In-house designers discuss salaries at luxury brands
Senior employees at Balenciaga, Prada, McQueen, Y/Project, Bottega, Phoebe Philo and more speak candidly and anonymously.
Behind-the-scenes content is increasingly popular in fashion, communicating the PR-approved musings of this week’s creative director (gone the next). But what we really need is honest information about the inner workings of the top brands and conglomerates. We decided it was time to ask the experts who are never asked.
1 Granary has interviewed in-house designers at the height of their careers – the stalwarts who have been researching, conceptualising, designing, and producing every collection for the past three decades. Over the next few weeks, we will release a series of newsletters devoted to a different thematic area that emerged from our conversations: money, power dynamics, motherhood, equality, ageism and much more.
To kick things off, we’ll be discussing everyone’s favourite unspoken subject: salaries.
‘I never earned much money throughout my career. I also never interviewed for a job. When I got my job as a junior designer at a Parisian luxury house, I thought I’d made it. Then they called me: “How is 28k per year?” I earn more working at the pub! I was absolutely shocked. Since then, up until this year, I really had to negotiate every single round.
I was constantly talking about it with my colleagues. Because we’ve been good friends for a while, there was trust, so we could have that conversation. That is when you can learn that companies do not value you at all. An older colleague of mine is in a similar position but earning 30k less. They get away with it because they assume we’re not going to speak to each other.
You don’t want to be seen as the one rallying the troops, but you can achieve a lot by talking to everyone and asking them what they earn, sharing your HR experience, then encouraging each other to negotiate. In this case, it really helps to go for a drink after work. After two glasses of wine we’re shouting at each other: “This is how you ask for more money!"
Paris is the most expensive city in the world. I’m a certain age where I want to buy a house, and I want all the things that life can give me. I deserve to be able to go on holiday. If you’re in the core design team of a luxury brand, but you can’t afford the luxuries of life… then why are you doing it?
I had this realisation when I went back home to Australia. Everyone was talking about my job in Paris, curious to find out what it was like, seeing me as a star… but then I would have to lie that I’d already had dinner because I couldn’t afford the bill. I’m sleeping on a friend’s couch and drinking wine in a park. Is this the image you want for your brand?’
██████, Senior Designer at ██████