Nicolas Ghesquière to Launch LVMH-Financed Fashion Brand

[Lola701]

How much did LVMH launch Lacroix with ?

8 Millions of dollars in 1987 but add to that the investment for the launch of the RTW, the fragrance, the lower priced line…All of that while maintaining the Couture activities. They sold the brand in 2005.

Lacroix was a fantastic designer but sometimes, fantastic designers needs for their own platforms, to evolve in a smaller environment.

I often think about Hervé Leger. He build that big brand and unfortunately he was fired from his own brand. He bounced back, created Herve H. Leroux, had his little operation and worked wonderfully.

 

[philophile]

I hope someday this will became a reality and a dream come true (though a nightmare for my bank account). I honestly don't think there's a bigger waste of talent, than for someone with a true gift to be enslaved by a big fashion conglomerate. Their energy, their vision, and creativity is being sucked out just for the sake of endless profit and so much of it will be dismissed and unknown to the world that it's endlessly sad. No talented designer should be a slave to anyone.

 

[Nimsay]

Yah but we need clothes. The timeframe its on: that is due to actually dressing customers who have needs to be met. If you arent putting out 8 collections a year then youre losing to Chanel who is. Karl started that because he thought Chanel was the only brand who could show that many collections a year. he also thought Chanel needed it to meet their customers expectations. Even I have come to be grateful for the current distribution schedule because it fits my life better.

As far as being a slave goes. It comes down to time management skills really….


Also this label would be owned by LVMH not NG.

 

[Drusilla_]

Hmmmmm. I wonder how it'd work. Like Phoebe?

 

[Lola701]

I hope someday this will became a reality and a dream come true (though a nightmare for my bank account). I honestly don't think there's a bigger waste of talent, than for someone with a true gift to be enslaved by a big fashion conglomerate. Their energy, their vision, and creativity is being sucked out just for the sake of endless profit and so much of it will be dismissed and unknown to the world that it's endlessly sad. No talented designer should be a slave to anyone.

I don’t personally like that narrative of « being a slave » when you are a big designer, working at the higher stage, on a big platform with amazing infrastructures.

Running an independent brand is another job.

I’m not sure NG could be as free at this stage of his life, at a namesake brand as he is at Vuitton for example.

I think that someone like Phoebe launched her own brand because she loves fashion but maybe also simply because she wants to do clothes she loves, that feels close to her life and not about experimenting for example.

At some point, your work became the essence of your aesthetic in a way.

I’m not sure every designer wants to have an independence that looks like CDG for example….It feels very corporate.

We sometimes under-estimate that. Which is a conversation about design and fashion and not so much about branding in a way.

Designing for a big brand has it challenges but also provides a whole lot of comfort today. Karl didn’t like having a brand of his own. And for the brief time he owned his brand, he was quick to sell it to Tommy. And at one point it didn’t served his creative urges so he stopped designing for his brand all together.

When Nicolas starts his own brand, I expect him to keep it as small as possible for a longtime.
I think about someone like Pierre Hardy. I have been a regular customer there for years and they have purposely kept the brand small. Hermes has invested in the brand but their growth has always been very slow. And I think that PH has always been aware that the Balenciaga customer wasn’t his.

He did the crazy shoes, experimented at Balenciaga but his own brand, while playful was never about crazy creativity. The reality is that Balenciaga’s business model could support designing a Lego shoe, selling few units worldwide…Something his own brand couldn’t.

I really think trajectories are different. So the idea of being a slave to corporation is not really that when the corporation is used at your advantage.