Luxury brands used to like to fill their designer positions with stars who shimmered: Galliano, Tom Ford, Lagerfeld. Today, young, mostly white men from the second row are in charge. Why is this scheme in vogue?
Tom Ford, star designer a. D., recently gave a refreshingly candid interview to the American magazine “GQ”. In it, the Texan not only talked about blowjobs and shaving with the legendary Gucci thong, he also said at one point: “Fashion is a younger man’s game.”
He probably meant that at 62 he was really too old for the circus. On the other hand, his statement couldn’t have been more accurate. With recent new appointments Sabato De Sarno, 39, at Gucci, Seán McGirr, 35, at Alexander McQueen or Matteo Tamburini, 41, at Tod’s, almost all of the designers recently hired by major luxury brands are young and male. Oh yes, by the way, they are still completely white. After the departure of Gabriela Hearst, Chloé is the only woman designing again, Chemena Kamali, who was born in Düsseldorf. However, the position there is traditionally considered a matriarchy, which only Karl Lagerfeld broke once in the 1960s.
Matthieu Blazy (Bottega Veneta)
© REUTERS
How can it be that men continue to dominate in an industry whose most important clientele are women?