Kering Brands Are Again Sitting Out Fashion Week. Is That the Right Move?
This week, everyone will be talking about who is, and isn’t, showing at Milan Fashion Week, plus financial results from some of the biggest new and old retail names.
Milan Fashion Week runs Feb. 23 through March 1 with mostly digital shows
Kering’s Gucci and Bottega Veneta are not on the schedule
Versace will show its fall collection digitally on March 5
It was at Milan Fashion Week one year ago that the coronavirus burst onto Europe’s fashion scene. Giorgio Armani’s decision not to hold his scheduled runway show was the first in what would quickly become many cancellations and closures. Two seasons later, nobody blinks an eye at Milan’s schedule of mostly digital shows. One can even begin to detect some patterns: namely that Gucci and Bottega Veneta once again are not on the calendar. The brands have given their own reasons, but the fact that they are both in the Kering portfolio, as are Paris dropouts Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Alexander Mcqueen, raises the likelihood this is part of a broader corporate strategy.
Is skipping fashion week the right call for Kering? Gucci’s declining sales indicate the label is still struggling to convey to consumers what will succeed the maximalism of the last few years. The tourists whose spending supported the brand in the past are also sorely missed. Meanwhile, Bottega continues to grow, if not at quite the hectic pace of previous quarters.
The Bottom Line: In the past, designers (including Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and Bottega Veneta’s Daniel Lee) have used fashion week to make exactly the sort of radical statement needed to jolt their brand out of a funk. It remains to be seen whether film festivals or social media stunts will have the same effect.