The Age Of Star Designers Ends?

"Who is he?"

This is what most people, even insiders, hear about the latest appointments.

Famous fashion designer Marry Ma

After being named Balmain, Trussardi, Pringle and Cacharel brand designers respectively, Olivier Rousteing, Umit Benan, Alistair Carr, and designers from China, Ling and E, recently occupied the headlines of major newspapers.

It is rumoured that the Azzaro brand will also appoint an unknown genius designer to replace Vanessa Seward.

Even after the departure of John Galliano in March this year, red Christian Dior is still under consideration. If we can not dig a new designer from our competitors, we will find an unknown designer instead.

In 2008, Bernard Arnault, the luxury goods giant of LVMH group, which owns Dior, Fendi and Louis Vuitton brands, invited Phoebe Philo to build bricks for Celine. He has always been a famous designer.

In fact, in addition to the opening up for all, Marc Jacobs has joined Louis Vuitton and Alexander McQueen to join Givenchy and Michael Kors to join Celine. The giant has also made some fresh attempts, such as in 2005 invited the unknown Riccardo Riccardo as chief designer.

"The 90s, which is enveloped in a halo, has become a thing of the past.

I think we are in a more deliberate stage. "

Vanessa Denza, founder and owner of Denza, a fashion headhunter in London, concludes.

"I even feel that today's economic oriented world makes people more rational.

They realize that the success of a brand is not so much that it comes from a large design team, but rather from a suitable team.

As far as I know, many big names are very long and cautious about the choice of their chief designer. "

Old designer switch to new designer

Agn s Barret, President of Agent Secret, a creative design headhunter from Paris, believes that fashion needs constant innovation.

"The world is so small that the development of fashion can not rely solely on samsara.

Fortunately, there are many new faces on the international stage that can provide fresh blood for the fashion industry and the brand they serve. "

According to Barret, the withdrawal of Galliano from Dior and the withdrawal of Christophe Decarnin from Balmain means the end of the fashion era.

"Do we have to be famous in this industry to succeed? We just want to fall off the altar in the future."

"In the final analysis, the design director is not a God," she admits.

They are mere mortals, not comparable to the stars of entertainment circles.

Professional headhunters also believe that despite the media influence of new designers, sometimes even a brand can be revival. In this era of new generation, this influence is also weakened by the public's concern about new faces and brand connotation.

"Designer's personality charm is also very important.

We should have enough attraction for the design team and the brand audience to make them a follower of the brand.

Floriane de Saint Pierre, who owns a headhunting consulting firm in Paris, says.

"Perhaps the top-down management is out of date.

What we want is a more inclusive manager. We must have a strong sense of motivation and responsibility for the whole team and the brand. "

De Saint Pierre understands that since the mid 90s, many famous brands have begun to hire unknown designers: first, Guy Laroche has made a brand-new attempt from Geoffrey Beene design company to select Alber Elbaz.

Over the past ten years, such examples have emerged one after another.

Christopher Bailey from Gucci design studio joined Burberry in 2001 as chief designer, while Frida Giannini emerged from a crowd of peers in 2006 and became the creative director of Gucci.

De Saint Pierre believes that it is the trend of the times to hire designers from the design studio to maximize the brand interest.

"When Christopher Bailey, Francisco Costa, Clare Waight Keller, Frida Giannini, the members of the creative team from Tom Ford have established themselves as creative directors of other brands, brands gradually realize the value of these behind the scenes heroes."

Mary Gallagher, the Commissioner from New York Martens & Heads headhunting company Paris branch, agrees with this.

(similar example is: Costa has become the chief designer of Calvin Klein Collection women's wear department, and Waight Keller has also left Chlo and joined Chlo.

"I think brand management thinks that unnamed designers are relatively easy to manage. They cherish the opportunity and do not have many demands like those big designers, at least not at the beginning."

"The brand has realized that the core value of the brand and DNA are more important than the personality and thought-form of the creative director."

She explains, "because ordinary customers are more concerned about the brand itself than the designers behind it."

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