A designer’s personal profile may matter more than their ability to cut a pattern. Is that a good or a bad thing for luxury fashion?
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There’s Americana dream weaver Ralph Lauren, who guest-starred on “Friends.” The debonair don Giorgio Armani, who was the subject of a Martin Scorsese documentary. And the late, ever-recognizable Karl Lagerfeld, who cameoed in “Zoolander” and lent his crisp voice to “Grand Theft Auto” videogames.
But where these designers boosted their profiles from behind the sketchpad, Pharrell Williams, 49, who was last week appointed Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director, enters the atelier as a genuine celebrity already. The songwriter and music producer is a red-carpet fixture and former judge on “The Voice” with a cabinet full of Grammys.
Mr. Williams may be the only candidate for the hotly sought-after job whom my mother not only recognizes, but likes.
His appointment is the culmination of a lengthy reshaping of the role of a creative director at a luxury fashion brand—particularly at Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.
Nigo, the famed Japanese designer and music producer who released an album featuring Tyler, the Creator, A$AP Rocky and Kid Cudi just last year, was appointed chief creative at LVMH’s Kenzo not long ago. Chart-topper Rihanna runs Fenty Beauty also under LVMH’s corporate umbrella. (There was also a Fenty apparel line, though it shuttered in 2021 after two years.)
Pharrell Williams started a streetwear brand alongside famed Japanese designer Nigo in the early aughts. PHOTO: DIMITRIOS KAMBOURISGETTY IMAGES FOR MADE WITH ELASTIC
In a crowded media environment and an uncertain economy, a designer’s personal profile— the number of Instagram posts their collections will generate, their awards-show appearances, their built-in name recognition with consumers from Seoul to San Diego—is as important, if not more so, than their skills at cutting a fine frock.
The creative director job has “evolved away from being a designer,” said Hazel Clark, professor of fashion studies at Parsons School of Design in New York. “This is more of a marketing promotional leadership role for the brand,” she said of the news, noting that Louis Vuitton already has an arsenal of highly trained designers and artisans working in its studio ready to execute Mr. Williams’s vision—whatever it may be. Sewing skills will hardly be a prerequisite for the pop producer.
Top design jobs were once cloistered off, conducted behind the doors of a tulle-filled Parisian studio. “It wasn’t so long ago that when you thought of a designer, they were someone that stayed in the studio, wore a white coat, cut fabric [and] draped on mannequins,” said luxury industry consultant Robert Burke.
In the mid-1990s, a creative sea change rolled in, as Bernard Arnault, CEO of then-burgeoning LVMH, began appointing younger, press-courting designers like Alexander McQueen and John Galliano at Givenchy and Dior, respectively. They dreamed up runway fantasies, but also hogged the limelight by hosting A-list-jammed parties and living nightlives that tabloids circled. The era of the celebrity fashion designer was on.
The concept has exploded in the competitive social-media age. Designers like Marc Jacobs (1.7 million followers) and Olivier Rousteing of Balmain (9.1 million followers) moonlight as aspirational, outfit-posting Instagram influencers—marketing both themselves and the labels they work for.
The pop star Rihanna runs Fenty Beauty, which is also under LVMH’s corporate umbrella. The Fenty apparel line shuttered in 2021.
PHOTO: PASCAL LE SEGRETAINGETTY IMAGES FOR FENTY PUMA
“In this media-saturated age, only hype can grab eyeballs and sell products, despite the fact that until recently, most brands sold their products based on the brand’s heritage, craftsmanship and design quality,” said Andrew Groves, professor of fashion design at the University of Westminster.
Beyond the celebrification of the creative director are mainstream entertainers who have taken a detour into the atelier—with varying degrees of success. In the late 2000s, erstwhile Spice Girl Victoria Beckham started her eponymous fashion label, which continues today. Over the past decade or so Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, made several attempts at runway fashion, often with the backing of Adidas. And in 2006, former child stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen started high-end house the Row, to ongoing acclaim.
For every enduring celeb-tied brand like the Row, there is an epic flameout, such as Lindsay Lohan’s misguided foray in 2009 as the artistic director of French label Emanuel Ungaro. Her chintzy jackets and heart-shaped pasties were critically reviled, and Ms. Lohan was promptly shown the door.
Lindsay Lohan on the runway during her short tenure at Emanuel Ungaro.
PHOTO: PHOTO BY DOMINIQUE CHARRIAUWIREIMAGE
Unlike the “Parent Trap” starlet, Mr. Williams, who will debut his first Louis Vuitton collection in Paris this June, is no apparel-industry neophyte, having started the streetwear brand Billionaire Boys Club (alongside Nigo) and worked with Chanel, Moncler and Louis Vuitton already. Mr. Williams is a wizard at summoning trends, from short suits to that tottering hat.
Perhaps no current-day designer was more prominent than Mr. Williams’s friend Virgil Abloh, who held the same role at Louis Vuitton until his death in November 2021. He was fashion’s everywhere man: DJing at music festivals, collaborating with Evian on a water bottle and taking selfies with fans—all while designing several collections a year. Mr. Abloh and Mr. Williams were creative compatriots, and Mr. Williams is likely someone whom Virgil’s fans are likely to be familiar with, and likely rooting for.
“His taste level is unmatched,” the rapper Pusha T told the Journal on the day Louis Vuitton announced Mr. Williams’s appointment. “His imagination, his creativity. He’s a risk taker...I think the world is about to just revisit the greatness.”
Pusha may be biased—he has been friends with the superproducer for decades—but it was notable that decade-old photos of Pharrell carting Louis Vuitton bags pinged around social media after the news broke. LVMH shares rose Wednesday following the announcement, which came just under a month into the tenure of new Louis Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari. (The more publicity-shy Nicolas Ghesquière has been artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s womenswear since 2013.)
Upgrading little details adds to the air of luxury and therefore can augment the value of the products they display, too.
Still, several independent designers with profiles far lower than Mr. Williams’s, including Martine Rose, Samuel Ross and Grace Wales Bonner, were speculated to be in contention for the job. “For young designers and students, this appointment sends a clear message,” that a conglomerate like LVMH “values celebrity status more than anything else,” said Mr. Groves.
At Kering SA, LVMH’s luxury rival, the traditionalist track prevails. Last month the conglomerate, led by François-Henri Pinault, appointed the little-known Sabato De Sarno, a design-school grad who previously worked at Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino, to be the creative director of Gucci. So green is Mr. De Sarno, that as of Friday he didn’t have a Wikipedia page.
The appointment comes during a tumultuous period. Last Thursday, Kering reported an overall 7% revenue drop over the previous quarter and a 14% sales drop at Gucci in particular.
In November, Alessandro Michele, then-creative director of Gucci and a genuine sartorial celebrity (1.3 million Instagram followers) left the brand.
Around the same time, Gucci’s corporate bedfellow Balenciaga was embroiled in a scandal over advertisements that critics said promoted the sexualization of children. Balencaiga’s creative director Demna, who has rubbed elbows with Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian, apologized and said in a Vogue interview earlier this month that he was going to focus more on the clothes and less on making a splash.
“I think my value as a creative is designing the product and not being a showman,” he said.
Ultimately, these conglomerates are so expansive that there’s room for both celebrity designers and covert ones. “It’s not a black or white situation,” said Mr. Burke, noting that LVMH is also partially backing the new brand from the notoriously press-shy former Celine designer Phoebe Philo. Her hotly anticipated debut is set to arrive in September—just a few months after Mr. Williams takes his first bow.