... if Valentino finds the right designer to translate the spirit of what Valentino is about and knows how to do it, and gradually bring it up to date then there is a big chance that it can continue to survive as one of the most influencial fashion makers of style even after he's gone...
Of course we all know about Yves St Laurent...nothing is sure ever....and some designers are more difficult to grasp than others....
Fashion
The designers, the models, the shows and of course, the clothes
In reply to Galileo's Universe:
I think that almost never happened, even Chanel's with Karl Largerfeld, sometimes I found the designs a bit on the tacky side. Another one is Givenchy, now it's completely different. I think it's unavoidable once the original designer retired the spirit of it would be gradually lost or dramatically lost. The only way it would survive is for the people to accept that it will not be the same and accept the changes.
American Apparel is still not a giant corperation, how would it changed once it's becoming more successful. Esprit in the beginning when it started in San Francisco(!)was vibrant and fresh in their ads, and as time went on and as the company got sold, the essence got slowly washed away.
Side note, one of my school friends is the son of the former CEO of Esprit... fun trivia
I don't like American Apparel. They're a sort of anti-fashion, everything is so minimalist and they really don't do season. It's like Minimalism was to the art world, sort of a dead end from which it may be hard to recover. Where do you go after minimalism? And their ads are basically about sex... basically... which i don't like either...
In reply to st. valentine:
The first time I saw a retail store of American Apparel on Union Street in SF more than a year ago, I thought, "This is so 1980's....." They had their founding philoshophy posted at the time, now they have a store in Berkeley, CA. And I couldn't see their founding philoshophy posted inside, so it's slowly changing already. The merchandising is different than any brand we see around at the moment, those guys are clever because their clothes are really basic, but they targeted a look, a retro look in just the right time.
What's after minimalism? Same as in architecture, post modernism, and post-post modernism, perhaps then bounces back to romancetism.
Those campaigns are designed, I believe, by one of the guys behind Fantastic Man and Butt magazines.
Esprit in Asia is alive and well the owner now is a Hong Kong man who started in clothing manufacturing. When I was in Shanghai 8 years ago, Esprit was popular, as in Hong Kong, they branched into cosmetics already.
I thought the Marithé et François Girbaud print ads were pretty well developed.
I don't really like LiLo, neither Scarlett Johansson although she was good for the LV campaign this season. I liked the campaign for Armani|Exchange with Alessandra Ambrosio!
