Creative directors of the future

As fun as the continual game of Guess Who is for the big ticket creative director roles is right now, I think it’s important we don’t neglect the other end of the spectrum; our creative directors of the future.

A couple of weeks ago the British Fashion Council organised a buzzy day-long seminar for their cohort of new and energetic NEWGEN designers, and as a mentor I was asked to speak.

The objective was to give them access to industry experts across a variety disciplines, such as Brand & Product Strategy (Hi 👋🏻), Legal Agreements, Supply Chain, Manufacturing and more.

I know the fashion industry is feeling pretty bruised right now what with slowdowns, closures, consolidations and redundancies, and the voice telling retailers to focus on the big brands that are a safe pair of hands has never been louder.

But supporting new talent should not been seen as a selfless or charitable act, it has the ability to be transformative for both sides of the table and is a great way to bring some much needed point of difference to the table.

And for the brands themselves, wholesale will always be one of the most important sales channels during the early build phase of their business, for both the exposure and validation they get from being endorsed by a big retailer. We all know trust is a key purchasing consideration for customers of a new brand.

With fewer stores to sell to, they’ve never needed the support of retailers more, so it’s integral that they take a chance on a newbie. After all, fashion focused customers are looking for the new and the different, not the same and the everywhere.

It’s a small risk for stores, but potentially life changing for the designers, and who knows, maybe they’ll end up at the helm of a $20 billion brand like Chanel in 10 years time.