In-house designers on sustaining creativity inside luxury brands
"I see my teams going through creative ups and downs. It’s very hard to see them low."
Following our candid, anonymous conversations about having children, salaries, power dynamics, and internal politics, here we discuss commerce vs. creativity inside the often old-fashioned, hierarchical luxury brands of Paris, Milan, London and New York.
When I graduated, I felt like a failure for not setting up my own brand. Now, I have really solid foundations and a much more secure financial situation, so I could do something more creative. Had I done that out of college, I would have crippled myself – but it’s the direction all young graduates are pushed in. You’re always pushed to do a traditional show. There is very little reflection on new business models.
Creativity is presented as the only thing that can provide purpose. But you can have an impact and a voice without owning your own label. It can be through the way you communicate and guide a team.
The structured setting of a corporation isn’t about individual expression, but the way in which you respond to the setting, to the technical restraints and the briefs – that takes creativity too.
It takes a lot to change the system from the inside. It’s easy to say “I don’t want to participate,” but it needs to be a collective shift. It won’t just be the designers who make the change. If we want to create a product that is more long-lasting, we need to take up all the different positions. Developers, managers, producers.
██████, Senior Leather Goods Designer at ██████
I see my teams going through creative ups and downs. It’s very hard to see them low. When I see that, I try to take them out, go to a museum or a performance. It’s almost every six months that I feel those dips. A deadline can help, but everyone has a different rhythm.
I don’t believe that you can’t be creative on the spot. With experience, you can use your tools to be creative on the spot. You don’t have to wait for it. It won’t always be equally successful, but you have strategies to come with ideas, even when you feel uninspired.
████████, Studio Design Director at ██████
If you’re a creative, you can always regenerate your creativity. Ideas will come and go, you can always adapt to the context. You need to go through the process of knowing how to apply your ideas. Not everything that is good is good for everyone. It’s really exciting to respond to different creative people. At one point, I had five different projects. This is such good brain exercise.
As a freelancer, it can happen that you’ll receive the same brief from three different creative directors. We all see the same thing. So then the challenge is about adaptation. Everything has already been done, but it’s how you apply it that will make an impact.
██████, Head of Knitwear at ████
There is this myth that creatives reject corporate environments, but in reality, having transparency and structure just means you don’t have to worry or stress about your position. If you have a well-organised design team that knows how to work together, you don’t have to worry about what someone else is doing, and you don’t feel frustrated because you’ve worked until midnight for three months and didn’t feel appreciated. Those thought patterns kill creativity. That is the dangerous thing with creatives. Creatives need to feel secure in order to do what they do well. If you have a solid structure and transparency, they can grow and push ideas freely without fear.