A Word to the Wise

A Word to the Wise 

Credit Bottega Veneta 

There is a preoccupation of LVMH, Kerring and others obsessed with selling to customers they don't have yet, namely the RAM (you heard it first here! Rich Asian Millennials) they are willing to sacrifice their scapegoats like Tomas Maier. In Classical times goats were traditionally sacrificed before a tragedy.

The focus on the Gen. Y & Z not know for their 'stealth' aesthetic is being targeted not for their own good but because they have £$%E! to spend on signifiers of status and allegiance and haven't quite got the access to tons of pop-culture vintage/pre-loved that the West has mountains of that targets our own youth market.

Witness Gucci's new campaign Pre-Fall 2018 that uses the student-led riots in Paris, 1968, the golden anniversary reference of riot and mayhem against the establishment and boredom, events that look quaint and romantic in comparison and disregard of the heated, crimes of hate that have taken place in the city in more recent years where and when the story is a little more complicated and not so easy to sell.

Golden Years? 1968/2018

Credit Gucci 

That commerce needs new blood (money) and has chosen to rework and repackage some vague, nostalgic view of youthful overspill in recognisable clothes of yesteryear is not as silly and random as it may seem to people not born yesterday.

In the race to meet sales targets and move on and up all bets are off for PCness and appropriateness. The proliferation of all things FRESH, YOUTHFUL, FRESH, NEW, FRESH, CURRENT, FRESH NOW, FRESH, EDGY, FRESH, UP-AND-COMMING, FRESH and FRESH what feels dangerous (edgy and pretty) and safe (locked in the past) all at the same time? What can possibly be fresher than repackaging the West's glorious heyday of counterculture stereotyping and aiming at markets that have an even vaguer idea of it than those that can almost remember it (or are bored of tales of it)?

Gucci: Too Big for Their Own Boots?

Winter corner of Gucci by Accornero scarf 

All change, all change, Frida Giannini, Creative Director of Gucci will leave next February, a month after her partner, Patrizio Di Marco. The news was announced just after the Gucci pre-fall campaign and in time for Christmas. It's sad and unjust that the 8 years of Giannini's steady creative and wearable output is seen as the reason for Gucci's poor bottom line performance of late, whilst the Kering parent company ignores their own plans of world domination through over-expansion and unrealistic shareholder dreams.   

The change initiated a whole garble of identikit news comment on the supposed changing demographics of the average luxury consumer. There is an unhealthy obsession with courting the Chinese, the Arabs, the Russians, the Brazilians or wherever the next untapped average billionaire comes from in the supposed new world order.  No one likes a fawning toady. Where ever people come from they like to be treated as intelligent and sophisticated. Connoisseurs of beautiful and discernibly quality objects are not easily swayed by teen actors swinging the latest whatever gets thrown at her/him, never mind the logo.   Talking abut youth, young consumers have always chosen to shop differently than their parents, do Kering really think teenagers will part with thousands of dollars (or comparable currency) because a new creative director will put on a crazy show six times a year, maybe they will, but it seems positively adolescent to chase a mythical marketing dragon.  The bottom line, changing the creative talent at an established brand is not going improve the dividend if Gucci continue to provide seasonal discount sales and knock-em-out outlet fodder.