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LEECHEUNG
Here Comes The Era of the Cult of Designer (Editor Lee Cheung Layout Lee Cheung Photo Vogue.com)
Just a few weeks ago, I visited the Metropolitan Museum in New York. There is an exhibition called Manus x Machina which displays the handmade and the machine-made in the creation of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear by different fashion houses. Unexpectedly, I found that people not only appreciate the garments and the big names, but also paying attention to the designers. For example, Raf Simons for Christian Dior, Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga and etc. This is an interesting phenomenon and I am amazed about it. I believe here comes the era which the cult of the designer is more relevant than ever. On one hand, since more and more young customers, especially our millennial generation, now are showing great interests in luxury and fashion world. What they care is design- oriented clothing, not brand-matter anymore. For example, they like Gucci (which was not fashion at all a few years ago from their perspectives) because of the vintage vibes created by Alessandro Michele; They love Balenciaga 2016 F/W ready to wear because of the oversize looks designed by Vetements' Demna Gvasalia; In recent ten years, this cult of designer also can be witnessed from the collaborations with fast fashion brands.
Take H&M as an instance, from Karl Lagerfeld in 2004 to Alexander Wang in 2014, people line up overnight and all these designer collaborations sold out in minutes. On the other hand, unlike the era of Christian Dior and Chanel, nowadays fashion houses which controlled by conglomerate companies change designers a lot due to the contracts problems or other different reasons. As a result, the asthetic would change correspondingly because of designers’ personal preference. I went to Marc Jacobs opening ceremony a few years ago while Marc Jacobs was still the creative director for Louis Vuitton. Some similarity can be apparently found in the collection for Louis Vuitton (check more on my Instagram: realcheunglee). People who like Marc Jacobs may probably fall in love with Louis Vuitton when he was the creative director for Louis Vuitton. This is like if I’m a fan of Taylor Swift, though I started loving her country music, I would love her pop music as well (hahaha...not funny...). Another best example is Hedi Slimane for Saint Laurent. When he became the creative director for Yves Saint Laurent, Yves Saint Laurent was not “Yves Saint Laurent” anymore. It became Saint Laurent Paris and the design was so different, but its unisex and rebelling design fascinates a lot of youngsters and celebrities.
H&M Collaboration collection with Alexander Wang
However, people like the Hedi Slimane era. They even complain his left. Indeed, I believe people go crazy like that. Similarly, we can not imagine how Chanel would be if Karl Lagerfeld left. For me, if Raf Simons goes to Calvin Klein, that probably would become my favorite brand. (Editor by Lee Cheung)
Gucci(left), Balenciaga(middle), Saint Laurent(right) 2016 Fall/Winter Ready to Wear