Culture as a rejuvenation cure.
In the meantime, another movement took over the industry. With the beginning of the 2010s, luxury brands started partnerships with cultural figures belonging to the mainstream Zeitgeist. Luxury brands had become so art-like that they needed to revitalize themselves. Luxury found a way to be celebrated at the MET’s Costume Institute and at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs without becoming dusty or irrelevant.
Brands multiplied their associations with (at the time) unexpected cultural figures. From Louis Vuitton partnering with Supreme to Hennessy and Rémy Martin partnering with the most prominent names in hip-hop and rap music, street culture was not an object of contempt but of celebration. Niche cultural forms became mainstream. That’s how Dior brought to light Hajime Sorayama’s sultry hyperrealism in 2018 or the video game Gran Turismo in 2022. From anime to video games to queer or BIPOC subcultures, all forms of collaborations were now more than legitimate: they were desirable. It is linked to a more profound change in people’s relationship to culture. Culture is not limited to fine arts anymore, all forms of subculture and entertainment are considering part of Culture with a big “C”. Compared to 56% of the mainstream, 68% of prosumers say they think video games are as meaningful as artforms like paintings, movies, books. All in all, enlarging the possibilities of collabs and embracing this new open definition of culture was a resounding success. It enabled luxury brands to remain relevant and desirable among the youngest without losing an older and wealthier target.
But more fundamentally, how can we explain this appetite for an extended vision of culture. In our opinion, there are two complementary explanations:
First the question of inspiration. Yves Saint Laurent himself was in his time mixing inspirations. Creating dresses inspired by Mondrian’s work just as he was inspired by the style of Parisian youth in the 60s. It is not different for today’s designers, taking inspiration from everywhere, including and especially from what happens in the mainstream. Riccardo Tisci was one of the firsts to bring hoodies and sweatpants to the runway. Demna built his signature style on Eastern European working-class aesthetics. Simon Porte Jacquemus did the same with the south of France. And it extends also to new ways of communicating, from organizing a techno day party in the outskirts of Paris for Courrèges to wrapping vegetables in Prada prints at supermarkets. It’s about turning the mundane into something extraordinary, contextualizing one’s work in a setting that isn’t a minimalist black and white catwalk.
Second comes the question of creation. Artistic directors are no longer exclusively designers. Luxury fashion & culture have become so intertwined that some brands are putting cultural prominent figures at the helm of their houses. They are not only responsible for design anymore, but they are also the total art directors of a Gesamtkunstwerk. The ask is not only to come up with the next it-product, but to steer the whole image of brand – product, regular comms, PR activations, events etc.
These multiple cultural connections have strengthened luxury brands’ hegemony in people’s minds. While elevation was and remains a constant objective for luxury brands, there’s also a profound need for a deeper emotional connection that requires common ground, shared references, and authenticity. To be important in people’s lives, a form of legitimacy is required. While connection to the art world was all about “verticality”, cultural connection brings a “horizontality”- a mix of approachability, in-the-now feeling that allows customers to feel like they are peers and not just a passive target.
The question for luxury brands is a question of equilibrium. How to address the stretch between so-called “high” and “low”, between elitism and mainstream, eternity and Zeigeist? It’s all about balancing expertly high art connections and cultural connections at large. How to keep a consistency in a brand that needs both Beyonce sitting front-row and a set designed by Eva Jospin. How to combine sense of elevation and quest for inclusion? In other terms, how to reach the sweet spot between verticality and horizontality?