Spring Is Coming, And Lanvin Is On The Road To Recovery.

French fashion house Lanvin appointed creative director Bruno Sialelli a year later, and released a new series in Paris on Wednesday morning local time. From this Lanvin's effort to restore the status of the world's top luxury goods, we can see signs of progress.

But Lanvin also needs to work hard to achieve revenue growth without paying too much cost, because at present, the brand's profitability is not strong enough.

If it were 10 years ago, it would be easier to achieve that improvement. At that time, the market of multi brand retailing was stronger and the channels of transmission were less. The integration and acquisition of Kering and LVMH were less. At that time, there was no new crowding disease spreading to the world today.

But with the introduction of Sialelli and other design talents under the leadership of new owners and management team, Lanvin persevered and finally achieved the first slow growth in many years.

"This is not a miracle, but we are indeed on the road to recovery," chief executive Jean-Philippe Hecquet pointed out. He joined Lanvin in 2018 to shoulder the challenge of managing the brand. "Rebuilding customer confidence in the brand... It takes time, especially when we are faced with uncertainty for three or four years.

In recent years, the continuous turmoil of Lanvin has been known in the industry. In 2015, Shaw-Lan Wang, a former owner of Lanvin and a Chinese Taiwan businesswoman, unexpectedly dismissed Wang Xiaolan Wang, a longtime designer and favorite designer. Since then, Lanvin will no longer be Elbaz for 14 years, with the commercial success of the brand created by the ingenious design. Lucas Ossendrijver, the brand's menswear designer, left office in 2018, and he worked for the company almost the same as Elbaz.

After witnessing the shuffling of creative talents, Wang Xiaolan finally sold Lanvin to China Fosun Group. In 2018, Fosun bought Lanvin for 120 million euros and said it would add more than 100 million euros to the brand.

As of last year, Fosun fashion group, under the leadership of chairman Cheng Yun, managed to raise at least $100 million by selling a minority stake in its subsidiaries. In an interview with Financial Times, Cheng Yun said the investment was motivated by the need to join "strategic partners" for the board members of the group. Meanwhile, it pointed out that Fosun fashion could receive sufficient funds from its parent company.

Lanvin is one of France's oldest top fashion houses. Hecquet had worked in Sandro and Tag Heuer, so he also joked that he was graduating from "LVMH school". Hecquet is willing to accept the job because he sees the potential of Lanvin recovery and is confident that Fosun's investment commitments can bring the company a turning point.

Sialelli started as a creative director of Lanvin in early 2019 to manage men's wear and women's wear. He had worked in Loewe for about three years before, and was responsible for the design of men's clothing under the leadership of Jonathan Anderson. Lanvin is said to have approached Haider Ackermann and Jacquemus's Simon Porte Jacquemus on the choice of creative director, but the company was unlikely to afford the salaries of these superstar designers at that time.

"Obviously, we are under a lot of pressure and know that the brand has been struggling for years," Sialelli said. "It is a challenge to tap the potential of the brand. But I thought, "I am still young and optimistic. I just want to let go of it."

Sialelli said he was deeply inspired by the history of Lanvin brand, hoping to learn from the brand's children's clothing origin and draw inspiration from childhood nostalgia and laughter.

Compared with the previous Olivier Lapidus, the series of Sialelli design has been more recognized by fashion critics and editors: with the release of different series, the repercussions of the harvest are getting more and more positive. (Lanvin) the information provided by the magazine shows that the magazine reported in 2019 increased by 300% compared with the same period last year, but the advertising expenditure may also increase correspondingly. Sialelli is in charge, but the brand pays more attention to leisure style, which is suitable for everyday wear and reflects his understanding of people's daily dress. This contrasts sharply with the previous designer of the company. Elbaz is famous for its brand name at its prime stage, and Ossendrijver is better at the traditional presentation of men's clothing.

Obviously, Sialelli represents a brand new way, Hecquet said, which has greatly encouraged the company. The company now operates more efficiently and globalized, and employs more staff in the United States and China.

"The former Lanvin is a French enterprise and its brand is also rich in French style. But we have achieved transformation and become a more global thinking company, "Hecquet points out.

Many commentators believe that the first series of Sialelli designed for Lanvin has traces of Loewe, but in the past year, the difference between the two brands has become more pronounced.

Sialelli said: "when I was working at Loewe, I joined Jonathan one year later, and gradually became part of the whole creative process. Now, I joined the new studio to get rid of the influence of past experience completely, which is very difficult. I still need some time to adjust, and it takes time for everyone to discover the evolution of my design. I think the next show will prove it. "

In fact, there are signs that customers are discovering some kind of evolution.

"After years of deficit, earnings have improved," Hecquet said. Sialelli's first series sold only in stores in the summer of 2019. Nevertheless, compared with the autumn and winter of 2019, the retail sales volume of 2020 spring and summer women's clothing also increased by 20% (even if they only sold in stores for several months). In addition, 2020 spring and summer and 2020 fall and winter, men's clothing wholesale orders also increased by 15%.

But at present, Lanvin is still in a state of loss. Hecquet has been emphasizing that it is also a "entrepreneurial mentality". "Because of its small size, we need to be flexible. We certainly do not have such a strong enterprise group, "he said.

He added that because of its small size, Lanvin was able to seize the opportunity quickly last year, such as finding a good location in Soho District of New York, and opening a flash store in six weeks. Similarly, at the end of last year, Lanvin held the 130th anniversary brand exhibition in Shanghai. In the first three months, the brand made the decision to build 130th anniversary capsule series, and finally completed a series of designs in time.

So, what is the driving force of this transformation so far?

Accessories account for a large proportion. Despite the popularity of sports shoes and ballet shoes designed by Elbaz, sales in this category have dropped dramatically in recent years, and accessories are crucial to the growth and stability of luxury brands. The current hot sales include the new Bumper sports shoes, and Hoop and Pencil two ladies handbags. Hecquet's goal is that in the next three to four years, accessories and garments will account for half of the commodity.

The Chinese market is also an important driving force for brand growth, but Lanvin has hardly ever set foot in it before. With the gradual loss of brand profits, Fosun hopes that domestic and foreign sales of Chinese consumers will be able to occupy a larger share of the brand sales and continue to grow. After all, China is the world's largest luxury market. Now Lanvin has entered the Chinese market through the new owner. Other Western brands including Wolford, Tom Tailor, St. John and so on are also turning the profit through the operation of Fosun.

Last year, according to the brand creative vision of Sialelli, Lanvin opened 2 stores and 1 stores in Shanghai and Beijing respectively, and plans to open seven to eight stores in the next three years.

However, as the epidemic continues to spread, there are still many uncertainties in the development of Lanvin in China. As luxury consumers in the country reduce travel and shopping, Lanvin sales will be affected. Hecquet said that Fosun has been actively involved in helping brands monitor the epidemic situation, and the urgent task is to "take care of the Chinese team". "Sure, we communicate every day," he said.

At the same time, in order to embody the design concept of Sialelli, Lanvin also plans to renovate some flagship stores around the world and pay close attention to potential temporary store locations. The brand will set up a temporary concept store in Losangeles this spring. ?

Compared with other well-known luxury brands, Lanvin has only 15 stores, but in view of the continuing plight of the global wholesale market, which is also the US, Lanvin has become more and more important in establishing a direct selling network. Last year, retailers including Net-a-Porter and Nyman Markus (Nieman Marcus) began to re-enter the design of Lanvin, while other retailers were slowly increasing their categories and penetration. For example, Neiman Marcus originally sold only men's accessories. Men's clothing accounted for 40% of Lanvin sales, and the strength of suit design has always been very strong.

Hecquet said his approach to the third party retail partners is not to seek the number of partners to extend horizontally, but to expand cooperation vertically. For example, Lanvin and France's Spring Department Store (Printemps) have a long history of cooperation. Other new partners and reworked online retailers include MyTheresa, Ssense, MatchesFashion and Luisa via Roma.

"We hope to work hand in hand with wholesale partners who can properly convey the spirit of brand," he said.

At the same time, Lanvin is also committed to disseminate brand new practices to the outside world in a streamlined but more eye catching manner. This new approach focuses on fashion shows. This is a major investment, and in order to bring wider impact, Lanvin will start from next season and hold a series of conferences on the integration of men's and women's wear during the fashion week in Paris.

Other marketing highlights include Instagram and other channels of communication. Over the past 4 months, the number of fans of Instagram official accounts has increased by 50 thousand people per month, currently reaching 4 million 100 thousand people. Half of the new fans are below 34 years old, far below the brand audience age of the past. Instagram has also promoted the sales of Lanvin's website. When Hecquet took office as Lanvin CEO, updating the sales channels of Lanvin website is imminent. This is also a priority for Hecquet after taking office.

"In the final analysis, our customers, customers' sense of products and brand is our focus. This is not a problem that can be easily solved, but the achievements we have seen so far are encouraging, "he said. 　　

Translation: Panda translation Tang dust