For Louis Vuitton and Gucci, will the new creative directors mean new directions?

Louis Vuitton's announcement that music legend Pharrell Williams would be taking over as creative head of its menswear sent shockwaves across the fashion industry. In November 2021, the previous creative director Virgil Abloh passed away. Pharrell will take his place.

Given that both Williams and Abloh are Black Americans with a strong sense of fashion and street culture, Pharrell is an ideal candidate to inherit Abloh's shoes. Abloh's resume was shorter at the time of his hiring in 2018 than that of Williams to this date.

Abloh, who interned at Fendi before launching his wildly popular Off-White clothing line in 2013, has achieved much of his success in the fashion industry. Conversely, Williams used his success in music to break into the fashion industry.

According to the company, Williams is a "cultural global icon" and "visionary whose creative universes expand from music to art to fashion," making him the perfect choice to uphold Louis Vuitton's status as a "Cultural Maison" and further its values of "innovation, pioneer spirit, and entrepreneurship."

Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of Louis Vuitton, claimed that his creative vision extends beyond fashion and will surely guide the company into a new and extremely exciting era. One of the 80 billion dollar LVMH Group's 75 premium maisons, Louis Vuitton is worth $20 billion. The LV menswear segment does not have a separate revenue report from the corporation.

LV announced the appointment following Kering's hiring of Sabato De Sarno as creative director for its flagship Gucci brand, which at $11.2 billion is roughly half the size of Louis Vuitton and is currently stagnant with only 1% comparable growth from 2021 to 2022. Alessandro Michele, who had served in the position for an incredible seven years, was fired by the corporation last November.

Williams is a former outsider who now works inside the fashion industry, whereas De Sarno was born and raised in the field. He began his career in 2005 with Prada, moved on to Dolce & Gabbana, and then ended up at Valentino in 2009. There, he worked as an apprentice for Pierpaolo Piccioli, the brand's creative director, and eventually earned the position of fashion director for both the men's and women's collections at Valentino. The major break for De Sarno will come with his position at Gucci.

One Objective, Two Brands and Methods

Here, two storied luxury companies from different countries—Italian Gucci and French Louis Vuitton—are competing for the same type of high-end consumer. But, the methods each business is using to choose a creative director are utterly different.

De Sarno is the more conventional option, and he will be in charge of a larger portion of decisions pertaining to the Gucci brand's future across all product categories.

Williams may be a more daring and unconventional choice, but his expertise is limited to men's fashion, a considerably smaller portion of Louis Vuitton's far larger market, where leather goods and accessories are the main focus. Williams being named Abloh's replacement has therefore more to gain and less to lose.

But, the task facing both men is the same: to drive growth and profitability in a luxury industry that is under pressure from economic headwinds after enjoying spectacular expansion in the wake of the epidemic.

It's a highly challenging job that requires "squaring a circle," said Carmine Rotondaro, who is presently the proprietor of the Italian opulence brand Collini Milano 1937 and was formerly a commercial counselor to the Gucci Group for 15 years until 2016. "It’s a circle that contains the heritage of the brand and that must square with the requirements of growth imposed by the financial markets. These groups, with their dimensions of size, can’t afford not to deliver growth."

Role of the Creative Director: Recent Changes

The task of providing the products that mold customer tastes has always fallen to the creative directors of luxury firms.

It's not always the creative director who gives customers a product they'll like. It involves educating customers about what they might enjoy and demonstrating to them their lack of other things that they need. As a result, they mold customer tastes and generate fresh demands, according to Rotondaro.

Today, however, the practice extends beyond only creating and showcasing a fresh line of handbags or clothing. In the process, a lifestyle has been developed.

According to Susanna Nicoletti, founder of Hangar Deluxe, a platform for fashion industry innovation, and author of Luxury Unlocked, the creative director of these big luxury companies is not expected to create clothes or accessories, nor is he or she required to know everything about textiles and shapes. They are "orchestra directors" who give the brand its signature vision and make it attractive to certain target audiences by making it hip.

With his deep cultural roots in music, art, and design, Pharrell Williams for LV appears to have the prerequisite for establishing a lifestyle down to an art. In 2015, the American Council of Fashion Designers presented him with the Fashion Icon Award.

Sabato De Sarno, in contrast, is a product of the older school of fashion directors. François-Henri Pinault, chairman and CEO of Kering, detailed the procedure for choosing the new creative director of Gucci during the company's earnings call.

Pinault said candidates were required to complete a number of projects, including one in which they searched through the Gucci archive to present their vision for fusing modernity with the brand's origins. The creative director's duties span a three-sided triangle - product strategy, brand strategy, and design studio.

Sabato's capacity to increase the fashion authority element was crucial, as was his ability to add modernity to his creative vision. It was stunning and made a huge difference as compared to the other options to be strong on the fashion component while creating the timeless portion. This is why Sabato was ultimately selected, according to Pinault.

Ingenious Guardrails

Alessandro Michele's rise and fall at Gucci, as well as the most recent issue involving Balenciaga, a sister brand of Kering, and the sexually explicit messaging it used to advertise with youngsters, imply that the firm granted its creative directors too much freedom.

In his analysis of how Michele molded Gucci, Nicoletti claimed that Michele opted for image disturbance instead of constant style and image, placing the brand's equity at risk of weariness.

De Sarno was chosen by Kering leadership despite having no prior experience overseeing the creative direction of a company with the size and breadth of Gucci, so it would seem that they will give him greater control. Furthermore, it will be more careful to prevent the Gucci brand's rich fashion history from being obscured by the latest trends.

The Gucci Kelly bag and other essentials, as well as a more feminine than gender-neutral aesthetic, are the emphasis of Sabato, according to Nicoletti.

As a result of Kering's 11 luxury houses together generating almost the same amount of income last year as LVMH earned from Louis Vuitton alone, there will be pressure to boost growth.

Williams will collaborate with established creative directors like Nicolas Ghesquière, who has led Louis Vuitton's women's collection since 2013, and have a more focused approach to menswear at the luxury brand. He needn't deviate from his plan of action as De Sarno did; he just needs to emulate Abloh.

Menswear is an add-on rather than a necessity for LV because its primary product lines are leather goods and accessories. Louis Vuitton is definitely not expecting to have Pharrell for a lengthy period of time, but Pietro Beccari's aspirations are obviously centered on generating iconic pieces and plenty of buzz around the brand, as Nicoletti noted.

Vuitton is a massive leather goods company that sells particular monogram products for men and women. The rest is lifestyle and a vibrant method to draw attention. When it comes to product management tasks that have nothing to do with the core of his employment, Pharrell brilliantly embraces the iconic message of the brand, avoiding them.

Business vs. rumor

Because of this, De Sarno has a much bigger job with a lot more on his shoulders than Pharrell Williams does, which may be why we won't see De Sarno's first collection until September. Meanwhile, Pharrell Williams' appointment is generating excitement and buzz both within and outside of the fashion world, and his first collection is due in June.

Both are probably going to succeed, but De Sarno at Gucci will need to strike a balance between his right and left brains in order to accomplish expansion, which is the most important goal, according to Rotondaro.

As the expert further shared, to get the desired product mix and achieve the desired margin objectives at the desired price points, one will need to use their logical left brain. To express a unified, innovative image that also honors the brand's illustrious history as a respected, exclusive, and aspirational entity, the creative right brain will be required. The two together are never simple to combine, and it's a very difficult circle to square.