Givenchy haute couture S/S 2011
A winter’s day in January, a group of female Japanese samurai soldiers with 12th century
Genpei war-helmets, seized the stage during
Givenchy’s haute couture show in Paris. Designer
Riccardo Tisci had summoned the 10 models of Japanese and Chinese descent from the east, to mark a new era in fashion.
Fashion journalists all over the world jubilated in choir with watery eyes.
“Here’s to ethnic tolerance and cultural acceptance!” Question is, was divine inspiration and good will all that was behind this collection?
A few months earlier,
Marc Jacobs had presented his spring & summer collection for
Louis Vuitton. Heavily inspired by traditional Eastern craftsmanship, Jacobs sent the models down the catwalk, parading modern age kimonos. But why the sudden emerge of Asian inspired fashion?
When the European and American economies are plunging into new dark debt depths, Western fashion conglomerates such as
LVMH and their CEOs seek out new ways to achieve their annual budgetary erection. And China is currently the fastest growing market, with a burgeoning middle class ready to consume.
Louis Vuitton S/S 2011
“There are definitely economic strategies involved, and also an insight that the world’s fastest growing economy and middle class is located in the East.” says
Johan Norberg, noted Swedish idea historian and globalization expert.
Louis Vuitton chairman and CEO
Yves Carcelle has reported that the Asian market makes out 50% of Louis Vuitton’s annual profit, with China in a steadily growing leading position.
“Everybody is speaking about the financial crisis, the downfall of the Euro countries, but the world of luxury doesn’t obey the same rules”, Carcelle told The Philippine Star in September.
In April, Women’s Wear Daily published an interview with American designer
Diane von Furstenberg, where she revealed plans to break further into the Asian market, and during the recent New York Fashion Week, Japanese cherry blossom prints had found their way into her collection.
Diane von Furstenberg S/S 2012
Even in the new collaboration between classical Italian brand
Versace & Swedish
H&M,
Japanese fans are flourishing as motif on leggings, dresses, bustiers and even pillows.
Whether or not Japanese and Chinese people wish to dress as
Harajuku geishas, flirting with clichés and design stereotypes with an air of respect has become the marketing strategy du jour. However, Norberg also adds that what to the cynical eye appears to be evil scheming on behalf of the corporate fashion machine, leads nonetheless to positive consequences.
“Economical shifts often walk hand in hand with cultural changes, and bring forth curiosity and openness. Judging by history, that’s often the way that acceptance for ethnical diversity is born.”
Fashion has during the last years grown into one of the universe’s most prominent mediums of communication. A cover of Vogue will through physical sales and the Internet
(depending on the connection in Siberia) reach every corner of the world.
So whether or not the CEOs of the world are laughing all the way to the bank vault, in the end, what started out as Wall Street-strategy might just turn into a global spread of ethnical variety.
H&M + Lanvin F/W 2011
TEXT PETSY VON KÖHLER
PHOTOS STYLE.COM
