Latest news with #Demna
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Magic vs. Logic: Analysts Get Creative and Start to Weigh In on Designer Appointments
Fashion with a capital F has always had its tribes. More from WWD Inside VivaTech: LVMH Spotlights AI and Sustainability at Innovation Awards Shoppers Are Investing in Luxury Handbags Over Stock 'Walking Alongside' American Designer Claire McCardell in New Book There's the design crowd, where aesthetic is king and people ooze with personality. Then there's the more buttoned-up business side that lives and dies by the spreadsheet and ups and downs of the market. Of course, that oversimplifies things and there have always been crossovers who naturally think with both their right and left fashion brains. But the people who really get both the dollars and fashion sense of the industry are rare. Many — most? — people have only a vague understanding of what the other is really up to. So there's a kind of truce that's held, with the fashion folk holding tight to their mood boards and the finance gang following their tickers. But that delicate peace has been rattled. Financial analysts are increasingly weighing in — not just on sales and profit margins or even stores and product, but on the design talent pulling together the vision. They are now more actively picking design winners, not just market share winners. Jonathan Anderson got the thumbs up when he moved to Dior at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. 'Anderson has a strong track record from his time at Loewe — one of the top-performing brands at LVMH's fashion and leather in the past few years,' said Jelena Sokolova at Morningstar. 'It is a positive that he'll be the sole creative director of Dior, where priorly creative director roles for menswear and womenswear were split. This should help Dior create a more consistent brand representation and improve its stance amongst peers.' Likewise, HSBC's Erwan Rambourg, said: 'We remain believers that 'Dior is not the next Gucci.' We trust that with Jonathan Anderson running the creative show there is more poetic positive potential than risk. We expect the brand to rebound starting from Q2 2026.' But true to form, it was Demna who was there right on the edge when Team Design and Team Dollar started to clash more this year. Demna is loved by the fashion crowd, from his conceptualist streetwear at Vetements to his willingness to shake up everything at Balenciaga (even if dancing on the edge meant sometimes falling over it, with kids posing alongside handbags that looked like stuffed bears dressed in bondage). For the analyst types, that controversial, zeitgeist-grabbing approach was fine and good for Balenciaga. But bringing all of that to Gucci — Kering's now underpowered powerhouse — was just too much. 'At this stage, the announcement brings as much risks as opportunities,' said Carole Madjo, an analyst at Barclays, pointing to Demna's 'bold and sometimes controversial aesthetic.' Bernstein's Luca Solca rated the Gucci appointment a five out of 10 and said, 'We are not sure that Demna measures up to the task, nor that he is the right fit for Gucci at the moment, but we understand their risk-minimization strategy: going for the well-known.' Not everyone who understands how to discount a cash flow was up in arms, however. 'Demna leading Gucci should drive commercial, cultural and artistic impact, which could support [long-term] growth,' said Oliver Chen at TD Securities in a research note in March. 'Demna has the potential to be a great leader for the next era of Gucci.' The question is: Who has the right to declare that Demna or Anderson are right or wrong for their new jobs? Wall Street has had its say. Critics and the chattering masses on Instagram will have another chance to weigh in as the designers' first collections hit the runway. And shoppers will get the final word when the looks finally go up for sale. Where you stand might depend on where you sit. Fashionistas want excitement, a chill down the spine, elegance or some aesthetic that will move the great project of design and culture forward. The business side wants dollars and cents and efficiencies, great machines made up of human capital and intellectual property to create the value that everyone along the way taps into to pay for those Hamptons summers. The equity analysts weighing in on design are doing their level best to get their brains around the whole of the enterprise, to understand how it all works to see if it will succeed. 'The framework is, there's magic and logic, but you want some logic that helps support the magic,' said TD Securities' Chen in a follow-up interview. 'For analysts to be good at this, it's slightly a balance of pattern-hunting plus being forward-thinking about change in art and culture and also juxtaposing that with logic around merchandising policies and then making a forecast. 'What analysts try to do is understand the biography of the creative,' Chen said. 'Basically, you look at the past. For me, it's OK, I understand some of Demna's product attitude and I understand what Gucci needs. If anything, the Balenciaga story has been around innovative experience and excitement. 'If you're not relevant, people don't necessarily want to pay extra,' he said. And to work, from any perspective, luxury always requires something a little extra, designers have to deliver and shoppers have to pay. It's that friction, that need to satisfy the demands of both art and commerce, that keeps fashion exciting. The Bottom Line is a business analysis column written by Evan Clark, deputy managing editor, who has covered the fashion industry since 2000. It appears periodically. 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Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pop Icon, 43, Appears to Delete Instagram Account on Heels of Big Announcement
Pop Icon, 43, Appears to Delete Instagram Account on Heels of Big Announcement originally appeared on Parade. Britney Spears has apparently deleted her Instagram account. As of June 13, the pop icon's account was gone, with an error message reading "sorry this page isn't available" popping up in its place. This isn't the first time that Spears, 43, has deleted her account, either. She seems to remove herself from the social media platform whenever she needs a break. This time around, Spears left the IG space days after posting a scathing message about two of her exes that wound up making headlines."I dated two f------ complete a-------,' she wrote in the post, according to E! News. "I realized I loved their dogs more than them and I think it's because their dogs bowed to me every time I entered the room!!! I choose animals over people any day!"She ended up removing that post from her her complete disappearance from Instagram on June 13 comes on the heels of her newest collaboration officially went live. Over on X, a message went out to Spears' 53 million followers about her merch line with Balenciaga. 🎬 "Balenciaga collab is here," a message read. Fans reacted to the news, which was initially reported in early June. "Britney know about it?" one person asked. "Im a fan but those prices are insane," someone else said. "I need it omg," a third comment read. Spears' Balenciaga collab includes about a dozen items. "I have always loved fashion and was so honored and excited Balenciaga and Demna chose to collaborate with me on Demna's last collection with the House," Spears said in a press release, according to CR Fashion Book. "I hope my fans love it as much as I do! These are some of my favorite images from such an amazing time in my career and life, and I'm so excited to share it with everyone." Pop Icon, 43, Appears to Delete Instagram Account on Heels of Big Announcement first appeared on Parade on Jun 13, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 13, 2025, where it first appeared.
Vogue
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
The Future of Fashion Is Here: Meet The 2025 Graduating Class of Antwerp's Legendary Royal Academy
Over the weekend, 14 masters students studying fashion at Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts presented their final-year collections via a series of installations and a runway show. For the uninitiated, the Royal Academy is one of the few major, major fashion schools, nurturing everyone from the famed Antwerp 6 (Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, et al, and incidentally the subject of a major exhibition at the city's excellent Momu fashion museum in early 2026) to Martin Margiela to more recently Demna. It's where, if you're lucky, you'll get a glimpse of the future. It's not the first time I'd been part of the external jury judging their work; I first did it back in 2010. (I got a reminder of doing it the night of the this year's show as one of my fellow judges, Belgian model and jeweler Anouck Lepere, turned up to cheer on the 2025 group.) Fifteen years later I was happy to be doing it all over again, yet you don't need me to tell you how much fashion has changed during that time, because everything has changed. Everyone working in it is grappling with what's going on, but so too are students, poised to enter the industry at a moment of cataclysmic change. In some ways more so: they're weighted with the expectation that they might have new and innovative ideas about how to conceive and make fashion—disruptive, as we once all called it—while challenging industry norms from the outside. That's a lot on their shoulders. It was heartening then to see how the Royal Academy's Class of 2025 responded to all of this. Quite a few created deeply personal collections which spoke to their own life experiences. Perhaps in the era of social media's self storytelling, that's not surprising; you are your own best inspiration. Also interesting: How the class of 2025 was the first to come through post-Covid. The heaviness of the pandemic, and the world right now generally, saw them eschew overtly political narratives (as one might expect, given the harrowing world climate) in favor of what might be deemed more frivolous subject matter. An examination of superficiality and pretentiousness was actually a starting point for some of the designers. That's not a criticism, by the way. When everything can feel so overwhelming, maybe the natural reaction is to double down on finding some joy and lightness in difficult times. With 14 very different points of view, it's not so easy to find some common ground. But I liked that there was, on the whole, an ambitious and often accomplished sense of construction and decoration. It can feel a little reductive to talk about trends, but some common themes prevailed: dramatic, conceptual volumes; the interplay between the external and internal make of clothing; corsetry and wiring; blousons, shirts and sweaters as vehicles for creative expression; lots of color; and, shoes in exaggerated cartoon-like proportions. But everyone, as you will discover with the 14 students below, everyone has their own story to tell. Oh, and lastly: Congratulations to you all! Collection: Lost in tradition, found in Galicia
Business of Fashion
07-06-2025
- Business
- Business of Fashion
Fashion's Musical Chairs Ends — With Men in Almost Every Seat.
LOS ANGELES — This week, with the confirmation from LVMH on Monday that Jonathan Anderson is taking over creative direction of the women's, men's and haute couture collections at Dior, all of the empty chairs at fashion's top houses have now been filled. The pieces are now in place for the biggest fashion month ever this autumn. Among all the creative reshuffling, three of our industry's most talented designers have ended up with three of the biggest jobs at a critical time when luxury is facing a global downturn. In addition to Anderson's new role at LVMH-owned Dior, Demna is gearing up for his debut at Gucci, which will come after his final couture show for Balenciaga in July, and Matthieu Blazy is now installed at Chanel. That most of the big design roles have been filled by men has been a big topic in fashion of late. Save for Sarah Burton at Givenchy, Chemena Kamali at Chloé, Veronica Leoni at Calvin Klein Collection, Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta and Silvia Venturini Fendi at Fendi, all of the big jobs in fashion are occupied by men. Loewe, Balenciaga, Jil Sander, Celine and Maison Margiela have also appointed men as creative directors. On Thursday, I popped into Neiman Marcus in Los Angeles, to take the temperature of what all of these changes mean. The store was a ghost town with nary a customer in sight. Admittedly, it was only 10:30 a.m. — a bit early for a splurge, but the countless displays shilling luxury fashion and leather goods for 'up to 50 percent off' spoke volumes about the state of the business today. As I was examining the Burberry wares on the ground floor (lots of trench coats and accessories emphasising the Burberry check), one of the store's employees and a dedicated BoF reader approached me to say hello. I asked how business was doing and he simply motioned around the shop-in-shops by Dior, Chanel, Bottega Veneta and Loewe and said all of this is about to change. Customers (and Neiman Marcus sales associates) are mostly in wait-and-see mode, he said, as the upcoming fashion season will bring a lot of creative transformation. This is long overdue. Gucci is the lynchpin of the Kering group, where sales have nosedived. Revenues at Kering's flagship brand plummeted by 23 percent in 2024 to €7.7 billion ($8.8 billion), down from €9.9 billion in 2023. The decline worsened in Q1 2025, with a 25 percent drop year on year. The group's share price has tumbled by more than 60 percent over the last two years. Demna (Getty Images) When Kering executives announced in March that Demna would move from Balenciaga to Gucci in July, luxury market analysts and industry watchers scratched their heads. But I remain convinced that if Demna — one of the most gifted and thoughtful designers working fashion — is able to re-imagine Gucci and move on from his once ultra-popular Balenciaga aesthetic, this could be a very smart move because it simultaneously gives Demna a new creative challenge while breathing new life into Gucci, which accounts for more than 60 percent of Kering's profits. Then there's Chanel, where Matthieu Blazy is in the hot seat. Known for his incredibly creative, globally inspired, craft-focused fashion shows at Bottega Veneta, Blazy has been tasked with upping Chanel's fashion quotient. With the most well-defined codes of any luxury brand, as well as a slew of iconic products (think quilted leather flap bags like the 2.55, bouclé tweed suits and bi-colour patent shoes), the brand is pretty resilient even in times of trouble. Matthieu Blazy speaking at BoF Voices in 2023. (Getty Images) But without a strong fashion direction, Chanel's cultural relevance has waned since the passing of Karl Lagerfeld in 2019. Meanwhile, revenues fell by $1 billion in 2024, down 4.3 percent year on year, as Chanel continued to raise prices by an average of 59 percent between 2020 and 2023, leading customers to question the value of Chanel's products and pull back from the brand's core leather goods offering. Executives are counting on Blazy to bring back Chanel's fashion magic while they think about how to recalibrate their pricing strategy. It's a similar story at Dior, where prices increased by an average of 53 percent over the same period. LVMH does not break out individual brand performance, but said revenues declined by 'slightly more' than the average 5 percent decline in the group's fashion and leather goods division in the first quarter of 2025. In an in-depth interview announcing Anderson's appointment, Delphine Arnault agreed with me that pricing is a big issue to address. For now, she is counting on Anderson's creativity and a focus on customer experience in Dior's upcoming megastores in Los Angeles and New York, to help turn things around. Jonathan Anderson speaking at BoF Voices in 2023. (Getty Images) As I was walking the floor of Neiman Marcus it was hard not to note that with the departures of Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior and Virginie Viard at Chanel, men are back in charge. While pricing and fashion oomph may have been challenges under their tenures, Chiuri and Viard both oversaw an unprecedented expansion of these megabrands post-Covid, leaving me wondering if what might be gained in fashion relevance could lead to a lack of the connection these female designers were able to foster with their female customers. I've been asking some industry insiders why there is such a paucity of women at the helm of the big brands. One person posited that it's because all of the number two designers — the first go-to when brands are looking to appoint a new creative director — are also mostly men. Seems like that old adage that we tend to pick people who look like us holds true in fashion as well. If this is indeed the case, the change we need to see regarding women in the ranks of the industry's top creative positions needs to start with some of these men appointing more women as their number two. Fine. But there has to be more to it than just this explanation. Truly understanding (and valuing) how women designers connect differently to their customers — and giving them the opportunities to demonstrate this — must also be part of the change. Otherwise, the reign of men in top jobs is set to continue. Imran Amed, Founder and Editor in Chief P.S. Please join us next Monday, June 9 and Tuesday, June 10 for The Business of Beauty Global Forum 2025 livestream with speakers including Hailey Rhode Bieber and Tracee Ellis Ross. Register now. Below are my top picks from our analysis on fashion, luxury and beauty this week: 1. Under Pressure: Can Fashion's Sustainability Efforts Survive? With the industry in tariff paralysis and policymakers rolling back regulation, sustainable fashion advocates worry the movement is running out of steam. (Christophe Stache/AFP via Getty Images) 2. Case Study | The New Rules for Getting Acquired. Securing an exit at a desirable valuation has gotten harder for start-ups in recent years. But brands with strong growth strategies and loyal followings can still attract buyers that will maintain their integrity while taking their businesses to the next level, regardless of economic conditions. 3. How to Revive a Sleeping Beauty Watch Brand. A group of investors is reviving the Danish watch company Urban Jürgensen, a 250-year-old name revered by connoisseurs but largely unknown outside that bubble. (Getty Images) 4. Is Nike Finally Winning With Women? With bold marketing, a revamped leadership team under new brand president Amy Montagne and star power from A'ja Wilson, Nike's long-promised women's push is starting to stick. (Courtesy/Courtesy) 5. Beauty's Hottest New Trend: The Founder Buyback. Original influencer Huda Kattan has regained majority ownership of her namesake beauty brand and sent a message to the greater industry: When it's time to course-correct, you need your best driver. (BoF Team) This Weekend on The BoF Podcast (Sporty & Rich) Emily Oberg grew up far away from the fashion world in Calgary, Canada. After moving to New York for a role at the media company Complex, Oberg quickly built her profile as a tastemaker in the streetwear scene. But eventually, she got the entrepreneurial itch and leveraged her experience to turn Sporty & Rich, which started as a mood board on Instagram, into a multi-million-dollar brand with a dedicated community following. On a recent trip to Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to sit down with Emily to reflect on her unconventional path into fashion, how she made strategic business choices to grow her business, and the significance of world-building in creating an aspirational lifestyle brand. To receive this email in your inbox each Saturday, sign up to The Daily Digest newsletter for agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice that you won't find anywhere else.
Hypebeast
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Jonathan Anderson Heads All of Dior & Demna Unveils Final Balenciaga Ready-to-Wear Collection in This Week's Top Fashion News
Below, Hypebeast has rounded up the top fashion stories of the week so you can stay up to date on trends in the industry. In a major shift for the legendary French maison, Dior has confirmed Jonathan Anderson as its eighth couturier, taking the reins as the creative director for both its women's, men's and haute couture collections. The appointment marks the first time a single designer will have creative helm over all three divisions since Monsieur Christian Dior himself. Anderson was initially appointed as the creative director of Dior Homme on April 17, 2025, succeeding Kim Jones. Days prior to the latest development, Maria Grazia Chiuri's departure from Dior's womenswear and couture lines was confirmed on May 29 following her Cruise 2026 show. His first women's ready-to-wear collection for the maison is expected to debut during Paris Fashion Week in October, following his highly anticipated first Dior menswear collection on June 27. Anderson said in a statement, 'I am incredibly honored to be given the opportunity to unite Dior's women's, men's and couture collections under a single, cohesive vision. My instinct is to be led by the house's empathetic spirit. I look forward to working alongside its legendary ateliers to craft the next chapter of this incredible story. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Bernard Arnault and Delphine Arnault for their trust and loyalty over the years.' For Spring 2026, Demna has revisits to his famously controversial Balenciaga 'archetypes' — all of the references, shapes, sentiments and concepts that have come to define his decade-spanning tenure at the House. In those years, the designer transformed the Spanish label from a $400 million USD business into a $2 billion USD mammoth. Titled 'Exactitudes,' inspired by Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek's scientific photographer series, the collection spotlights Demna's anthropological approach to fashion and dress codes. 'This collection embodies the multitude of design codes that have been part of my creative vision and research on fashion at Balenciaga for a decade,' the designer said. 'It combines pieces from 35 different collections with new pieces and garments from my personal wardrobe, representing the volumes, silhouettes, and attitudes that have defined my vision and my questioning of the contemporary wardrobe, what people actually wear, how they wear it, and what the fine line is between luxury and fashion.' On Monday morning, Kontoor Brands, parent to heritage denim labels Lee and Wrangler, finalized its previously announced deal to acquire performance gear brand Helly Hansen, closing at $900 million USD. The move arrives as major players in the apparel sector look to get in on the growth of the outdoor and performance gear market, a development particularly relevant to Kontoor, whose bread and butter has been its small group of heritage lifestyle labels. ccording to Kontoor, Helly Hansen is expected to boost the company's revenue, adjusted earnings per share, and cash flow with immediate effects in fiscal 2025. Per a report from Ecotextile News, the brand is anticipated generate upwards of $680 million USD in revenue and $80 million USD in adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2025. Matthew M. Williams iet to debut his new namesake clothing brand during Paris Men's Fashion Week, expanding his breadth beyond 1017 ALYX 9SM and his recent tenure at Givenchy. Williams' aesthetic has been defined by his application of utilitarian elements, industrial aesthetics, and sophisticated minimalism. However, details around what approach he will adopt in his first namesake collection are sparse. The independent clothing project will be unveiled at the Seiya Nakamura showroom in Paris, with men's and women's collections expected to reflect the American designer's product-based approach. The Seiya Nakamura showroom will also showcase Craig Green, Taiga Takahashi, Arpa Studio, Amomento, Song for the Mute, Khoki, and Edward Cuming. The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and Vogue on Tuesday revealed the ten finalists for the 2025 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, an award created to help establish the next generation of American designers. The 2025 finalists include Ashlynn Park of Ashlynn, Julian Louie of Aubero, Bach Mai, Bernard James, Ashley Moubayed of Don't Let Disco, Gabe Gordon and Thomthy Gibbons of Gabe Gordon, Stephanie Suberville of Heirlome, Jamie Okuma, Meruert Tolegen, and Peter Do. This year, the program will award one honoree with a $300,000 USD cash prize and two runner-ups with $100,000 USD, while offering all finalists meaningful business mentorships. The aforementioned designers' works will be judged by the 2023 Selection Committee, which includes Vogue's Anna Wintour, Mark Holgate, and Nicole Phelps, Instagram's Eva Chen, Fifteen Percent Pledge founder Aurora James, moddel Paloma Elsesser, Nordstrom's Rickie De Sole, Saks' Roopal Patel, CFDA chairman Thom Browne, and Gap's Zac Posen. The winner is slated to be announced on November 18. NY-based sportswear designer Eric Emanuel's eponymous label is embarking in its next chapter with the unveiling of its first-ever full seasonal collection. Styled by Ian Bradley and photographed by Menelik Puryear, the hefty lookbook celebrates Emanuel's energetic ethos and sense of humor with casual styling and bold hues for the summertime. Comprising tailored essentials, colorful, textured knits, retro sports gear, branded underwear, and more, the label's inaugural SS25 collection expands on its sports-focused aesthetic with playful colors and textures. The Eric Emanuel SS25 Collection launches first with the Summer Cableknit Shorts & Zip-Ups in Navy, Green & Yellow, Oxford Shirting in Blue, Pink and White, and Linen Track Pants in Brown/Blue, Green/Blue, and Ivory/Blue, today at the brand's web store. The brand will subsequently launch its Striped-Knit Shorts & Button-Downs on June 6.
