Managing arts and culture: new function, multiple solutions.
If the challenge for luxury brands is to combine both arts expertise and cultural connections. But the question is: are they well equipped to meet the challenge? Is there one unique recipe or multiple options to integrate and master this new capability? There’s no one fits all solutions but depending on the type of brand, we can observe different ways of proceeding:
In the absence of an artistic director: outside of fashion & jewelry, artistic directors tend to be quite rare. Let’s take the case of fine spirits brands. They tend to center their artistic and cultural around a specific theme and stick to it. Their artistic & cultural connections often revolve around a given passion point (e.g. RnB music for Rémy Martin, female entrepreneurship for Veuve Clicquot, contemporary art for Ruinart, etc.). These connections are mostly driven by Marketing and Comms teams, equipped sometimes with a Head of Arts who can help scooting and dealing the partnerships with artists and cultural figures.
In the absence of a public artistic director: some luxury creative brands are not led by an artistic directors’ vision but by a constant renewal of the House DNA, savoir-faire, and icons. It’s the case of brands like Loro Piana, Berluti or Brunello Cucinelli. In that case the artistic & cultural connections remain more limited, whereas they are crucial to transcend the timelessness side of the brands and make the most of the “quiet luxury” opportunity without becoming boring.
In the presence of a public artistic director: when the brands are revolving around the creative proposition of an artistic director, the cultural & artistic proposition are often inherently linked to their creative vision. That’s the case of Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe or Hedi Slimane’s Celine where the roster of artists or cultural icons that work with the houses are the direct reflection of the artistic director’s centers of interest.
Whatever the case, being always on the move is a prerequisite for success. It takes a lot of energy, passion, and knowledge to play with, combine and master both the Verticality of Arts and the Horizontality of Cultures. And we believe all luxury houses would benefit from questioning themselves about what should be their artistic and cultural strategy. After the brand platform came the brand purpose. Time has come now to define what I would call the “brand artistic and cultural aura”.