It is a hypothesis that looks very much like a provocation. It is not ours to make, but we gladly pick it up and relaunch it, because it stimulates important considerations and, above all, because it comes from an authoritative source. In fact, very authoritative. It is Vanessa Friedman, one of the best-known international fashion signatures, as well as Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic of The New York Times. Who, from her X account, touches on it softly and, in summary, asks the question: what if, for Piccioli & Co, there is not a new assignment?
What if, for Piccioli & Co, there is not a new assignment?
Her post reads: “I know everyone is playing fantasy fashion trying to find jobs for Alessandro Michele, Sarah Burton and Pierpaolo Piccioli right now. But you also need to consider the possibility that the trend is towards the younger (cheaper) generation”.
Generational change
In short, Friedman asks an uncomfortable but particularly topical question. Piccioli, Burton, Michele – to take her examples – are now stars with stratospheric salaries. Too much at a time when fashion and luxury are experiencing a phase of retreat, that they have perhaps yet to fully understand. These fashion designers, now ‘differently’ young (they are all over 50 years old) may well have a stylistically lofty vision, but they may have lost that risky freshness that might be needed today to rekindle the fuse of consumption.
And that’s not all: going back in time – say 20/25 years – they would certainly not be the first to no longer find a place (or not want to find one…) once successful multi-year experiences have ended. The first ones that come to mind? Frida Giannini (ex Gucci) and Christopher Bailey (ex Burberry). Make way for young people, then? We will find out in the coming weeks. In the meantime, let’s console ourselves by playing fashion fantasy…
In the photo Imagoeconomica, Pierpaolo Piccioli with actress Kasia Smutniak during the Roma Cinema Fest 2023
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