From Raf Simons’s shock exit out of Dior to Alexander Wang’s decision to step away from Balenciaga to concentrate on his own label, the current state of fashion is being questioned. In our latest issue of MOJEH we asked: Are we moving too fast?
By Susan Devaney
The fashion industry is no stranger to speed. Designers can appear to play a musical game of chairs as they hop from one label to the next, churning out (at least) six collections per year, and leaving a feeling of a merry-go-round style state of play. January is haute couture; March is ready-to-wear; May is cruise; July couture again; September ready-to-wear again; November resort, menswear, jewellery collections, capsule collections, collaborations... but has the system reached its speed limit and finally crashed? “When you do six shows a year, there’s not enough time for the whole process … you have no incubation time for ideas,” said Raf Simons, during an interview with System (an independent magazine based in London), before he, after three-and-a-half years, decided not to renew his contract with Dior during the summer. “Technically speaking, it works, but does it work for me emotionally? No, because I’m not the kind of person who likes to do things so fast,” he told interviewer Cathy Horyn. Although the interview took place before the news broke, one thing was clear: He couldn’t go on. Simons released a statement saying his decision was “based entirely and equally on my desire to focus on other interests in my life, including my own brand, and the passions that drive me outside my work”. In other words, he needed to preserve a work-life balance.
It’s not just the clothes they have to consider. There’s the advertising campaigns, personal appearances, store openings, global visits, trunk shows, museum exhibitions, interviews, and not to forget the strong social media presence. Is it any wonder then that designers are struggling to keep up the pace? Esteemed fashion journalist Suzy Menkes put her thoughts into words for Vogue UK’s website, in her article ‘Why Fashion Is Crashing’, addressing issue after issue, challenging the industry’s current set-up. She wrote: “Designers – by their nature sensitive, emotional and artistic people – are being asked to take on so much. Too much.” Highlighting the moral are tales of John Galliano and Marc Jacobs’s substance abuse issues: “We all think of Lee McQueen and his tragic ending; of Marc Jacobs lurching through his punishing schedule until he finally gave up Louis Vuitton for his own label. With Dior again in the news, the fashion world gulps and thinks of John Galliano, his drunken anti-semitic raving and the shocking end to that chapter of a brilliant career.” In an interview with Vanity Fair, Galliano spoke of his own burnout: “With more collections, the crash happened more often, and then I was a slave to it.” Rightly so, Menkes concluded by praising Simons for “his brave stand”.
And then, there’s Alexander Wang. In July, Balenciaga announced his departure from the brand after three-and–a-half years at its helm as creative director. “It’s been an incredible experience to work with a couture house in Paris,” Wang said in a statement. “I am honoured to have had the opportunity to work for this historical maison. I would like to thank the brilliant team at Balenciaga for this collaboration and for what we have accomplished together, and I am looking forward to taking my own brand to its next level of growth.” Working across the board for both Balenciaga and his own eponymous label, Wang’s creative visions were stretched across not one, but two houses. In a similar standing, the young up-and-coming designer, J. W. Anderson, designs for his own label and Loewe. In an interview this year with MOJEH, we asked him how he protects his creative freedom. “I think you decide that yourself. I think that is something in the person. You know whatever you feel is right. At the moment, for me, it feels right to work at Loewe – if that makes sense? I feel completely creatively free in a very large company – because I live and breathe it. I pretend it in my head that it’s mine. [This allows me] to do my job,” he concluded.
