What Is Louis Vuitton Gambling?

A radical change has been launched in the luxury industry, but it is by no means simple that street forces are subverting traditional fashions.

Beijing is still the most tolerant and diverse city in China. Unlike Shanghai's increasingly strong international flavor, it is also different from Hongkong's mercantilist genes and elitism. Beijing is carrying values from all over the country and absorbing the noise and vitality from the sinking market. Here, people can step on the clouds and enjoy the earth.

As a result, when the Virgil Abloh Abloh, the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton at the helm of the menswear director, chose the opening place of the latest men's time shop and track of growth, many of the logic was linked together.

Just last Friday, Louis Vuitton fired its first shot in Beijing, opened 019 men's time shops in autumn and winter in Sanlitun, and launched the five city linkage limited time shop activities, which will soon be open to the public in Xi'an, Shanghai, Chengdu and Nanjing. Since last October, Louis Vuitton has opened flash shops in London, Tokyo and many other places to talk with young consumers. This year, Virgil Abloh continues the tradition of time Limited stores, and opens 2019 autumn and winter Limited stores in Chicago, New York and Beijing to show its second men's fashion show in Louis Vuitton.

Attracting attention is the mission of time shop. Compared with the first quarter, Virgil Abloh, who took office for nearly a year and a half, has more and more courage to fight for public attention. 2019 in the autumn and winter shops, the shop has a high saturation tone and a dazzling appearance. The Chicago Limited shop, which was opened earlier, is covered with bright orange logo. The corner shop in the Lower East block of New York is painted green from inside to outside.

The red shop in Sanlitun, Beijing, features red as the theme and embodies the theme of the 2019 autumn winter series of grid control, displaying the model sculpture made of high saturation FRP. 2019 in the autumn and winter series, Alton Mason, a model of a series of somersaults, was frozen into different forms of red sculpture, attracting a lot of consumers' attention.

Meanwhile, the Louis Vuitton "Coming of Age" (growth track) exhibition just opened in Losangeles's Little Big Man Gallery last month was officially opened in Beijing's Espace. This is the first group exhibition sponsored by Virgil Abloh. He invited many photographers and young artists to pay close attention to the growing process of boys from infants, adolescents, and adults to a diverse and complex perspective.

From all over the world, artists from all over the world also come from different geographical and cultural backgrounds. But they can connect with the whole world through social media, whether they are making faces through Snapchat, dancing in front of cameras, or in groups of rainbow colored T shirts.

This is in line with Virgil Abloh's constant concern for the community. At Louis Vuitton's first show, he invited more than 700 art students to watch the show and distribute T-shirts with different colors to them. This is considered to be an innovative behavior to break the fashion privilege, which has aroused widespread concern in the industry.

Author Xing Zhao said in a commentary on the Chinese version of the art news, the creative project of Virgil Abloh is never just about clothes. It is a community of identity and sharing. In the view of Virgil Abloh, the meaning of "cooperation" and "community" lies in the fact that people from different backgrounds and fields can form a real partnership to create more magnificent things that can not be achieved by individuals, which is strongly associated with the concept of youth culture and the concept of "community".

The works of different artists are disorganized and posted on the wall, showing fragmented, disordered, interconnected and multi racial stories. The exhibition also set up a printing center. Visitors can choose 10 picture numbers randomly, create a magazine designed by themselves, and limit 400 copies. This is obviously the most direct embodiment of Virgil Abloh's customary writing techniques. Under the influence of Virgil Abloh and others, this creative method is expanding momentum. It advocates the failure of originality, and considers design as curate. It is embezzlement, collage and reorganization of elements.

In this growth track exhibition, Virgil Abloh even traces back from youth to youth, which is undoubtedly a further extension of the youth culture which has been very concerned about the fashion industry recently. This is a special hint for the younger trend of luxury industry in recent years.

But when people are lost in these minor images and symbols, an important message is often overlooked, that is, you can hardly find "luxury" in the entire exhibition. This neglected information is precisely transforming your cognition with a subtle understanding of the definition of luxury.

Yes, you will find several pictures of campus scenes in the exhibition, which is undoubtedly a luxury Louis Vuitton shoulder bag for middle school students, but students wearing T-shirts are equal and diverse. You will also buy a twenty thousand yuan RMB light printed silk shirt and a $fifty thousand old jacket at the Sanlitun men's time shop, but the lattice space does not reveal any inherent sense of luxury.

Just as the wrong effect of the grid on the wall is made, people are involved in the desire space created by Louis Vuitton for the general public. When Louis Vuitton chose Beijing as the first stop for Chinese men's time shop, it consciously or unconsciously resonated with the city's inclusiveness.

Price is extravagant, but its form is approachable and inclusive. The "luxury" in the glass window that has been deterred from the past has become the past. Nowadays, "luxury" attracts all the people who aspire to it as a community and sells the dream of the civilian population at the price of luxury goods. But it does not sniff at young people who are still unable to afford luxury goods. Instead, they hug them and educate and nurture them patiently.

In the latest luncheon interview with the financial times on LVMH Group Chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault, the European richest person said, "luxury is a cliche, and I prefer the word" high quality product ". He is obviously aware of the changes that are taking place in the industry, and his attitude is also very clear. "I hate the past. What I am interested in is the future."

At the moment, Bernard Arnault has reached US $100 billion 400 million, making it the only 3 fortune in the world with Amazon founder Bezos and Microsoft founder Bill Gate. In 1988, Bernard Arnault became the largest shareholder of the company after it was merged into the LVMH group by the luxury brand Louis Vuitton and MOET & CHANDON Hennessy group. Under a series of crazy acquisitions led by him, LVMH has become the world's largest luxury group.

The industry regards Bernard Arnault as a predator. Some people say that Bernard Arnault is obsessive compulsive disorder if it sees a beautiful brand and wants to get its income. He also told the financial times, "I always like being the first." In fact, if it is not a strong desire to win and win, Bernard Arnault will hardly be able to push LVMH and luxury goods industry to the top in just thirty years.

When key opportunities come, Bernard Arnault can always grasp without hesitation. After all, in 1992 27 years ago, Louis Vuitton landed in the Chinese market, and the first store opened in Beijing Xpu Ha Palace Hotel. Bernard Arnault recalled that there was no hot water in the hotel, and only bicycles on the roads. But eventually the bet was rewarded. Since then, Chinese consumers have promoted global luxury consumption, and LVMH has become one of the main beneficiaries.

In the first quarter of fiscal year 2019, sales of LVMH fashion leather products surged 20% to 5 billion 110 million euros, a 5 year high of 16% in the same period last year. In 2018, Bernard Arnault first publicly disclosed the scale of Louis Vuitton revenue, saying that its sales exceeded 10 billion euros last year. In May last year, Forbes estimated that the annual income of Louis Vuitton was 12 billion 900 million dollars, or about 11 billion 400 million euros.

In the era of big capital, LVMH, which owns more than 70 brands, has almost the right to define luxury goods. When Bernard Arnault is tired of the definition of luxury, a radical change is inevitable.

This time, he will bet on Virgil Abloh.

If a fashion designer chooses a designer who can better represent the industry's "universal vision", this person is more likely to be Kim Jones, the new artistic director of DIOR, rather than Virgil Abloh. Unlike the mild evolution of Kim Jones and the practice of changing power from within the system, the attitude of Virgil Abloh's spoiler will inevitably lead to rejection from within the system. (extended reading: depth |DIOR men's fierce)

For those who do not believe in Virgil Abloh, his main talent is planning speculation and self promotion. One of the quotes he often quoted is that you only need to change the design of 3% to make it fresh and original. For others, however, Virgil Abloh is Duchamp and Andy Warhol in the fashion world. His works have symbolic meanings for everyday objects.

In past articles, the author has repeatedly pointed out that behind the rising influence of Virgil Abloh is the innovation of productivity and production relations, which is why fashion should not belittle this change force.

There are many designers who have not received professional training in fashion history. If the traditional fashion designers understand fashion is to see the work of print masters and tailors, and study the fashion structure and tailoring, then the Virgil Abloh and its friends in the Internet age and the Kanye star West, who founded Yeezy, understand fashion through overwhelming picture information. Neither of the two had received professional fashion design training. Virgil Abloh did not formally pursue fashion related majors, and the Kanye West, which had been known for a long time, was rejected by the central Saint Martin fashion design major in 2011.

Designers who receive information from the end of marketing will also make creative production through marketing logic. The "outsider" perspective of Virgil Abloh and Kanye West has changed the logic of the fashion industry to a great extent. It will not be cut or not understood. They work not for clothes, but for young consumers they are looking for.

For Virgil Abloh, the premise of street clothing is not just design but consumers. "When people talk about street style, they focus on not the street, but the people on the street." He aimed at the main crowd of current fashion consumption, the millennials and the Z generation, being well versed in the young people's desire for "symbol consumption". What he created was not a luxury in the traditional sense, but a symbol representing the trend of life. Whether zipper or quotation mark, the purpose of its design is to make symbols more popular.

In the face of the millennial generation, the most important thing is to establish the image of opinion leaders. Virgil Abloh realized that he was a brand. He had 4 million fans on Instagram. He used Instagram as a communication window with young communities, and constantly shared his creative inspiration and process. Fans not only felt he was cool but also willing to pay for it. Compared with the influence of stars, the individual's appeal is obviously faster and more direct.

Duplication and misappropriation, massive duplication and arbitrary combination are the creative ways of Virgil Abloh. Virgil Abloh has offices all over the world, but it never works on the desk. All the design work is done through two mobile phones and instant messaging software WhatsApp.

From the perspective of time cost, this way of work is more suitable for the current speeding rhythm of luxury goods industry. In order to deal with luxury brands 6 to 8 fashion series every year, a variety of capsule series and marketing activities, the entire luxury industry is overdrawn energy. In contrast, Virgil Abloh can launch 5 or 6 projects at the same time and launch a series of cooperation. Last month, Virgil Abloh, 38 years old, held a personal retrospective exhibition "Figures of Speech" at the Chicago Museum of art.

We do not know whether Virgil Abloh, a non professional member, is familiar with the collection process of inspiration, sketches, fabrics and colors, and the complete production process of traditional fashion series, but it is certain that he does not recognize this set of traditional processes which are far below reproducible and productive efficiency.

When the fashion industry pursue speed to the extreme, a more efficient mode will dominate. This seems to indicate the inevitability of Virgil Abloh being accepted by the fashion industry, and is also the embodiment of the "Paradigm Shift" which he often talks about. The paradigm shift he referred to is not related to the design itself, but also to the creative production mode of the fashion industry.

Last March, Virgil Abloh was appointed the creative director of Louis Vuitton men's wear. It is the landmark event that the new mode has been recognized by the mainstream world. When the new model goes deep into the most important brand in the luxury world, an evolution will inevitably take place. Although the new model often means that the creative director can not fully invest in every project, today's younger generation of consumers seems to care less about it. They want the goods to be given meaning.

The success of Virgil Abloh is taking advantage of the overall logic change in the fashion industry. It may not represent the future trend of fashion business, but it has become an important driving force for the industry. Virgil Abloh has become a large number of methodologies for brand imitation in the field of brand building, such as "exploding money, high price and opinion leader effect", and achieving maximum market benefits with simple products. Efficiency is maximized, cost minimized and profit margins widened. This is the essence of business. Globalization has transformed fashion into an important business in a short span of a century. In fact, fashion is approaching the essence of business.

As a matter of fact, Louis Vuitton has attracted Virgil Abloh, but has just opened an experimental field in men's wear. Although the appointment decision is regarded as "very bold", but as a luxury brand, its men's clothing is very small, and it is also suitable for the innovation and testing department. According to statistics, Louis Vuitton has about 450 stores around the world, but only 150 of them sell men's products.

Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke admitted in an interview with New York Times that "Louis Vuitton from the mid nineteenth Century to the last century 20s, and now, the brand caters to the new class rather than the old rich class."

To accept Virgil Abloh is the most direct way to cater to the upstart. But when Virgil Abloh became the first African American creative director to take office, he launched a large number of young minority faces in the show and advertising and even this growth track exhibition, which may make some conservative loyal customers feel offended. From this level, it is no exaggeration to say that Bernard Arnault is definitely taking risks. He has bet on the deep-rooted white centralism in Europe and believes that diversity will be an irreversible trend.

But you have to admit that whether businessmen really believe in these new ideas, successful businessmen always keep the most sensitive sense of market trends.

This week, another French luxury brand Chanel appointed the first diversified and inclusive global executive in history. Recently, a number of luxury brands have been disputed for racial and cultural issues. In this regard, Prada has established a multicultural Advisory Committee. Gucci has launched four long-term strategies and Changemakers global projects to enhance brand inclusiveness and diversification.

In the 2019 autumn and winter advertising blockbuster, although Gucci took the theme of filming from 50 to 80s in the past century, it turned against the situation of white people occupying the right to speak in the industry. Many African American models were launched, reflecting the evolution of the luxury industry's cognition of diversity. Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri has revealed that the brand has a committee of millennials under the age of 30, and has met regularly with senior management teams since 2015 to enable the brand to make full use of the insight of young people and to diversify executives' perspectives.

Fashion, as a social phenomenon, should never be short of anthropological research perspective, and this perspective will also be more and more involved in the specific practice of the industry. In a new industry environment that advocates diversity, people are faced with a drastic upheaval. Consumers and traditional industry orders in different regions are disrupted and reorganized. But the new center is also formed, a new power center built around social influence.

Bernard Arnault told the financial times that his vision is to create an organizational structure that allows individual brands to enjoy creative freedom, financial support and synergy. The most important thing is that it can employ the best talents. Any industry, after all, is a battle for talent. This year, Bernard Arnaul has gained a lot. He grabbed the social queen Rihanna and the British sustainable fashion representative Stella McCartney.

Now it seems that in the face of Gucci's parent company Kai Yun group and the competitive environment full of uncertainty, Virgil Abloh is undoubtedly the key to Bernard Arnault's failure.