The Demise of Fashion
The period also saw the emergence of the Japanese designers, notably Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo (of Comme des Garçons), whose ethereal black numbers combined minimalist rigour with futuristic interpretations of traditional garb. He got his start in the fashion online business promoting fits at Brooks Brothers, and later became a wholesaler of ties and gloves in New York's garment district. But Ralph Lauren is important for another reason. In many ways, Lauren was Jay Gatsby - the man who created himself. Tracksuit-wearing rappers and the chino-clad super-nerds of the dotcom boom were the new icons; 'casual Friday' elided into the rest of the week. Even supermodels began to look less 'super'. Kate Moss, in her first incarnation as a grungy teenager, had nothing of the femme fatale about her. Calvin Klein built a phenomenally successful brand around posters featuring Moss and other androgynous youths sporting baggy jeans and nothing else; it was the 'simple chic' ethic taken to the nth degree. Fashion calls for a certain degree of risk-taking and creativity which is unattainable to clarify to Wall Street. Nine years on from the publication of Agins' book, fashion has - inevitably - transformed by itself once again.
The Renewal of Fashion
The story of Gucci resembles an opera, replete with glamour, envy and murder. According to Guillaume Erner, 'The Texan turned the style of the brand upside down: previously everything that bore the Gucci name had been brown, soft, and rounded. A famously over-the-top example showed a crouching man gazing at the Gucci logo shaved into a woman's pubic hair - beautifully photographed, of course. As Roitfeld observes, '[Ford] created clothes people wanted to wear, and then he explained to them that if they couldn't afford the dress, they could at least buy the sunglasses. Taking the opposite stance to Gucci's sex-drenched imagery, Miuccia positioned her brand as creative, delicate and politically engaged. New York intellectuals and London businesswomen loved it. Bernard Arnault was already on the rise in 1984, when he acquired Christian Dior. Two decades later, he is president of both Dior and LVMH, with a glittering portfolio of brands that includes Céline, Kenzo, Thomas Pink, Givenchy, Loewe, Fendi, Pucci, Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan - not to mention Louis Vuitton itself. (Legend has it that Arnault made his choice by arranging a meeting of the world's top fashion journalists, and asking them who they believed was the world's most creative designer. At the end of the 1990s, when fashion leaned towards the minimalist, John exploded on to the scene that has a private eyesight impressed by historical past and costume. It had the effect of a firework display. Ford and Galliano were personally photogenic and exciting - as entertaining in their own way as rock stars. Even if they could stretch to a handbag or a pair of sunglasses, where did they get the clothes to match? Enter Zara, H&M and Topshop - high-street brands employing talented youthful designers who produced enjoyable, fresh creations that wouldn't seem out of place around the Paris runways, and used to be sometimes directly impressed by them.
Surviving the Demise
In September 2001, a minor war had been pre-occupying industry-watchers for several months. Arnault had been stealthily buying shares in Gucci with the intention of taking over the company. But neither Tom Ford nor Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole liked the idea of being swallowed up by LVMH, where they suspected they would lose control of the brand. The flurry of acquisitions that followed on both sides looked like a duel between billionaires - Monopoly played for real. Finally, in the economic dip provoked by the dotcom crash - and almost as if he sensed that he needed to conserve his resources for the difficult period ahead - Arnault gave up the fight. In New York, the fashion carnival was in town for that spring-summer collections. The industry was therefore witness to the horror that was to cause its latest nervous breakdown. Interesting fact is that, after a dramatic slump, the industry emerged from the disaster in rather better shape than anyone had a right to expect. In Time magazine's autumn 2004 Style and Design supplement, an article headlined 'Luxury Fever' commented, 'Despite increasing curiosity rates, staggering power prices.
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