Yayoï Kusama is obsessed by dots, these days i am obsessed by Samsung… Early yesterday morning I was in the taxi for the airport not thinking of my flight for NYC but the korean firm.
Is it the huge neons above the buldings showing the name of the Korean conglomerate?
Is it my trip to Seoul last year?
Is it the fantastic Juun J show i saw last week during men’s fashion week where my dear friend Sun told me all about Samsung family and the acquisition of the fashion brand?
Samsung is planing to help Juun J expand his brand through Europe.
Is it because i’ve just discover that Samsung is sponsoring young designers around the world through an award created in 2005?
Can we see something like this in our country? Does Orange could invest in young designers and launch new mobile phones all together?
Time is money
Creative process is very long.
Creation, selling, recover the revenue of previous season and sometimes it’s 3 seasons that overleap. During this time the young designer is struggling. Money is mostly what is waiting for, being with a marketing manager is also welcomed as he let the designer concentrates only into creation.
Organizations like Mode et Finances, Les Anges de la Mode or IFCIC in France are helping creativity by establishing financial tools, explaining to banks the designer’s needs. But the selection is harsh and edgy, for Mode et Finances the designer must have 500000 euros of sales and the season overleap discourages the investors and the banks.
Last year Dassault Systèmes part of Dassault group teamed with french young designer Julien Fournié to develop a 3D software for designing clothes. It’s not yet a sponsorship, but perhaps the premises of something.
Mercedes-Benz is sponsoring many fashion events in the world (Australia, Germany, Japan, Russia…).
Conglomerates (a corporation consisting of several companies in different businesses which allow diversification of business, for exemple in France we have Bolloré) are not culturally as implemented in everyday life in France as it’s seems to be in Asia.
Before the crisis, french car brand Renault was defining itself as a luxury brand, trying to use the same codes. Fashion and creativity, as arts, could give business companies an image boost, many firms collects arts in their offices and not only well known artists (even if we know that it’s not only for philanthropy).
Can we see designers like Alexandre Vauthier sponsored by a car firm?
Snobbery?
Paris is the capital of fashion, France the historic country of Haute Couture… Does this strong heritage allows a french fashion brand to team with a cellphone company?
Creativity need to be feeded by new designers and new houses. It’s a tricky move as investing in new designers is a 5 to 10 years with little or no rentability. But actually for the survival of french fashion is (perhaps) the only way.
lemodalogue.com 