Fashion’s obsession with youth more bankable than ever
New York – One of the pushbacks against Hedi Slimane’s Celine debut seems to be
that he has effectively replaced Phoebe Philo’s grown-up, self-assured,
sophisticated woman with her teenage daughter. A gawky, rebellious waif
straight from central casting who stays out all night in barely-there
clothing is the French house’s new message. But of a collection which the
designer had entitled “Journal Nocturne de la Jeunesse Parisienne,” what
did we expect? Nonetheless there are now two Celine camps: Philophiles and
Slimaniacs, and Slimane has made clear that his Celine consumer is not
summoning board meetings and setting agendas but journaling, entering
breathless adolescent musings in her diary.
So, what’s new?
Fashion has always fetishized youth. While a supernova like Kate Moss,
discovered at age 14, is still gracing covers and catwalks three decades
later, there are countless more models who were scouted equally early but
retired by 21. Cindy Crawford’s daughter, Kaia Gerber, stepped into her
supermodel mother’s footsteps to bag her first Vogue cover at 14. Fashion
has been built on a timeless idea that the consumer of high-end goods,
likely not below the age of 35 to allow them to have built solid careers
and acquired spending power, will feel young, spritely, virile, if they buy
into this season’s retro prom looks or latest dad sneakers or five figure
grandma purse.
If we could turn back time
Ageism on the runway has been one of the hardest isms to eradicate.
Feeding our insecurities this billion-dollar industry exists to validate
our resistance to growing old, holding up a mirror to our inner demons,
stoking our desire to beat the passage of time. We’ve been bamboozled into
believing we can disguise how many laps around the sun we’ve made by
seasonal trips to Barneys.
But it’s inevitable we’re mesmerized by youth. It restores contact with
our past selves, reminds us of when we were filled with promise, literally
living the dream, because self actualization was something up ahead before
any of life’s disappointments chipped away at it. On these new bright young
things we can project the specter of our own redo. They give form to our
deepest nostalgia while also reflecting society at large. Anti-aging creams
and plastic surgery are multi-billion dollar industries, and who over 25
objects to being asked for id when entering a bar?
So while designers have traditionally been inspired by youth
sub-cultures, tortured high-school heroes, misunderstood teenage outcasts
and adolescent princesses, that inspiration has been repackaged for a
purchasing demographic almost geriatric by contrast. Middle-aged maybe, but
filthy rich. Not anymore.
The fetish has turned financial
The results of a recently released UBS study illustrates why Slimane is
bang on the money. From a pool of over 3,000 consumers across China, Europe
and the U.S., millennials drove 85 percent of the growth in the luxury goods
sector last year, with Chinese millennials particularly dominant. Gucci and
Louis Vuitton are the most popular labels with the latter attributing 33 percent
of its 2017 growth to consumers aged between 21-33. Saint Laurent puts 65 percent
of its growth last year down to millennials while Gucci’s estimate is
50 percent.This demographic is set to represent 45 percent of total high-end
spending by 2025.
View this post on InstagramInfluencers underpin the appeal of certain brands to young consumers who
came of age in the digital era and are fluent in social media. In a
statement accompanying the September IPO filing of successful e-commerce
site Revolve which maintains a network of 2500+ influencers who connect
with young female consumers, it states that “much of the growth in our
customer base to date has originated from social media and
influencer-driven marketing strategy…{who}…have an outsized impact on the
purchasing behaviors of next-generation consumers.” The statement cites
examples of bloggers Camila Coelho, Julie Sarinana, and Natasha Oakley who
have respectively 7.3 million, 4.9 million and 2 million followers.Additionally, gender fluidity or the “genderless” aesthetic proposed so
convincingly by Maison Margiela for Spring 2019 only perpetuates that more
ambiguous body type. While inclusivity might bring curvier representation
on one runway, on another, corset-attired figures as tall as adults but
minus the hips or chest still appear to exalt the pubescent undeveloped
archetype we’ve come to know.So the hunt rages for the new Phoebe Philo among the set who will no
longer make do with a closet that falls under the damning epithet
“classic,” and who will shell out big for dignified, ageless, directional
dressing. But for the rest, fashion’s not going to grow up any time
soon.Fashion editor Jackie Mallon is also an educator and author of Silk for
the Feed Dogs, a novel set in the international fashion industry.Images: from CatwalkPictures.com; Gucci Men’s cruise 2019 campaign