Change Is Good, Except When It Isn’t

Nothing stays the same, but when Pierpaolo Piccioli is announced as leaving Valentino after 25 years – mere days after Dries Van Noten revealed he’s retiring from his namesake label after 40 years – it has an impact. It feels like only yesterday that Sarah Burton said she was exiting Alexander McQueen after almost 30 years at the brand. 

Change is good, they say. Except when it isn’t. Whether it’s the pressure to produce more collections, more killer handbags or more viral moments, something’s rotten in the state of high fashion. Like dominos, three extremely talented designers have decided that it’s time to quit. Meanwhile, Kering is issuing profit warnings, with cash cow Gucci expecting sales to dip by up to 20 percent. Faced with falling sales, the solution for many luxury brands seems to be hiking prices even higher, putting designer fashion even further out of the reach of all but a few. 

At the same time, never have so many shoes and handbags looked the same. Dries Van Noten was one of few designers with a genuine POV; a label focused on clothes, not bags. Without he, Burton and Piccioli, fashion feels even more homogenized. Meanwhile those who could revitalise the industry – the younger, upcoming tier of design talent – can barely afford to function, much less grow or scale. Whichever side of the fence we’re on, we owe it to our young designers to support them however we can.