‘Fashion Must Stand for More Than Simply Selling a Product’: Top Luxury Designers on Why They’re Collaborating With Artists Like Never Before

It’s no secret that most
industries have struggled in recent months. And for the luxury
market in particular, times have been especially tough: with
spending down almost across the board, financial firms like Bain &
Company and McKinsey & Company are estimating that luxury sales
will fall between 20 and 35 percent this year. And according
to their reports, those sales figures won’t rebound fully until
2022 at the earliest.

Yet while those numbers paint a
bleak picture, luxury designers are using this difficult moment as
an opportunity to reassess what their work stands for.

“It’s time for the industry to
have some open and frank discussions about its future, which I have
to say have been happening, which is great,” Bottega Veneta
creative director Daniel Lee tells Artnet News. “We know that
fashion must stand for more than simply selling a
product.”

As these discussions swirl, brands are seeking to reach new
audiences by collaborating with artists in novel ways. Aided
largely by social media platforms, designers and companies are
hosting talks, film screenings, and other events that connect them
to the art world and elevate their colleagues working in the visual
arts.

“The situation has shown the
fashion industry’s ability to express solidarity, and that a sense
of empathy for others is something every global system should have
as a core focus,” Dior creative director Maria Grazia
Chiuri says. “We are all connected,
now more than ever, certainly. I hope this idea of unity prevails
in fashion.”

We spoke with six brands to learn about how they’re facing the
moment.

Collaborating With Artists

In mid-March, Dior launched
the Dior Talks podcast, which
features conversations exploring the house’s position at the intersection of
art, culture, and society. In the first episode, Grazia Chiuri discussed the ways in which
feminist art has shaped her sense of purpose as a
creator.

“Artists are central to my
creative process,” she tells Artnet News. “And women artists in
particular have the ability to communicate ethical values that are
essential for the next generation of women to learn.”

But beyond connecting with
Dior’s already loyal customer base, the series is also meant to
grow the house’s clientele, and to tie the brand to the worlds of
art and design. A slew of visual artists—from Tracey Emin and
Penny Slinger, to Tomaso Binga and Judy Chicago—have appeared as
guests in the show’s first 13 episodes.

“My interest here is definitely
to engage with a wider audience to start a global conversation on
art and fashion today,” Grazia Chiuri says, adding: “I believe
more than ever in sharing stories and knowledge, and also in the
role of art to open our minds and help us shape a bright and
progressive future.”

Daniel Lee of Bottega Veneta is also leveraging his
connections with artists to reach the wider public. The brand’s new
Instagram-based digital residency program, through which Lee is
offering artists he admires a platform to explore their cultural
interests, was one of the
first branded art initiatives to launch this
spring. 

“It is important that we use our
platform and privilege wisely during a time like this,” Lee tells
Artnet News. “Our residency program is an opportunity for us to
entertain our audience while many of us are isolated. We are
celebrating—and collaborating with—some of the artists we find most
inspiring and stimulating. And we are also emphasizing that
supporting culture and creativity right now is absolutely
vital.”  

So far, Bottega Veneta has invited artists such
as Walter Pfeiffer and Tyler Lebon, as well
as dancer M.J. Harper and
writer Marie Chaix, to participate in the residency. For each
iteration, the guest is given carte blanche to explore their favorite
artworks, films, books, and other inspirations on Bottega Veneta’s
Instagram over the course of a week.

“There is something unifying
about our cultural content being presented on a digital medium, and
I like the idea of providing a moment of connection when we are so
disconnected physically,” Lee says.

Lee is also working with his
alma mater, Central Saint Martins in London, so that graduating
students from the school’s
fashion program can present their work virtually in lieu of an
in-person showcase.

“I think bigger brands have a
duty to support emerging creatives now more than ever,” Lee says.
“It’s so hard to even exist right now in the creative
industries. The current
situation favors the bigger brands, or brands that have more
funding. So I am leveraging the teams and resources that we are
lucky enough to have access to, to help the Central Saint Martins
students, employing the help of our creative and communications
teams and our production company—essentially, the resources that
allow us to keep innovating.” 

Do It for the Gram

The Spanish house Loewe,
meanwhile, has launched Loewe En Casa, a series of Instagram Live
workshops in which skilled designers and
craftspeople give
instructive lessons on subjects such as metalwork, weaving,
ikebana, goldsmithing, textile-making, and ceramics. Among the
artists featured in the initiative thus
far are Koichi Io,
Sophie Rowley, Julian Watts, and Adi Toch. 

The project is the brainchild of Loewe creative director
Jonathan Anderson, who has long supported young creatives
through his annual Craft Prize competition, which awards rising
artists a €50,000 grant and the chance to exhibit their work at a
major museum, such as the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in
Paris.

“This really reflects the
essence of what Loewe is all about,” Anderson tells Artnet News of
the new initiative. “I was just talking to the team one morning,
and I was like, ‘We should really do an education program!’ And I
thought about this idea of casa, of home, and using this
environment and moment to explore the art of making and the craft
that’s behind it.”

Chloe is also using Instagram for its newly
launched Chloe Voices series,
which includes talks, events, studio visits, and live performances
that together reinforce positivity through the work of women
artists across different fields.

Participants include Langley Fox
Hemingway and Ellie Goulding (both friends
of Chloe creative
director Natacha Ramsay-Levi),
as well as visual artists who have collaborated previously
with the house, such as Rithika Merchant. 

“That’s what Chloe is about,”
Ramsay-Levi says of the project. “It’s a space for women’s voices
and a space for dialogue between those voices. It’s meant to help
open the Chloe community up to different ways of spending our days
in our moving and changing society.”

Ramsay-Levi had been planning
the series, which streams live every Tuesday, for about six months
before it launched.

“Then when all this happened, I
was like, ‘Now’s the moment to start this,’” she says. “And the
whole team was ready to go for it. In a very selfish way, it’s
really rewarding to do this—to watch these women whom I admire so
much living in the clothes and making their art. To me, it’s best
thing to see.”

Movies and Talks

For his part, the Paris-based
creative director of Celine, Hedi Slimane—who has always been a
film buff—is using this time to collaborate with the video-streaming
service Mubi to line up a series of great films for his audience to
indulge in. 

Available for anyone through the
end of May, Slimane’s curated selection includes Hollywood classics
like Charade and Apocalypse Now, alongside cult
favorites such as Paris, Texas, Night Tide, and
Persona. 

“Watching classic movies
helps me tremendously during these uncertain days of endless
quarantine,” Slimane says. “I was wondering what I could possibly
share, what could be reassuring, and what could serve as a
comforting escapist gift. Mubi, with its culture and fine selection
of cult movies, was the perfect template for this improvised
project.”

Slimane has also been
using Celine’s Instagram TV to host
virtual studio visits
with artists such as Charles Harlan, and performances by musicians
including Joan Jett and Beck.

And to stay in touch with its
audience, the Italian heritage house Prada has organized Prada
Possible Conversations, a series of Instagram events that has
included contributors such as filmmaker Francesco Vezzoli and
philosopher Emanuele Coccia, who together discussed the meaning of
love in the time of coronavirus. Each talk has also coincided with
a donation by Prada to UNESCO to benefit the 1.5 billion students worldwide
affected by school and university closures.

“It is only through conversation
and confrontation that you can grow as a human being, but also take
whatever you are working on to the next step,” the brand said in a
statement.

“Whether in fashion or in the
work of the Prada Foundation, we have had the privilege to work and
collaborate with an endless number of talents in diverse fields. It
was very natural to bring some of them together and share with our
Instagram audience their thoughts on subjects dear to
them.”

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Product’: Top Luxury Designers on Why They’re Collaborating With
Artists Like Never Before appeared first on artnet
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