Gucci has replaced fashion designer Tom Ford with a faceless team, in a battle between brand and star, writes Deirdre McQuillan.
Is a brand name greater than that of a star designer? Can Gucci survive without Ford? Those were the questions in Paris this week as Tom Ford, the 42-year-old US fashion designer, took his final bow at his valedictory show for YSL Rive Gauche at the Musée Rodin.
The collection with its pagoda sleeves, mandarin collars and skintight skirts demonstrated his showmanship and his style; Yves Saint Laurent, after all, was fascinated by China, but today the allure also lies in lucrative new markets for luxury goods. Ford's acrimonious separation from the Gucci Group, owners of YSL, was followed by an announcement that a team of in-house designers is succeeding him. Replacing celebrity with anonymity may well be the beginning of a trend.
An industry superstar, Ford made his name and his fortune transforming Gucci, an almost bankrupt Italian company, into an internationally successful clothing and accessories brand along with his business partner, the Italian Domenico de Sole. Ford's efforts to turn around YSL, which Gucci bought in l999, have, however, been less stellar and despite a massive investment of some €300 million, the company is still struggling.
Ford denied rumours that a rift with the giant French conglomerate PPR (Pinault Printemps Redoute), which owns Gucci, was due to his excessive salary demands, insisting the issue was rather one of control. "I think a fashion brand has to have a single, focused point of view," he told Women's Wear Daily. "Money had absolutely nothing to do with it," said one of the highest-paid fashion designers in the world.
His exit marks the end of a dazzling 10-year career and a week of other high profile defections in Paris - Michael Kors from Celine and Julien Macdonald from Givenchy.
Ford's successors, whose names are unfamiliar to the general public, signal a move away from high-profile designers, reversing a trend that began in l983 when Karl Lagerfeld took over Chanel.
Many companies such as Max Mara and Prada in Italy have succeeded without stars and some would argue that teamwork is the way forward. Whatever way one looks at it, it's a hot topic at the moment.
At Gucci, the Ford-trained Alessandra Facchinetti, John Ray and Alfreda Giannini (said to have designed the best-selling snaffle handbag) will take over womenswear, menswear and accessories. At YSL, Stefano Pilati, formerly with Prada, is expected to take the helm. All will be promoted as rising talents.
Serge Weinberg, chief executive of PPR, told Le Monde this week that the idea Gucci, a company now worth $2.5 billion, relied on two people was an insult to its 11,000 workers. "It is the success of Gucci products that have made Tom Ford, not the other way around," he said. Asked whether he thought the company could survive without Ford, he said: "I don't see why the door should be closed to young talent - if we hadn't given Tom Ford a chance 10 years ago, this sector would be dead."
Other fundamental differences on the future strategy of the company also emerged. Luxury groups such as PPR and its rival, LVMH, spent fortunes on acquisitions in the l990s and though Gucci has been unquestionably a star performer for PPR, large investments were made restructuring YSL - 53 stores opened in three years - without noticeable yields. Other labels such as Boucheron, Balenciaga and McCartney are losing money and Alexander McQueen's growth is slow.
Ford is adamantly against licensed use of brand names, a discredited tactic in the luxury business where the current modus operandi is to buy back licences to retain complete control over what is called "brand integrity" or keeping the upmarket image of luxury and exclusivity sacrosanct. Weinberg has, however, not ruled out licensing for the less successful brands as a way of helping them develop.
Now that PPR and Ford have parted company, it remains to be seen what the future holds for YSL and Gucci in the post-Ford era. The designer who is said to have left with a €100 million handshake and who has plans to make movies, will be forever associated with glamorous dresses and glitzy Hollywood parties, with celebrities such as Nicole Kidman in a YSL dress of mesh and gold sequins at the Golden Globes and Charlize Theron in a shimmering silver Gucci dress at this year's Oscars.
"My style," Ford told American Vogue, "is always sexual, glamorous, polished . . . vacillating between slut and chic."
It represented, as one US commentator put it, a hedonist era of celebrity endorsement that said "buy, buy, buy", an image that doesn't square with the new, more ladylike woman emerging from the catwalks. So, it's not just about bidding adieu to Tom Ford, but saying bye, bye, bye instead.