The Crisis of Creative Recognition

How making design teams invisible fuels high turnover

As we move back into the show season, we have been thinking about the reason why enthusiastic teens decide to study fashion in the first place. No designer goes to art school with the burning desire to become a millionaire – today those folks are better suited trying their luck in crypto or AI. They start out because of a need to give voice to their creativity; to learn how to skilfully express their inner worlds. That’s firmly reflected in our last newsletter: we asked emerging brands what success is for them, and the unanimous answer was to remain creative. Money is nice, they say, but mostly to support their creative freedom. 

Creativity is inherently linked to a person’s identity. As creatives, we seek validation from others to affirm that identity. It’s a comforting thought to imagine we can get by without this external ‘approval’, but the truth is, we cannot. We constantly compare our achievements to those of others; we shape our ideas of success by looking at our peers – the grass is always greener. 

Creatives don’t exist or design in a vacuum. From the dawn of humanity, we have thrived through the strength of communities. It is within our core being to care deeply about what others think of our contributions. For creativity to truly flourish, one needs to feel seen and appreciated by those around them. 

This sense of validation is straightforward when you start your own brand, but it becomes more complex when you start working for a brand. Once a designer becomes part of a team, their creativity gets absorbed into a whole, not just without recognition but assigned to someone else. The thing that makes them unique has become taken for granted, inherently meaning: the core of who they are is taken for granted. In the long-term, that’s not a healthy formula for sustainable creativity.

The Genius vs The Team

Recently, we had a conversation with the CEO of a luxury fashion brand who shared his growing frustration with the industry’s stubbornness, related to this theme.