La Ligne — Luxury · Strategy #04

JUNE 2026 by Justine Grosset

The ideal artistic director is first a brand reader

Several major shifts in the luxury landscape have caught my attention over the past few weeks. Chanel is showing renewed growth, credited to the work of Matthieu Blazy. The LVMH group has sold Marc Jacobs to a portfolio management firm. Gucci, in the Demna era, is generating buzz, but sales are failing to follow. Meanwhile, quietly, Pucci is exploding by fully embracing exactly what it is. In their own way, these brand strategies all answer the same fundamental question: who is really steering the ship—the brand or its creative director?

"Blazymania": A Result, Not a Strategy

Let’s be precise. Blazy didn’t save Chanel; he served it. And that nuance is essential. The resurgence of interest is real, documented, and clearly visible in the financial results. However, several industry observers noted implicitly that the maison's historical clientele is responding less enthusiastically. While it is too early to draw definitive conclusions, the signals are clear enough to raise a crucial question: is the Maison actively prioritizing audience renewal? It is a risky strategic gamble.

Conscious of the inherent risk of an omnipresent creative director—especially for a Maison that sat under the iron fist and leather-gloved tenure of Karl Lagerfeld for decades—Chanel has just recruited Cartier veteran jeweler Marie-Laure Bernadac to lead its jewelry development, independently of ready-to-wear. Without saying it out loud, Chanel is building its growth pillars outside of its fashion director’s signature. A brilliant strategy.

Management is Not Self-Expression

Lagerfeld was perhaps the most radical example of this. Chanel, Fendi, Chloé, Karl... four brands, four radically different brand platforms, an immediately recognizable aesthetic presence in each. He didn’t talk about himself; he talked about the brands. Sometimes moving from his Parisian office to Fendi’s Roman headquarters in a single day, he never diluted the distinct identities of these Maisons. He understood something many designers refuse to admit: joining a heritage house means joining a team of strategists and brand experts, not taking ownership of a blank creative canvas. Chanel—which I had the privilege of experiencing from the inside—possesses this unique strength: its codes are so deeply anchored that every employee, whether in strategy, editorial, or design, instinctively becomes their guardian.

Martin Margiela’s tenure at Hermès (from 1997 to 2003) illustrated this exact same logic with particular acuity. The designer was radical in his personal aesthetic. Yet at Hermès, he slipped into the brand platform with rare precision—respectful of the codes, attentive to the heritage, without ever compromising his distinct eye. This isn't submission. It is a superior form of mastery: being an excellent brand reader before trying to be its inventor. Luxury brands like Chanel or Saint Laurent already carry the literal imprint of their founder-creators within their very platform. Gabrielle Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent... visions that remain foundational decades after their departure. Benevolent ghosts that creative directors learn to accommodate, with varying degrees of success.

Reimagining vs. Disrupting

The question is not whether a Creative Director should bring something new to the table. The real question is the form this renewal takes. A great creative director evolves a brand platform. They enrich it, reinterpret it, and sometimes shift its boundaries slightly. True disruption—a clean break from what the brand has built—is perhaps more honestly suited to a label one creates from scratch. When a designer wants to tear up the rulebook entirely, a legitimate question arises: why do it under another house’s name? This is where the Gucci/Demna case study gets interesting. Converting media capital into sustainable desirability for Gucci’s actual clientele—rather than just catering to a displaced Balenciaga audience—is a challenge of a completely different order. The true test of a brand-Creative Director is whether they generate growth for the house, or merely for their own name.

Le cas d’école Hedi Slimane mérite qu’on s’y arrête. Chez Saint Laurent, puis chez CelineThe textbook case of Hedi Slimane is worth pausing over. First at Saint Laurent, then at Celine, he imposed an instantly recognizable aesthetic: his own. Both houses drastically grew under his leadership. Did he cannibalize these brand platforms, or did he simply inhabit them in his own way? In his own words: 'You arrive with a story, a culture, a personal language that are different from those of the house. You have to be yourself, against all odds.' Pour lui « On arrive avec une histoire, une culture, un langage personnel qui sont différents de ceux de la maison. Il faut être soi-même, contre toute attente ».

The answer perhaps lies in what happened after his departure. Slimane publicly called out Celine, calling out campaigns he deemed too close to his personal style—a claim of intellectual property over an aesthetic he believed belonged to him. This is precisely where the risk materializes: when the designer's DNA ultimately eclipses that of the house, who owns what? The brand can find itself held hostage by a style it didn't entirely build, unable to move forward without exposing itself to conflict. If an aesthetic is that personal and identifiable, isn't it proof that the 'Slimane brand' already exists, even before it any officially launched?

The Artist-Brand: A Risk to Avoid?

LVMH’s divestment of Marc Jacobs to WHP Global, a brand management firm, says something specific and much more universal than it appears. Marc Jacobs stays, but the house changes hands. This is not a judgment on the designer. It is a signal pointing to a distinction the industry prefers not to articulate too loudly: an artist-brand and an institution-brand do not hold the same value, nor do they endure in the same way. The former depend entirely on a personality to exist. The latter survive any creative transition because their platform is robust enough to welcome, guide, inspire, and ultimately absorb any talent.

While some labels keep trying to climb upmarket or matching their pace to their Creative Director's stride, Pucci is successfully doing the exact opposite. Its creative director, Camille Miceli, fully embraces the brand’s true register: commercial, colorful, Gen Z-friendly, and resolently hedonistic. It is a brand free from legitimacy complexes, refusing to mimic the hyper-elevated luxury elite. They go as far as offering temporary tattoos and pool floats. The result? Pucci is among the fastest-growing brands in the LVMH portfolio. This is no minor detail; it’s a masterclass in brand strategy. Not every house is destined to become more luxurious, more exclusive, or more heavily personified. Some gain immensely by fully owning their brand platform with precision, consistency, and zero apologies. Value doesn't always lie in elevation. It lies in clarity.

The question this poses for tomorrow’s luxury entrepreneurs is perhaps an uncomfortable one: are you building a lasting institution, or simply a vehicle for your own name?

The test ahead: Hermès and Grace Wales Bonner

Grace Wales Bonner’s appointment late last year as Creative Director of Hermès Men’s Ready-to-Wear is perhaps the most strategically fascinating case study to watch in the coming months. Hermès possesses one of the most solid, best-defined platforms in the entire luxury industry. Grace Wales Bonner has a powerful, deeply personal creative voice rooted in a very specific culture (the African and Caribbean diaspora), viewing clothing as an identity narrative. How will these two universes collide? Did Hermès choose a brand reader, or an artist? The answer will take a few seasons to unfold. But it will tell us a great deal about the Maison's overarching strategy.

What if the truest disruption a luxury brand could make was knowing how to resist its artistic director's?

Justine Grosset is a brand strategist and editorial director specializing in luxury and art de vivre. She helps executives, heritage houses, and agencies shape their brand strategy and editorial expression.