Pascal Wants Us To Chill Out For A Sec
Too Much Of A Good Thing
Amidst a rising tide of change in his industry, Pascal Morand, Executive President of the French Fashion Federation or Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode wrote an opinion piece recently calling out,
“..at a certain point the idea of being ‘consumer-driven’ undermines the kind of ‘creative push’ approach that leads to genuine innovation.”
The tone was laced with exclusivity. Sometimes the establishment has to remind everyone why they were entrusted with the gate key to begin with. It’s his role to rise up for high fashion and the attributes of exclusivity are a cornerstone, in a great wall defending against the ongoing democratization of global luxury brands.
His timing has good reason. Previous threats to integrity were once just knockoff merchandise and fast fashion retailers. But now his peers are turning on him. Designers and fashion houses are collaborating with the enemy and releasing collections in mass fashion markets with H&M and Uniqlo. His capital city counterpart is now partnered with Amazon for New York Fashion Week Mens, the same retailer who just launched a mid-price private brand of basics and essentials. Then the grandaddy of French fashion houses Hermes, fell into bed with computer products company, Apple.
But recent events have been entirely divisive, with titans of industry and art, Burberry, Tom Ford, and upstart Vetements shifting their focus to a B2C model. By aligning creative and development to a retail calendar, they are effectively seceding from the B2B establishment and the flagship machine of Fashion Week shows.
Pascal sees this trend toward inclusivity, customer-facing orientation, and democratic co-creating as “too much of a good thing!” as if all this hand holding was just a wicked vice. I wonder though if his vested interest includes his own role, possibly diminished, in a fragmented industry.
His argument folds into a compact trifecta: 1) a potential dilution of desire and quality of product, 2) siding with the prevailing preference of designers and creatives and 3) the always revealing position that, it just can’t be done — it’s a matter of physics, he says.
Sigh.
These arguments are getting old. And the desperation from the establishment is palpable. His peers know this and there is enough evidence to the contrary that key notables have moved on.
The direct to consumer or B2C migration is a testament to the impact of digital disruption. And who can really blame those that follow. Apple is the newest luxury fashion player and stealing wallet share while the establishment gruffs its displeasure. Stay in the B2B lane or not, the designer-consumer relationship is inescapable with many points of synchronicity.
Perhaps Pascal has just missed this trend, somehow lost fashion’s strength of foresight and forgone the intuition of early adoption. Or perhaps he is just unable to meet the challenge and innovate in a crowd of innovators. He does sounds weak from the fight.
Whatever the reason, Pascal is right about this — there will always be brilliant (yes, brilliant) and influential designers whose creativity and point of view requires distance from the consumer. One that gives zero fucks and will create an ass-up chair in their image and then put it into a fitting room for the same consumer. Everybody happy now?
