Dear Gucci,

Shall we say goodbye to Alessandro Michele?

The Fab Four of #fashion and #luxury show an outstanding firepower in the industry.
They have a stunning business and are in the hotlist of must-have brands.

What is the common factor of them all?
The city of Rome.

Despite a certain PR effort highlighting Milan as the fashion capital of the world, with a few exceptions like Moncler, Milan is struggling to keep the glam.
Iconic brands such as Armani, Prada, Tod’s, Dolce e Gabbana, Missoni, Bottega Veneta are facing difficult times after years of splendor.
The Roman brands, instead, are still at the top of the game (despite the recent normalization of Gucci and Valentino).

Why? Which is the common factor that made the difference?

The Creative Directors are based in Rome, live the chaos of the eternal city and they breathe art, history and the international lifestyle linked to pleasure, not to pure business.
Alessandro Michele, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Pier Paolo Piccioli (let’s not forget Maria Grazia Chiuri) and Lucia Silvestri live in a city that is open minded, challenging as well as so much rewarding in terms of beauty.

Outsiders. Out-of-the-box thinkers. Outliers.
Leaders of their own pack.
Far from the conformism and the judgement of Milano.
Alive.

It is news of today that Prada created a Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council co-chaired by director Ava DuVernay and artist Theaster Gates.

“Prada is committed to cultivating, recruiting and retaining diverse talent to contribute to all departments of the company,” Miuccia Prada, CEO and Lead Creative Director of Prada said in the statement. “In addition to amplifying voices of color within the industry, we will help ensure that the fashion world is reflective of the world in which we live.”

Following a backlash because of windows props judged racially offensive by the black community.

Something similar happened to Gucci recently for a balaclava.

Spike Lee said he will no longer buy Prada or Gucci until the brands “hire some black designers”…

Prada took a remarkable step that unfortunately won’t solve the issue.

Because it’s not supporting one skin colour rather than another one that things will improve and fairness and respect will be established.

It’s Equal Opportunities what is most needed in Fashion.

Not a misleading definition of Diversity.

Equal opportunity is treating all employees and applicants for employment equally, without discriminating in terms of race, sex, religion (Collins Dictionary).

And recruiting people because they are talented.

With no discrimination. At all.

Gucci Alessandro Michele showed the brand Cruise Collection in a Roman necropolis turned romantic promenade two centuries ago in Arles, France last week.
The event took place at night time and started with church bells ringing and a catwalk on fire.
115 men’s and women’s looks were shown in cemetery lit up by candles.

The collection was very Alessandro Michele, a pot pourri of Victorian meets Chateau Marmont meets hipsters meets John Dee meets some zombies.
The music was angelic, the inspiration was evil.

No need to see the clothes, the accessories, the looks clearly.

Models walked like zombies for an audience of fashion victims.
‘Til death will do them apart.
The event was the statement of a very powerful brand that is facing one of the most common fears in the industry: death.

While other brands such as Dior and Vuitton focused on creativity, art and empowering women, Gucci highlighted a clear concept: Dante’s Inferno.
Hell.
The location was the Alyscamps, in Arles.
The place where people beloved by the Gods were laid to rest forever. Were they should “live” happily ever after. Turned into Inferno, instead.

Nothing is what it seems. Not even at Gucci?

The show was clearly a deadly blast.

Gucci stunning double digit growth of the past three years was confirmed a few days ago by a +27,1% in the first 2018 quarter.

Gucci disrupted the fashion world with a new weird, no-gender, vintage-remix, psychedelic style that created so much buzz and business in the industry.

All this excitement and focus on those trendy fashion brands partially distracted by the slow agony of a once uber luxury star brand of Kering, Bottega Veneta.

Bottega Veneta registered a slow down of sales in the first quarter of 2018 of – 6,8%. An alarmingly trend since several quarters that doesn’t seem to stop.

Has the Gucci and Balenciaga (and partially Saint Laurent Paris) effect and style of flashy, rich, baroque and daring clothes and accessories represented the worst enemy for the undercover, discreet and understated style of Bottega Veneta?

Has the move of several top executives and break up of BV team (Bizzarri, Bellettini, Flore among others) contributed to the weakening of the brand?

How can BV find its space in the market with such powerful in-house competitors?

Gucci will launch tonight the “Gucci Osteria” in Florence, a collaboration with the Michelin 3-star Massimo Bottura.
This is the last of several collaborations between food and fashion.

It is worth to mention that one of the pioneer in this field was Giorgio Armani, who took over, at the beginning of the ’90s, an amazingly traditional caffè in Florence called Doney and transformed it into the first Armani Caffè.
It followed the Armani Caffè in Paris, Saint Germain, with a delicious offer of high-end Italian food. The perfect mix of fashion and food Italian excellence.

Recently LVMH bought Cova caffè and Prada relaunched Marchesi, two traditional places located in Milan.

Cavalli bought in Florence the renown and delicious Caffè Giacosa, always full of local and international customers with an offer that went from fresh pastries for breakfast to light lunch and aperitivo. The caffè unfortunately was closed by the last owners of the Cavalli brand.

Ralph Lauren created amazing and uber chic, succesful restaurants in Paris as well as New York.

Gucci took over some years ago a bar in the Milan Galleria, opened a shop and kept the bar, which was recently closed. Now they are launching the Bottura project.

Italian Lifestyle at the very best.

A few years ago articles on must-have shoes were full of recommendations for Louboutin, Sergio Rossi, Charlotte Olympia, Roger Vivier and the “shoes specialists”.
Now the spotlights are on Gucci, Dior, Balenciaga shoes and boots. Sales have peaked and the best sellers are related to big, flamboyant fashion brands instead of small, niche artisan brands.
The shoe makers that are still very hot are the likes of Gianvito Rossi and Manolo Blahnik, strong brands with their founders still at the helm: Gianvito and Manolo are the king of “classic” shoes.

Shoes specialists are getting weaker because:

• they think inside the box. They do not explore, because they are too technical brands
• they lack storytelling around the brand, emotions and a lifestyle
• they lack meaningful creativity and investments
• they are followers, not first movers anymore.
• they are stuck in the past glory and too often managed by people with no medium-long term interest in the development of the brand

Shoe makers should:

• get out of the factory hamster wheel
• get closer to the women’s desires and dare to make them happy
• hire top managers with fresh mindset

The secret is to start thinking as a fashion player instead of a shoe maker

Corriere della Sera published an interview to Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri last Saturday.
Bizzarri is a great believer in change, being curious, listening to young employees, disrupting the status quo.
He also said that the aesthetic revolution cannot be long lasting and that he’s focusing on changing the company culture preparing it for the next chapter without him.

Gucci, thanks to the duo Bizzarri-Michele, achieved a stunning +43% in revenues in the first semester of 2017.
The new Gucci attracted the so-called “Millennials”(very likely Chinese) which now represent 57% of its customers (risky business? see my post on Chinese Millennials debt).

Such a stunning growth is sustainable only in the short term. Then? How to guarantee a solid growth?

So far Gucci success is a great individual achievement of the CEO and Creative Director. Their strike.
But it’s not a formula that can be applied elsewhere. Especially not for the long term.
From now on the challenge is to keep a steady growth while making the Brand more and more able to thrive by itself.

Because no Brand can afford too many disruption. And the responsibility of a CEO is to make it strong and resilient for the long term.

Tom Ford brand is near to 2 billion $ revenues.

After the exit from Gucci Group Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole quietly and with the usual class and elegance created – in just more than a decade – a new luxury empire almost matching the revenues of Gucci.

They also introduced a new business model where apparel and leather goods perfectly match with fragrances and make up.

What is sure is that Dom and Tom started from scratch a new business adventure  and they have been once again uber successful. With a communication soft and smooth as Tom Ford voice.