Without fear of being contradicted, I feel like saying that the fashion world in 2021 has been strongly characterized by collaborations, to put it mildly. An unprecedented number of joint ventures have marked a new approach, a new narrative on the part of even the high fashion houses that, unlike in the past, have pushed much harder on partnerships. We also witnessed a phenomenon that had never occurred before: the mash up between two high fashion players. But let’s go step by step.
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Grassroots collaborations have always been seen as a chance to unleash creativity, pushing the boundaries in which brands are often confined. Clearly, there is also the economic side of the matter, thanks to which smaller brands or brands that may be going through a period of decline – both in sales and appeal – can enjoy the reflected light of the larger brand with which they join forces.
However, 2021 saw the overcoming of this established dynamic and the green light was given to a new form of collaboration/partnership, that between big brands.
Versace with Fendi, the hacking project of Balenciaga and Gucci, Dior and Sacai, the creative binomial between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons are just some of the examples of this new direction that seems to bet everything, more than on creativity, on the dynamics that dominate the fashion system, which are the same that dictate the timing of our everyday life and our work in many cases, the hyper-fast and immediate ones of social networks. I think it’s rhetorical to mention the economic issue again, since this part is always the most important of all: brands must bring in revenues and collaborations are always a very useful viaticum.
In the last year we have witnessed a sort of polarization of fashion towards the hype that has inexorably bent the logic and timing of the fashion system, much more than the pandemic, but we will come back to this. A constant need for novelty that however clashes with the very concept of creativity.
Users are not satisfied, they want more and they want it immediately, they feel the need to buy “new” things. The real problem, however, is that very often the collaborations are mostly things that we have already seen and that perhaps draw from collections already presented, reshuffled in an orgy of logos that satisfy(?) only the eye and very little the intellect.
It is no coincidence that, for example, Fendi and Versace presented their collaboration only a few days after their respective Spring/Summer 2022 fashion shows. An apparent overload in full countertendency with what the entire fashion world had set for itself at the outbreak of the pandemic: normalization of the production cycle, a stop to the 4 annual collections, single shows for both men’s and women’s collections. It all seems to have been forgotten – I’m not generalizing, I’m clearly talking about a trend – because of the need to respond to an economic system that instead pushes harder and harder and demands the maximum, always.
A short circuit that, also in light of the latest news on the development of the pandemic that still sees us hostages, reflects the vanity and market logic of the large international luxury groups that own the most important brands such as Kering (Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Bottega Veneta, etc.) and LVMH (Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Céline, Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Kenzo, Loro Piana, etc.).
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All this, however, does not take away from the fact that the emotional part that is solicited when we learn of a new collaboration between two big players, or between two streetwear brands, continues to release that massive dose of endorphins against which there is little we can do. The writer is an enthusiast, a lover of this world and for this very reason the fact that I like many things does not necessarily mean that they are innovative, ethical, sensible or reflect a kind of broad coherence. You can also sit back, observe and enjoy them, but in a context like the contemporary one, it doesn’t hurt to pull out your critical spirit every now and then, no matter what.
Fashion is an industry and today it is also entertainment and as such it moves, right or wrong (according to everyone’s personal thought) and it should be evaluated also keeping in mind the dynamics in place.
I’ll end by saying that the noise of collaborations this 2021 was loud, like we didn’t expect and like we’ve never heard before. I hope that 2022 will be characterized by softer, less shouted sounds (but this remains my very personal wish) and that the fashion industry will ask itself a question: did we need this?
