Phoebe Philo.
*I thought for a moment to work a headline, like Phinding Philo… but I wasn’t good at that in my first job in a newsroom, and I’m still not good at it.
*Alternative title - Phinding Philo.
As you know, if you use the internet, and simultaneously use Instagram, it was announced that Phoebe Philo will be launching her eponymous brand sometime next year.
I have some questions and would like to get a general understanding of how you feel about this.
Before you disregard unpopular opinion, here is my educated, speculative, quantified researched thoughts over the past week.
The Question. Will she be able to convert the love people had for a Philo-Céline to actual sales for a new brand?
It’s not about the clothes, we don’t need to see them, they are going to be incredible, of course, they will be, regardless if she follows the same aesthetic or not.
We have been desperately seeking a Philo replacement since she left, and we have had attempts to fill some of the voids over the past 4 years
i.e The Row - Yes and no, more expensive, low-key, less expressive, too ‘old’.
Jil Sander - Exquisite, my favorite, but the leather goods/jewelry/accessories/shoes are yet to hit the mark.
Bottega Veneta - It began well enough, but have we ever seen a brand become mainstream so fast? It was too accessible, not by way of the price point but access to the product…..Something about seeing it everywhere, and then it becomes ugly.
Phoebe created such a legacy from her designs, so many copycats that emulated her, not just a trend but an evolving style. Can she do it again, but from scratch?
Yes, she started Céline with a relatively clean slate, but overhauling a house is different from building one from past admiration.
The Point. We know she can build a collection, but can she build a new brand?
It’s not entirely to do with Phoebe at all, it’s regarding her ties with LVMH and their track record, that they haven’t proved they can build a new brand, and the tricks they do have are aging.
LVMH has become lazy in finding new solutions and trying to reinvent its business model, and I have concerns over whether they will be doing Philo justice, or just attempting to keep her in the group.
Looking at the response via the internet alone, even those who weren’t loyalists/buyers of her original designs are excited about this return. This is great for the bottom line, but if every one of these people begins to wear Phoebe Philo, will it become Bottega mainstream?
Has the copycat syndrome of what she created made her unconsciously mainstream in her absence? Will the ones loyal to her move far from it, preferring to focus on the past success - rather than invest in the future?
China, who we know LVMH loves to crack, and had started to become Céline Philo-phollowers, will they convert over?
China doesn’t tend to follow designers, but brands. Will Phoebe Philo be the exception? It could be, but without investing heavily in the actual brand rather than the product it won’t crack it there, nor will it crack it anywhere.
However, the most interesting insight to this news was the press release itself.
We are surrounded by mediocrity in the fashion industry lately, and the press release announcement felt exactly that. Mediocre. From the language to the inflated logo, and the lack of information.
You may think I’m overthinking the press release, obviously, we’ve never met before - I overthink everything for a living.
I wanted to be excited by this news, but something felt off.
She wants to govern her brand, but pushing out a press release on Business of Fashion 6 months before the launch, with a mark of minority ownership from LVMH, does that signal her rise against the industry she pushed against?
For a designer who was so behind the scenes, standing for something powerful, and doing the opposite of what the industry did in every step, this feels too expected for her.
This doesn’t sound like an independent Phoebe Philo move, and the more I think and read about it, it does feel more like an LVMH ego-driven move.
The Strategy. Is this a potential strategic move on the side of LVMH to test the waters, as they are yet to spin a new brand into something successful and covetable?
This could be a serious strategic play for LVMH to become an incubator for existing talent separate from the luxury Maisons. A switch from the ‘celebrity designer' to the ‘celebrated designer'?
To prove that they can move a successful designer from a luxury brand into a business themselves. It would make sense to try this with a proven-winning designer like Phoebe, creating a precedent for their other talent to eventually follow.
It will depend on the control they have, and what does a minority investment mean? For JW Anderson, a minority investment means 46%, which is quite the partnership.
Phoebe Philo is now considered a start-up fashion brand, and for her to create a ‘house’ will be decades in the making, and I’m skeptical of the patience for such growth to be allowed, respected, and still sought after.
The past. Have we seen success from an eponymous brand developed ‘after the fact of success? Tom Ford could be said to be one of the only designers who left a luxury house (Gucci) after pushing its reinvention and creating a brand using his name.
However, Tom Ford's strategy was to launch first with accessible luxury items, makeup, perfume, sunglasses, followed by a physical flagship in NY.
But, can you even compare the two now?
It will all depend on how she will configure her own way of thinking to this new world, and if LVMH truly lets her make her own independent moves.
No doubt she will not want to emulate what she did at Céline, but will we still want it? Most posts/articles circulating have said that whatever she does will be better than what we are currently seeing, this is true.
The majority of Céline sales, like most luxury brands relied on their leather and shoe categories. Will the majority invest as they did, upwards of thousands in a now-empty brand while it builds?
Next steps. Will Phoebe Philo Studio shun e-commerce, or is that passé now? How can a smaller start-up brand possibly survive today without a digital presence?
Less is more. Philo and LVMH need to ensure that they reign in quantities, and access to products potentially applying the same strategy as they did with Céline.
How about physical stores? Will she be opening stores globally, that emulate a new practical architecture to help us dream and embody the ‘Philo’ woman? It took 4 years for the new stores to start to roll out under her creative direction at Céline, will they speed this up, or will they wait?
Will they be against using social media? Or is that now also considered passé… to move forward without? To go dark before existing?
Thank you for listening.
Slow and steady wins the race.