Material World

In all the rumours floated about who would be the next big creative director at Dior, from names old (Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci, Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Vuitton’s Marc Jacobs) to new-ish (Haider Ackerman and Sarah Burton) one that hasn’t been mentioned but has, I discovered, actually been called, is perhaps the most surprising of all: Azzedine Alaia. I had heard whispers, but he just confirmed it.

To be fair, from a sheer talent point of view, this is not surprising: Mr Alaia is often voted by his peers one of the most influential designers ever (really ever; not just of the 20th century), and has been building a house of singular vision for decades.

He is also one of the last hands-on couturiers, beloved by his atelier. Part of the conundrum facing Dior is they need a designer who can work with the couture, and most youngsters, brought up on ready-to-wear, don’t have the know-how.

Besides, two Dior muses, costume jeweller Camille Miceli and fine jeweller Victoire de Castellane, are often clad head-to-toe in Alaia. So you could well understand why the Dior folks might have thought of Azzedine for the top job at the big jewel in their particular crown.

But here’s the thing: Mr Alaia has been perhaps the most vocal advocate of all living designers about the need to change the fashion system, to slow it down, to stop the relentless demand for more collections and more store openings. Years ago he stopped having official fashion shows, and started showing, and delivering to stores, only when he was ready as opposed to when the schedule dictates. And one of the houses that most embodies that continuous pressure is Dior; indeed, when former designer John Galliano imploded, the pressures of the system were cited as major contributing factors.

Plus, of course, there are the small details that Dior rival Richemont actually owns a chunk of the Alaia business and has been helping create the designer’s archive (otherwise, he says, “they leave me alone”), and that the designer himself is in his 70s.

Since I would never under-estimate Bernard Arnault, chairman of Dior (which actually owns LVMH), nor CEO Sidney Toledano, however, this makes me wonder if perhaps the group has some interesting plans to change the way it does business up its sleeve, and will use the new designer as an excuse to do so.

If so, it would be a revolution that would have an enormous ripple effect on the whole fashion industry. My guess is other brands would immediately fall in behind; everyone is looking for a reason to change and slow down, but everyone is scared to be the brand that sticks its neck out.

In a way, having a more mature designer at the helm who could act as an agent of change and then hand a new regime over to posterity makes sense. And for this, I guess Dior/LVMH would relax their current thinking about not letting a designer continue his or her own line once they take on a heritage name, as I can’t imagine Mr Alaia closing his house for Dior – though I can imagine the enormous premiums Richemont would exact if Dior tried to buy them out.

Anyway, in the end it’s moot, because Mr Alaia wasn’t interested. Flattered, but not about to pursue. The story of what happened with John was a sad story, he said when I asked him, and he didn’t want to be part of the next chapter. And that’s even before you got to the other stuff.

The sheer fact that the Dior leadership was thinking this way does, however, make me think the field may be more open than the fashion world suspects. Goody.