Last week, during Milan Fashion Week, the creator Demna quietly descended via Monte Napoléone, the luxury shopping artery of the city. He went ahead of Balenciaga, the brand for which he was artistic director from October 2015 to March this year, without stopping. Instead, he dodged the flagship of Gucci, where his first collection for the brand was hung on the racks.
After starting his collection with a first splashing short film last Tuesday, the clothes were available for buyers the next day by appointment. Kering, Gucci’s parent company, does not have time to waste. In July, he declared a 25% drop in Gucci sales in the second quarter and a 15% drop in business as a whole. Demna needs to sell things quickly.
At the store, he wore new Gucci moccasins, but seemed to be dressed in Balenciaga, as well as the members of his team, who stood out like Goth in a gold of G -Room. Some buyers have recognized it and asked for a selfie. But a lot in the room – even those who travel his work, which was displayed in his own section of the store with a brown carpet, velvet curtains and darker lighting – did not realize that they were in the presence of his designer. He stayed to check things, then left.
It was a perfect snapshot of the state of luxury purchases today, which is in the middle of a historical upheaval, aesthetically and economically. Some customers, worried to make a premature investment, do not hold on the purchase until dust sets in. The day of Jil Sander’s show, the Label Milan lighthouse, which was filled with work by its previous artistic directors, was almost empty. Others do not know or just don’t care.
Diane Golan and Jane Kilcullen, two buyers from the United States, left the Gucci store on Wednesday without knowing that they had bought something by Sabato de Sarno, the previous artistic director of the label, who only lasted a few seasons. But that wouldn’t have affected their decision anyway. “We are too old to be swept away in all of this,” said Golan.
Other customers were more concerned. “I don’t like the style of Balenciaga,” said Vanessa Pineda, a city buyer of Los Angeles to see a friend’s fashion show. “Everything is so bulky.” She had spent three hours at the Gucci store that day and bought so much by M. de Sarno that she had to have her delivered to her hotel.
The shopping friend of Ms. Pineda, Peta Takai, who “shopped” in her Instagram biography, was not worried about investing in Sarno parts, especially those which she considered “timeless”, as a fur trench. “For me, it’s going to be a classic piece,” she said.
“Well, it’s better, because it’s expensive!” She added. She decided to file a deposit and make a final decision after seeing the DEMNA collection the next day.
After shopping in Gucci, Ms. Pineda and Ms. Takai visited Chanel nearby. “I have the impression that it is always solid,” said Ms. Pineda. She did not think that the beginnings of Matthieu Blazy, which will take place during Paris Fashion Week, would be as radical as that of Demna. A Chanel bag will always be a Chanel bag. A Bottega Veneta bag will always be a Bottega Veneta bag.
“Gucci will be gucci by Demna, and he is so different from Sabato that some people may not like him,” said Jose Luis Rhodes, who works in fashion and was in the city of London. He compared the move when Hedi Slimane went to Celine, and it was “exactly the same thing as Saint Laurent”.
As a “obsessive” Loewe himself, Mr. Rhodes made it possible to buy anything at the Loewe store until his new designers, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, formerly of Proenza Schouler, made their debut. Instead, he was shopping at JW Anderson, the homonymous label of former Loewe designer Jonathan Anderson.
With Mr. Rhodes was his colleague Fanny Goldsmith, who had recently bought a Chloé bag and was nervous about investment. “I do not know where this brand will be within the framework of the new goalkeeper,” she said. “It seems super relevant at the moment, but in three months, everyone will say:” Oh yes, the old of Chloé, and the aesthetics of Demna is the exciting new? “‘“His bank account could not follow.
“I don’t really care that it is The new, coolest thing, but I don’t want to look completely out of words, “she continued.” And it is not as if it was one of the thousand other bags of creators that I have. I must actually use it.
When Ms. Pineda and Mrs. Takai returned to Gucci on Thursday, they ended up buying even more, including all the horse accessories they could find. Ms. Pineda obtained shoes and a red coat from the new collection. Ms. Takai obtained the dressed skirt from Gwyneth Paltrow logo brought for the Gucci Fashion Week Milan event, but not matching shoes because it was “a little too much,” she said. Besides, she added, she “couldn’t really enter it.”
That night, Mrs. Pineda wore her new red coat, which has Gucci gold logos for the buttons on the city. “People were like”Wow. ‘”
The next day, she returned a 3 million dollars of $ 3 million. “I didn’t buy it, of course,” she said.
Ms. Takai finally obtained the mantle.
