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Fashion and Real Life
The Loss of Fashion

Giorgio Armani's unstructured but easily identifiable suits were worn as a badge of success. By popularizing this combination of address book and diary, which implied that its user had people to see and places to go, Smith handed the yuppies their ultimate accessory. His rag-trade-to-riches story has been told many times before, but it's worth briefly repeating here. Born Ralph Lifshitz in 1939, America's most upwardly mobile designer was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants from your Bronx. He got his start in the fashion organization promoting suits at Brooks Brothers, and later on grew to become a wholesaler of ties and gloves in New York's garment district. European luxury brands frequently dwell on their 'heritage' for marketing purposes, using a tradition of craftsmanship as a way of seducing consumers and justifying elevated prices (think of Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Dunhill and Asprey). This was the land of Hollywood, of fantasy for sale. Lauren's shops were movie sets, and his showing campaigns - shot by Bruce Weber - ended up being stills from movies that obtained by no means been built. It's no surprise to learn that Lauren designed the costumes for your film The Amazing Gatsby. In many ways, Lauren was Jay Gatsby - the man who created himself. In fact, with the rise of the supermodel, the media seemed more interested in how the models lived than in the clothes they wore. In addition, the Paris catwalks had lost their relevance in the face of MTV culture and streetwear. The elitist stance once taken by fashion makes began to glimpse stuffy and - horror of horrors - old-fashioned. Kate Moss, in her first incarnation as a grungy teenager, had nothing of the femme fatale about her. Branding played a critical role 'in an era when just about every store in the mall [was] peddling the same styles of clothes'.

The Renewal of Fashion

There is one name you can't escape when you attempt to write a history of fashion branding: Tom Ford. According to Guillaume Erner, 'The Texan turned the style of the brand upside down: previously everything that bore the Gucci name had been brown, soft, and rounded. With him, it became black, hard, and square. Sex, as everyone knows, always sells, and many consumers wanted in. Ford was not the only one giving the rarefied world of fashion a much-needed kick up the rear. Prada, too, understood that the brand message had to be carried right through from advertising to clothing to store. Two decades later, he is president of both Dior and LVMH, with a glittering portfolio of brands that includes Céline, Kenzo, Thomas Pink, Givenchy, Loewe, Fendi, Pucci, Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan - not to mention Louis Vuitton itself. 'Dior now has 310 boutiques around the world, so it can't be described as a luxury brand in the classic sense of the term, which implies exclusive. Galliano didn't arrive at Dior directly: he was first appointed at Givenchy, following the reluctant retirement of the illustrious Hubert de Givenchy.
But it seemed as though he was being groomed for Dior all along; when the Italian designer Gianfranco Ferré left the fashion residence, Galliano was brought in to exchange him.
Rebellious Londoner Alexander McQueen then slid in to the hot seat at Givenchy, additional illustrating Arnault's penchant for shaking up the conservative entire world of French excessive fashion, and reaping a lot of advertising publicity within the procedure.
Arnault would repeat the trick by bringing in hip Big apple designer Marc Jacobs to revamp Louis Vuitton. It was baroque, excessive, warm, rich, flamboyant, brimming over with decadence and sex. It was also completely at odds with the existing image of Dior. It had the effect of a firework display. Even if they could stretch to a handbag or a pair of sunglasses, where did they get the clothes to match? Enter Zara, H&M and Topshop - high-street models employing talented young designers who created enjoyable, fresh creations that wouldn't search out of location for the Paris runways, and ended up sometimes directly impressed by them.

Surviving the Lowpoint

Arnault had been stealthily buying shares in Gucci with the intention of taking over the company. But neither Tom Ford nor Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole liked the idea of being swallowed up by LVMH, where they suspected they would lose control of the brand. In a couple of swift moves, Pinault had created Gucci Group, a potential rival to LVMH. Finally, in the economic dip provoked by the dotcom crash - and almost as if he sensed that he needed to conserve his resources for the difficult period ahead - Arnault gave up the fight. On 10 September 2001, he sold his Gucci shares, allowing his arch-rival François Pinault to take full ownership of the company. We all know what happened the next day. Interesting fact is that, after a dramatic slump, the industry emerged from the disaster in rather better shape than anyone had a right to expect. Fast-forward to 16 October 2003, and a headline in The Guardian: 'Fashion again in fashion as Gucci product sales surge'. Later (23 January 2004), again in The Independent: 'LVMH's luxury defies the downturn'. And it's not just the luxury brands that have weathered the storm. Such is the magnetism of fashion.

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