**

12 International Herald Tribune

Thursday, September 28, 2006 Fashion
Managing the brand:
Gucci glamour is 85
Continued from Page 11

leaving luxury behind and entering Coach territory — mean-

ing the American brand that has had a huge success in a me-
dium price range. But Lee says his strategy is the opposite of
aiming to create ¤300 bags in China and that he is ‘‘totally fo-
cused’’ on high-end goods made in Italy.
For all its powerful fashion pictures of smudgy-eyed dec-
adents in sexy clothes that polished Gucci’s tarnished image
in the 1990s, the brand was and is driven by leather goods and
shoes. ‘‘Leather goods are our history,’’ says Lee, but he cites
other categories where he perceives future growth. One is
ready-to-wear (currently about 15 per cent of the business)
but growing fast with a 29 percent increase so far this year.
Another focus is fragrance, after Gucci signed a recent deal
with Proctor & Gamble. He believes it will be as successful a
partnership as the sunglasses with Safilo.
How much is Gucci's current growth particular to the
brand — and how much a result of a hot market for luxury
goods?
‘‘It is a positive moment in the sector in general — but
Gucci is above that trend,’’ says Lee. ‘‘There is a strong aspir-
ational aspect with more and more hunger for high price
points. People are also surprised that we are able to put on so
much growth in ‘mature’ markets such as America.’’
Then there is ‘‘the Asian phenomenon.’’ Lee, who has just
returned from a 10-day trip through Hong Kong, Thailand, In-
donesia and Singapore, says that he wants to continue to keep
the Gucci cake sliced more or less in equal thirds between
America, Europe and Japan, where a World of Gucci eight
level store will open on Tokyo's Ginza in November. He also
sees future growth in the rest of Asia, and specifically in In-
dia and China, where Gucci has been for a decade. It will have
POLLINI MOSCHINO
Christopher Moore/Karl Prouse
11 stores by the end of the year and is ‘‘rolling to the next
level.’’

Pollini sails for the islands

The recent increases are also due to the buzzing American
JUST CAVALLI TRUSSARDI market where, as Lee puts it, ‘‘our customers are pretty im-
Christopher Moore/Karl Prouse
mune to gas prices.’’
For all the praise Lee gives to Giannini and her 40-strong

A gaudy and glitzy Gucci birthday
Continued from Page 11
Just Cavalli made a bright start to a show on a bas-
ketball theme.
But there the energy ended — unless you count
anti-fur protesters waving their banners. They
had picked the wrong season, for there was not a
scrap of fur in this summer show, which encom-
passed any activity you might do in high-heeled
lace-up sneakers.
To celebrate sportswear, brief dresses were
hung from jocks’ straps — meaning those sporty
bands that stretch over bodies in the gym. The in-
evitable cropped leggings with racing stripes
were teamed with Cavalli’s familiar frilly tops.
The theme had about as much depth as a basket-
ball net, but just occasionally, as with a pair of
leather shorts with a rope fastening, Cavalli hit a
winner.
The Trussardi show was filled with significant
moments: It was the first collection by Gaya Trus-
sardi, who took her bow, and her sister, Beatrice, is
now the company’s CEO.
It is seven years since their father Nicola Trus-
sardi died in a car crash in Milan, and it will be 10
years in January since the company opened its
palazzo at La Scala, where the show was held.
For a debut collection, the designer ticked all
the right boxes: sportswear, with perforated leath-
er; volume, but pulled in with twice-around-the-
waist leather belts; wrap dresses with knife pleats
in the skirts; and soft silk jerseys that she handled
with grace.
And let’s not forget the bags that define this
house as much as leather cleverly treated to look
like athletic mesh.
International Herald Tribune
Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor of the Interna-
tional Herald Tribune.
team, all of whom are now centered in Florence, the designer
is unlikely ever to have the high profile of Ford, who not only
brought Gucci back to the heart of fashion but also, with his
A t Pollini, the designer Rifat Ozbek
continued his lifelong love affair
with powerful prints. This time he set
collection, did things feel a bit forced.
The Moschino line is supposed to be
all about fun and with the lighthearted
understanding of the power of images and media, set a tem- his eye on bringing the bold and beau- backdrop of gigantic, paper-chain tape
plate for other brands. tiful South Sea Islands to overcast Mi- measures, balls of yarn and supersized
Lee talks frankly about what he calls the ‘‘scuttlebutt’’ peri- lan. buttons, it looks as if this would be an-
od when Ford was making his acrimonious departure and This came in the form of black and other joyful romp. But instead of fun,
competing luxury groups were talking Gucci down. He in- white botanical dresses topped off with the designer Rossella Jardini sent out a
sists that even when the Gucci catwalk shows set the agenda a trim of jade green or yellow plum, a collection that just felt full, bursting
for the industry, there was much more to the business than floor-length gown of oversized hibis- with ruffed cap sleeves, bows, and
the images captured on screen. And that no brand could have cus flowers printed on a burgundy bouffant hair.
a serious business based ‘‘on 40 outfits on the runway twice a backdrop, and most creatively through Not to mention the designer’s de-
yea r.’’ a tattoo pattern of raised white dots on cision to stuff tulle slips under form fit-
He gives as an example the enlarged jewelry collection, the collar of jackets and tops that trans- ting dresses that only succeeded in
which was formerly focused 65 per cent on Japan. Now Gucci lated into fashionable indigenous art. making even the skinniest models look
jewels are moving from dainty diamonds set in white gold to The judicious use of Bakelite cuffs bulbous. But there were some signs of
something bolder, within the ¤2,000 to ¤5,000 range. and necklaces along with Philip Moschino playfulness to be found in
The strength of Gucci’s current growth is not just about ex- Treacy’s feathered headgear melded the quirky tops that sprouted sleeves
tending the brand, but about developing each category ‘‘in a perfectly with the overall vision of this from shirt collars and a youthful ex-
complete way.’’ And Giannini is part — but only one part — lean collection. Always one to follow uberance in the flower and cloud mo-
of that process. his own path, Ozbek’s show felt fresh tifs formed out of raised stitching on
‘‘There is still a mystique about the designer,’’ says Lee. and exotic. It was only when he seemed skirts and short jackets.
‘‘But at the end of the day, the brand is king.’’ to bend to this season’s obsession with
International Herald Tribune all things metallic, at the close of his — Jessica Michault

Lingerie’s grown-up new look: Artsy, edgy and witty

By Robb Young

E
LONDON
ver since the model Eva
Herzigova posed for the iconic
‘‘Hello Boys’’ ad in 1994, the
lingerie business has been on
the frontline of the debate over what
makes an image provocative and what
is just offensive. Wonderbra’s cam-
paign, with its colossal cleavage, set the
new benchmark for marketing under-
wea r.
Feminists and defenders of the mor-
al high ground were incensed that the
‘‘Hello Boys’’ ad saw the light of day,
predicting that it would provoke a
game of one-upmanship in which
companies would compete for the most
provocative, flagrantly sexual cam-
paign in order to bolster sales.
They were right, of course — and
they were wrong. Lingerie ads have
continued to challenge our definitions
of decency since then.
Campaigns like an Elle Macpherson
Intimates television commercial, in
which a lingerie-clad model knelt on
the floor to clean up blood after she
had caressed a set of carving knives,
triggered an uproar when it aired in
New Zealand two years ago.
However, an escalation of this kind
of imagery has finally reached a turn-
ing point. Trends in marketing lingerie,
like everything else, wax and wane
with the times. For all the innuendo
and overtly sexual references used over
the past decade, even the most predat-
ory brands have now begun to move
away from shock imagery.
Back when billboards featuring
Wonderbra models’ cleavage re-
portedly caused near-accidents on the
roadways, Serena Rees and Joseph
Corre started Agent Provocateur in
London, taking up the torch for niche
lingerie labels that were both naughty
and irreverent. From the very start,
they had their fingers on the public
pulse and became a trusty barometer
of how far and fast attitudes changed
Season’s lingerie designs by Agent Provocateur. Far right, Kate Moss in the online film ‘‘The 4 Dreams of Miss X.’’
toward such products.
Earlier this month, Rees and Corre
released the first of a four-part series of
short films with Kate Moss wearing
their lingerie on the company’s Web
site Agentprovocateur.com. Shot by
Mike Figgis, the Oscar-nominated di-
rector of ‘‘Leaving Las Vegas,’’ the
black-and-white, art-house-style film
is as much a mini-thriller as it is erot-
ica. If part one of ‘‘The 4 Dreams of
Miss X’’ is any indication of the rest yet
to come, the concept is far more cereb-
ral and the mood more tasteful than the
bawdy film the two released with the
singer Kylie Minogue five years ago.
That one only played in cinemas
after getting banned by British televi-
sion networks, but went on to become
the most downloaded music-related
viral e-mail ever, according to a poll or-
ganized by online viral monitor
Boreme.com. Successful as it was for
Agent Provocateur’s buzz factor then,
the raunchy days of pop stars mounting
bucking bronco bulls and brash, in-
your-face monologues are in the com-
pany archives. Arty, thoughtful erotica
is now in.
‘‘We have to be more intelligent,
witty, emotional and intimate,’’ said
Sam Roddick, owner of the upmarket
lingerie retailer Coco de Mer, based in
London. ‘‘As all has been laid bare with
the over-sexualization of lingerie, I be-
lieve marketing will be a lot more clever
in the future by being more suggestive.’’
Not an easy task for a business that
thrives on a steamy and risqué selling
point. Coco de Mer's promotional im-
agery and Web site are hardly visions
of restraint, but with a mix of old-fash-
ioned erotica, boudoir warmth and a
dash of humor, the mood is welcoming
and, for many, definitely alluring.
‘‘For something to be truly erotic, it
doesn’t have to be explicit,’’ Roddick
said. ‘‘True eroticism is having your
sexual imagination inspired as op-
posed to confronted.’’
Avoiding confrontation, however, is
not an easy undertaking, said Matt
Wilson, spokesman for Britain’s indus-
try watchdog, the Advertising Stan-
dards Authority. ‘‘Whether some
people have become desensitized or
not doesn’t stop ads from upsetting oth-
ers,’’ he said.
In February 2004, the standards au-
thority formally investigated and up-
held a complaint against an Agent Pro-
vocateur ad that appeared in a national
newspaper supplement. The sadomas-
ochistic theme of one woman strad-
dling and holding a stocking around
another woman's neck was deemed
‘‘unduly strong’’ and ‘‘inappropriate for
publication’’ because it suggested sexu-
al violence. Later that year, it banned a
poster of two women wearing Sloggi
brand g-strings near places of worship
after complaints from two Muslim
leaders.
These days, most lingerie ads caus-
ing controversy are not really about the
degree of nudity itself but the context.
Mike Figgis/Agent Provocateur
‘‘Objections tend to be that an ad fea-
turing an image of a scantily clad fe-
male is offensive because it is degrad-
ing or demeaning to women,’’ Wilson
said.
Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of
the High Street lingerie chain Ann
Summers, thinks a more saucy, humor-
ous approach is the key. ‘‘There are
some brands, who I won’t mention,
who seem to take sex too seriously, and
that for me is when it loses its edge,’’
she says.
In the 1980s, Gold helped to revolu-
tionize the lingerie industry by creat-
ing a party plan system where women
could buy specialty lingerie and sex
toys from other women in the privacy
of their homes. Now, under her leader-
ship, the company has rolled out 123
shops in locations with the highest
shopping traffic in Britain.
Today, as ever, sex still sells, espe-
cially for companies flogging skimpy
bras, thongs and see-through panties.
However, it has become a theme that is
overused and oversimplified. Getting
the right dose at the right time in the
right place is the challenge.
Gold thinks people can ‘‘become im-
mune to it, and a little cynical, when
brands randomly try and sex them-
selves up. If there's that disconnect be-
tween the brand and the marketing
then, yes, people will switch off.’’
While niche companies have been
toning it down and taking a subtler ap-
proach, some in the mass market have
retreated even further in order to pre-
vent consumers from switching off.
Once the liberated trailblazer, Won-
derbra’s current campaign leaves a lot
more to the imagination than its racy
ads of the past. Fully-clothed models
were chosen to show what the bra
could do to enhance a woman's figure.
Other shots are looking out from the
model's perspective observing the
spellbound reactions of the people she
has walked in on.
When that campaign first was
launched last year, Wonderbra’s mar-
keting director, Hervé Bailly, blasted
brands today that still have the same
loud, aggressive approach from Won-
derbra's ‘‘Hello Boys’’ heyday in the
’90s. ‘‘That is just attracting men’s at-
tention and I think it is terribly wrong
and weak,’’ he said in interviews at the
time that met accusations of hypocrisy.
‘‘It demeans women. I don't think this
approach works any more, and I believe
that brands will begin to see this.’’
Wonderbra might have enough hind-
sight to say it has ‘‘been there, done
that;’’ but the recent retreat of its com-
petitors has as much to do with the
maturing of the brands themselves as it
does to do with their marketing
strategies.
Agent Provocateur has broadened its
identity from a seductive sex den to a
boutique selling maternity and bridal
lines alongside its whips and nipple
tassels. Playboy Intimates is moving on
from its signature tawdry bunny get-
ups to a more upmarket ‘‘white label’’
range. And the fact that Jacqueline
Gold was voted one of the ten most
powerful women this year in Woman
magazine, alongside the author J.K.
Rowling, reveals that brands like Ann
Summers sit far more comfortably with
the average consumer than realized.
Lingerie associated with sensational-
ist scenarios, orgasmic gazes and expli-
cit messages will certainly keep the
public looking for a while to come. But
as we become increasingly immune to
such advertising for products across
the board, it will fall on the lingerie in-
dustry to continually redefine and cap-
ture what Roddick calls our ‘‘hidden
sexual tension’’ — the suggestive rather
than the explicit.
International Herald Tribune
Robb Young is a journalist based in
London.