**Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga** and **Alessandro Michele, formerly at Gucci**

Update 3/19/23: I’ve issued a very important update to my deep dive on the Pharrell Williams appointment. Before I was flying on intuition, my extensive experiences in France, including an apartment hotel, my knowledge of French history, and the fact that I subscribe to Le Monde in English. My French remains pitiful, although I try hard.

This morning Le Monde delivered gold. This will be a separate post, but don’t leave without watching the Rémy Martin/Usher video at the end of my commentary. If you want to understand what is going on in French-American relations from a luxury branding experience, your head is about to spin. Vive la France!

Note that Rémy Martin remains part of a $1.3 billion in revenues, family-owned business, not LVMH.

Previously

New Kering Financials

Kering SA reported this week that the French luxury conglomerate booked a 14% drop in comparable sales over the three-month quarter that ended on December 2022.

A portion of the loss is attributed to pandemic restrictions that remained in place in China, but a general fall in sales at Gucci and consumer furor over Balenciaga’s widely-perceived use of kids being gifted BDSM-inspired, furry bags drove the biggest losses, according to WSJ. Gucci accounted for two-thirds of Kering’s profits in 2021.

The Creative Director and Design Credentials

AOC is focused on the two creative directors who lead the brands through most of 2022: Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga and Alessandro Michele at Gucci.

In the case of Gucci, Alessandro Michele stepped down at Gucci in late November last year. Michele was replaced by fashion designer Sabato De Sarno, a key creator in the Valentino design studio for 13 years, on January 30, 2023.

‘These Two Guys Are Changing How We Think About Fashion’ was the headline in a T Magazine profile written in April, 2016 about the two designers — Demna Gvasalia and Alessandro Michele.

Both Demna and Michele were beloved by the fashion industry and celebrated for being mavericks looking to shake up the status quo.

It’s not clear that De Sarno has a formal design education, but his luxury brand design experience at Italian houses Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Valentino gives him an impressive resume.

As for fashion’s two main rebels in recent years, Mr. Michele studied costume design at Rome’s Academy of Costume and Fashion, arriving at Gucci in 2002 to design handbags under Tom Ford. Demna Gvasalia [ka Demna] studied international economics for four years at Tbilisi State University and then graduated with a Master’s degree in Fashion Design from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2006.

Pharrell Williams Doesn’t Have a Design Degree

pharrell williams wearing tiffany glasses.

A fashion industry earthquake happened this week with the appointment of Pharrell Williams as Creative Director at Louis Vuitton Men’s, replacing his close friend Virgil Abloh who passsed in November 2021. The hip hop mogul, business entrepreneur, social activist with a high-volume voice on racial and gender-justice has drawn major criticism from fashion writers who argue that Pharrell’s lack of a formal design education indicates that all that matters to LVMH is his celebrity status.

AOC is quite shocked by the wide range of fashion writers criticism — not only confined to the mega-talent’s educational background. Ageism also seems to be in play, that LVMH owes younger talent the LV Men’s baton.

Multiple voices have a “prove me wrong” attitude about Pharrell’s probabiity for success, which suggests that they may not have the analytical and creative brain waves open to even recognize success when it happens before their very eyes.

Creative Director’s Design Degrees Didn’t Help Gucci and Balenciaga in 2022

AOC’s point is that if design credentials and proper schooling are at the top of the list among fashion writers for one of fashion’s most prestigious appointments, why are Gucci and Balenciaga — both led by design-credentialed talents — up against the wall in financial results?

We hope that fashion writers will offer us earthlings who live in the world of entrepreneurial rough and tumble their explanation of why they are down on Pharrell while high on creative directors with design degrees and bad financial performance.

Note that AOC is NOT saying anything negative about either Alessandro Michele or Demna — except for “what the hell were you thinking?” with Demna and Cédric Charbit, president of Balenciaga, with two ad campaigns that no one of importance was in charge of approving [if you believe that]. This post is not about them.

I want to understand from the fashion and hip hop culture writers arguing that Pharrell is a “flashy marketing ploy by LVMH” — as opposed to Martine Rose, Grace Wales Bonner, Talfar Clemens and Colm Dillane who have real credentials for the job — why Kering SA just reported such bad fourth-quarter financial results, driven by these two design-educated top-job creatives.

Step One Fashion Writers, Read the Entire LVMH Announcement

Personally, I am quite sure that Pharrell Williams is headed for a seat on the LVMH Executive Committee if results go well in the next couple of years. And I seriously doubt that any of the young talent promoted by fashion and hip hop culture writers is anywhere near that summit.

But AOC said Williams would get this job from day one. So we’re not objective about Pharrell Williams at all.

As I suggested to one of our top fashion writers resources Friday night, why don’t you read thoroughly the LVMH press release about Pharrell’s appointment, rather than your interpretation of what it should have said.

I don’t mean to sound sassy, but knowing that Louis Vuitton doubled its volume from $10 billion to $20 billion in the last four years suggests that this executive team knows what it’s doing.

I’m a maverick to the core and rarely silent on important topics.

But I do show respect to professionals who have just accomplished unimaginable results in business, results that defy logic. Before accusing them of being money-hungry Las Vegas strippers ready to trash the most valuable brand in the luxury world for a few bucks, I dig deeper.

The chattering class has other ideas, and they don’t really understand at all what LVMH is telegraphing with this decision.

It’s not as superficial as they would have us believe — which is not to deny the reality that Pharrell Williams is a person of major influence far beyond the world of hip hop, and he didn’t need this job.

Underscoring Same Facts Twice in Pharrell’s Biography

Liberty leading the people [1830] by Eugène Delacroix.

LVMH press releases — especially one of this importance — are written with great care. When a fact is repeated twice, they want you to listen up. That’s why they make the same point more than once, because they know it won’t sink in the first time.

No one is denying the reality that Pharrell Williams is a person of major influence far beyond the world of hip hop and he’s set financially. Pharrell doesn’t need this job, if you believe all he cares about is money, flash and dash. Having moved to Virginia in an arts-people initiative after Charlottesville 2017 and George Floyd May 2020, it was Pharrell who sealed my fate.

From the press release in the section about Pharrell’s biography:

[Paragraph 3]: In 2019, Pharrell founded YELLOW, a non-profit working to even the odds for all youth through education, helping them realize their potential. In 2020, Williams launched Black Ambition, a non-profit initiative that provides a bridge to success for Black and Latinx entrepreneurs who are launching tech, healthcare, Web 3.0 and consumer products/services start-ups. A longtime advocate against racial injustice, Pharrell was an integral part in talks with Virginia Governor Northam about Juneteenth being a permanent paid state holiday.

[Paragraph 5]: A longtime advocate against racial injustice, Pharrell was an integral part in the talks with Virginia Governor Ralph Northam about Juneteenth being a permanent paid state holiday and continued to make the push for it to become a national holiday.

Is LVMH Ready to Rumble in America?

AOC has called the Arnault family the 21st century Medici family. I do not spend my time ranting against billionaires, which is not my endorsement of billionaires as an economic class.

My view is that if you have that amount of money, I will hound you relentlessly to accept the responsibilities that come to you in this economic system that seems hardly fair to the rest of us.

The French-American axis is a strong one historically. It’s well known that LVMH and Virgil Abloh had all kinds of ideas and plans of how Louis Vuitton could become a 21st century change agent.

The commentariat is devoid of all brain activity remembering that Virgil Abloh had buckets of ideas for the future up until his last breath. And if people took the time to watch as many videos, and read as many interviews of Pharrell and Virgil together as I have, then their critical-thinking capacities might spring into action.

The new baby lady liberty at france’s embassy in washington; Bernard Arnault, Chairman of LVMH, at his Cheval Blanc hotel,

From my pov, when LVMH emphasizes twice Pharrell Williams’ activism all the way to the governor’s office in VA and on to DC, Louis Vuitton is taking a deep breath and they are ready to walk where angels dare not tread.

Bernard Arnault’s head is in his hands, saying “Oh, God, do I really have to do this?”

Yes, Sir. You really do have to do this. Because values, politics, religion and activism are all part of people’s lifestyles. If you are a total lifestyle brand — and there is no doubt about what you desire for Louis Vuitton — then you must deal with these mind-twisting issues that have nothing to do with clothes, hotels, restaurants, luggage — you get my drift, sir. And as much as you love American entrepreneurialism, we can be a total pain in the butt, sir.

But we will all be artful about it. Do not have any Kanye West nightmares. Pharrell will not blow up the ship. And I am riding shotgun because I see that you may need reinforcements — even from the fashion crowd.

Did I have a fit when former president Donald Trump hosted you and your wife — and the Macrons, who I adore — at Melania’s first state dinner? No I did not. I bit my tongue — so hard that it probably bled.

However, there is every possibility that Fla. Gov. Ron De Santis may try to ban Louis Vuitton stores in Florida before this is over, because he’s throwing books on racial history out of all the schools in Florida. Consider yourself warned.

Enter the Bad-Ass LVMH Women

But that’s where the help from Dior arrives, led by your daughter Delphine Arnault and Maria Grazia Chiuria on the women’s team. They are bad-ass women, sir.

Do not forget that Christian Dior’s sister Catherine worked with the Franco-Polish intelligence unit F2 from November 1941, until she was arrested in Paris in July 1944 by the Gestapo. Catherine was tortured and deported to the Ravensbrück women concentration camp, but she lived to talk about it.

This is greatness — not how many gold chains one has acquired in life.

Also, it would be manipulative of my conscience if 135 years after the arrival of its big sister in New York — who I went to visit daily on my morning runs after September 11, 2001 — France installed a diminutive replica Statue of Liberty in the garden of the French embassy in DC as a token of American-French friendship — but without understanding the obligations that close friends have to each other.

When France turned on the yellow lights at the embassy to honor Ukraine in 2022, it was received a bit like Pharrell’s announcement. In fact, it was mocked on Twitter, but to me it has meaning — given the real support America and Europe have given to Ukraine.

The commentariat does not think deeply. I try.

So for goddess sake, people, if I am reading way to much into these events with Pharrell replacing Virgil, please let me be embarrassed publicly only once. Without a sign from either of you, I intend to pound this narrative like a drum.

Those new Louis Vuitton kids ads are about to get a fine ride on Anne of Carversville, coupled with Pharrell’s wisdom about education and learning as the way out of entrapment. Do people know he has triplets?

I think he was campaigning for Hillary Clinton at a big rally, the day he found out Helen was carrying triplets. What a guy!!! ~ Anne

yes, that is pharrell williams as a young man playing drums in his school band.

Update 3/19/23: I’ve issued a very important update to my deep dive. Before I was flying on intuition, my extensive experiences in France, including an apartment hotel, knowledge of French history, and the fact that I subscribe to Le Monde in English.

This morning Le Monde delivered gold. This will be a separate post, but don’t leave without watching the Rémy Martin/Usher video.

If you are woke, then you know this video is true to American history, including our soldiers in France. This may be one of the best marketing videos I’ve ever seen. And there are more.

Okay, you fashion journalists idiots who lost your minds over the Pharrell Williams appointment. NOW do you understand what’s goin’ down. Get out of your own box with a lid and learn to speak French.

I have never felt so alone in my life as a writer, as being totally out on a limb over Pharrell’s appointment. I even reached out to Vogue Business and said nicely “You guys are totally missing the point. Please dig deeper.”

Now I feel redeemed, because I do not live in a lidded box. In fact, after Charlottesville 2017, I made plans to move to Virginia to fight this current Christian nationalist battle in America, where I live in a beautiful but primarily Black community.

I live on the soil of what was once a Confederate hospital — thankfully not on the first floor, because I would probably have nightmares.

In this new battle for the future of America, let there be no doubt whose side I am on. I am on the side of ‘WOKE’, personal responsibility, entrepreneurialism and REAL human rights. I am on the side of ‘ubuntu’, with a clear understand of how we are all interlocked together. That include America and France. ~ Anne

Well, now that I know that Anne is standing on solid ground and not losing my mind, let me throw another zinger idea at you, Louis Vuitton Mens.

Your $37,000 shirt sent me off on a tangent last week into the American history of New France 1750. I never knew that French interests in America extended so far north.

Guess where I ended up?? In Rockford, Illinois — where Virgil Abloh was born to his Ghanian parents, now living in America.

I remembered a news bullet that I hadn’t followed up on, but now my brain was on fire.

Angela Davis participated in Henry Louis Gates Jr ‘Finding Your Roots’ PBS show, in which he tells people about their heritages. Davis was astonished to discover that her ancestors traveled to the US, as one of 101 people on the original Mayflower.

For a radical like Davis, this discovery left her speechless. So my thinking is this: What If the Louis Vuitton Men's 'Crochet Leather Overshirt' Came With Its Own DNA Test?

After watching that Rémy Martin/Usher video, my creative imagnation knows no limits.