour chose KarlLagerfeld's custom-made CHANEL dress. Recently, hip-hop female singer Rihanna, who had a close relationship with LVMH and appeared on the axis, rarely appeared.

Earlier, it was reported that LVMH plans to work with Rihanna to create a brand new luxury brand.

Needless to say, Rihanna is one of the most popular women on MetGala's red carpet.

With the development of Anna Wintour, Met Gala has truly achieved business success.

According to the analysis, Gucci has become the protagonist of this Met Gala with absolute exposure, and this is also a key opportunity for Gucci to suppress DIOR.

Just a week ago, DIOR, who was absent from Met Gala in Morocco, was built in the ruins of El BadiPalace palace in sixteenth Century. It held the first luxury spring holiday grand show this year. It is also the largest fashion brand released in the past ten years.

Whether it's a ceremonial show or a series of immersive experiences before the show, DIOR has raised the standards of the competition again.

In the next two months, it will be no easy task for Gucci to stand out from the 17 fashion shows that will be held in 11 cities around the world. After all, the competitors are not only Louis Vuitton, but also the luxury brands such as CHANEL and Fendi, which have attracted much attention due to the death of KarlLagerfeld.

After the end of Met Gala, this year's theme exhibition will be officially opened to the public in May 9th and will continue until September 8th.

The 250 exhibits can be traced back to seventeenth Century. The sculptures, paintings and sketches from Louis Xiv and Louis from fifteen to twentieth Century also cover the latest works of designers such as Alexander McQueen, JohnGalliano, Marc Jacobs and Thierry Mugler. They even include Off-White master, LouisVuitton creative director, Virgil Abloh, and street design, and the co chairman, Mr. Tan's creation, is naturally there.

In the introduction and publicity of the "Camp:Notes onFashion" Exhibition on the official website of the Metropolitan Museum, Gucci and Kangtai Nash group were printed on the sponsor's column, which means that the attention of the brand has been extended for 4 months along with the exhibition, which is undoubtedly a "booster" for Gucci, whose performance is gradually showing signs of slowing down.

According to fashion headline data, Gucci will reach a plateau of 8 billion euros in annual revenue after running 12 quarters.

In the first quarter of March 31st, Gucci sales increased by 24.6% to 2 billion 326 million euros, the growth rate slowed sharply compared with 37.9% in the same period last year, and the growth rate also slowed down. The increase in the fourth quarter of last year was 28%.

What is more alarming is that Gucci needs to "revitalize" the US market.

In the first quarter of this year, Gucci's performance in the North American market dragged down the overall growth of the brand. The market growth slowed to 5%, a rare single digit growth and the slowest growth area in the world. Some analysts believe that this may be related to the Gucci new series of black turtleneck sweater "Balaclava".

In the same period, the LouisVuitton fashion and leather goods department, which included the two trump cards of LouisVuitton and DIOR, continued to run faster, with sales surging 20% to 5 billion 110 million euros, an increase of 15% over the same period last year, reaching a 5 year high.

The group stressed that all LouisVuitton and DIOR businesses continued to grow strongly. In February, the brand men and women's autumn and winter fashion show was widely praised.

Since last year, the competitive relationship between Gucci and LVMH luxury brands has been clarified.

First, Gucci parent company Kai Yun group chief executive officer Fran ois-HenriPinault ois-HenriPinault put it on the line to "eliminate" Louis Vuitton. MarcoBizzarri then said in an interview that it would achieve the target of $10 billion of Gucci annual sales as soon as possible.

In June last year, Gucci suddenly announced its show in Paris, which was held on the same day with DIOR, which directly fired the war into the base area of LVMH.

In addition to Gucci, Kai Yun group also fostered the two quasi Gucci of Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, and appointed Daniel, the 33 year old creative director of Celine, another core brand BottegaVeneta of the group. The purpose is to make the second tier brand to contribute more sales to the group while avoiding the risk of Gucci disgrace.

LVMH boss, well versed in the rules of the luxury goods industry, will not let the open cloud group wanton provocation. He once told the foreign media that the competitors such as Kai Yun group had been copying in the past ten years and thought they would not succeed in the BernardArnault interview.

Subsequently, LVMH launched a creative director's shuffling, and the controversial Street trend opinion leader, Off-White founder VirgilAbloh, and her Kim Jones, who are good at giving brand new vitality, were pferred to Dior men's clothing, giving more support to the innovative initiatives of Celine's new creative director HediSlimane, trying to use these three trump cards to fight back to open the cloud.

Entering the 2019, the competition became more intense.

LVMH spent $3 billion 200 million to acquire high-end hotel operator Belmond, then bought a few shares of New York designer brand GabrielaHearst, and sources revealed that LVMH is negotiating with Off-White parent New Guards Group HoldingsS.p.A for acquisitions.

In contrast, the strong growth of Kai Yun group is still dependent on Gucci. The brand officially released the first AlessandroMichele beauty product lipstick series this week, trying to break the current stalemate.

There are signs that the competition for luxury oligarchs has risen to a higher level and the situation will be more and more complicated.

Although the grand occasion of MetGala will be the end of this evening, the dark warfare hidden under the surface will remain stuck. The impact of the exhibition on consumer cognition will take longer to prove.

MetGala will undoubtedly make more people pay attention to the Camp style, and it will be a great benefit to Gucci and many other Italy brands from the cultural level.

It is worth emphasizing that the Internet is the embodiment of Camp culture's spirit of grandiose spirit. Camp is not only a fashion style, but also a projection of current cultural phenomenon and lifestyle. This explains why this year's MetGala red carpet is particularly lively and has gained a high degree of social media attention. After all, behind the dark smoke of luxury brands, everything is for the competition of attention.