4:43 p.m.
British designer Matthew Williamson is celebrating his ten year anniversary in the fashion world with a retrospective of his work at the Design Museum in London. Only graduating from design school in 1997, he’s already nabbed a head-design position at top fashion house Pucci while also running his own namesake label, a feat that used to take decades or more for designers to manage.
You can see a brief review, with a few photos, of the Williamson show at the Design Museum here.
With the rise of fashion conglomerates like LVMH and PPR, young designers with a sharp eye for trends get snatched up quickly to revitalize moribund houses that have the necessary name for global expansion, but aren’t yet turning out the right products to reach that all-important international consumer.
Pucci was a classic example of a once great design house that lost its ability to keep up with modern trends. Acquired by LVMH in 2000, it’s since experienced a serious turn-around in profile and profitability, first with Christian Lacroix at the helm, and now Matthew Williamson. Williamson’s clean, sometimes minimalist approach dove-tails nicely with Pucci’s archive of graphic prints and slim silhouettes, though Williamson does occasionally break out the unexpected frilly flourish or showy embellishment.
“I would describe the Matthew Williamson woman as being effortless, bohemian, feminine and in love with rich colour, texture and pattern. Whereas the Pucci woman doesn’t have time to mess about. I think of her as speedy, she’s not interested in fuss, she’s high-maintenance, quite powerful and vivacious. I always think of the Matthew customer as having flat shoes and the Pucci woman wearing high heels, but essentially, they have the same DNA of colour and print.” — Matthew Williamson, November 14th, 2007
There’s some concern that Williamson’s work with Pucci too closely resembles the work he does for his eponymous label, which could result in a cannibalizing of customers from both sides — but there’s always another hot-shot young designer in the wings and a company as attuned to the word on the street as LVMH is not about to watch any of its bottom lines suffer. Besides, Williamson can always be liberated to work more closely with the line that bears his name, and it’s not like Pucci hasn’t seen head designers come and go before.
Emilio Pucci, Spring/Summer 2008:
Matthew Williamson, Spring/Summer 2008:
