Who will be the next creative director of Louis Vuitton

9 min readOct 6, 2022

Who will be the next creative director of Louis Vuitton? That’s the million-dollar question that the entire industry, and even more so LVMH executives, are asking. While we wait for the official announcement, we can try to make some predictions about the next head of Louis Vuitton.

3 people are in the running for the position, but before presenting them and seeing why they are on this prestigious list, let’s try to define some criteria to help us decide between them.

The creative director: From an outstanding craftsman to a multi-hat influencer.

It is important to know that the job of creative director has evolved a lot over the years. From designer/artist to a true multi-hatted influencer, the job of creative director has metamorphosed over time to stay in tune with consumer expectations.

In 1947, Christian Dior appeared in the fashion industry with a completely innovative style, so unprecedented that it was named the “new-look” by a journalist during this period. This look was invented at a time when very few houses could compete with French haute couture and when marketing was still a distant concept. Indeed, the post-war period, even marked by the beginning of a period of prosperity, did not yet suffer from the consumer society and its afflictions. So, I think that before the beginning of globalization, the great designers distinguished themselves from others mainly by their techniques rather than their ability to offer a complete experience.

Then came the 90s, marked by the end of the Soviet bloc and the beginning of globalization, all industries, including fashion, entered a fierce struggle for productivity and performance. In this economic war, the best way for luxury houses to rise to the top was to hire eccentric designers with inexhaustible creativity. The designer became a creative director, and his role was no longer limited to the simple creation of clothes. As a true ambassador for the company, the creative director became both a celebrity and a marketing director, responsible for creating a memorable experience during shows and in flagships. There was almost a cult of personality around the designer. A good example is the grooming budget allocated to John Galliano for his public appearances, which amounted to 60,000 euros. The young designer’s spectacular fashion shows are also a testament to this golden era.

However, the economic crisis, the climate crisis and the exponential growth of social networks have led to the emergence of a new type of consumer, more aware of environmental issues, more resistant to multinationals and in search of authenticity. We are now in a period where the designer is no longer perched high on his ivory tower, but is exposed to the attacks of Internet users. Between the cover of the Pop Smoke album, and the scandal of the 50 euros donation, Virgil Abloh had understood (certainly against his will) the weight of Internet users on the brand image. Apart from that, he was a creative director very close to his community, who did not hesitate to show his creative process in an industry where the omerta reigns supreme.

“Make Instagram my own by documenting my creative process. It’s been the norm to not show anyone the tricks leading up to what you’re releasing, and I felt that was kind of wack. This tool could be used to inspire. If I’m one of the first kids to go from making a T-shirt to doing runway shows in Paris, it would be a huge disservice to culture and to kids not to show them the ropes.” How Off-White’s Virgil Abloh Uses Social Media To Teach And Inspire (fastcompany.com)

From now on, the creative director doesn’t need to be a genius craftsman to be able to keep a luxury house alive, but he has to have a long term vision that includes marketing, advertising, retail, catwalk and the lifestyle part too. What’s more, he must be able to remain relevant despite changing fashions and his personal influence can be a powerful driver to mobilize a community (cf Jacquemus or Olivier Rousteing).

A necessary evolution to respond to a consumer in search of experiences.

I will now focus on one of the hats of the modern creative director, marketing. As seen earlier, the competitive pressure and the evolution of people’s needs have led the creative director to change his role. This change has also had a strong impact on marketing, which has to deal with consumers who are no longer only looking for utility through the product. Added to the fact that customers are more and more involved in the consumption process, marketing has created the field of experiential marketing to adapt to new consumer needs. In order to better visualize what this consists of and to understand how the creative director uses experiential marketing to highlight his collections, we will develop the concept of experiential packaging. Introduced by Filser in 2002, we will illustrate it with the last Pop-up organized by Telfar during the New York Fashion Week.

Experiential packaging simply consists of transforming a product whose usefulness to the customer is essentially functional (a product with little experiential content) into a product with strong experiential content. This packaging is obtained thanks to a brand storytelling that takes into account a setting, a story and an action.

The Telfar case

In early September, Telfar opened a pop-up for the release of its new signature bag, the rainbow bag. Available in a “rainbow shop”, the bag, in its pink version as well as in other colors, was sold in a sort of huge market where salesmen were luring customers like in a fishmonger.

Here we have a very functional product, the bag, which is now experiential thanks to the selling that takes place in a store with a supermarket look. In spite of this typical consumerist decor, the storytelling of Telfar has created a hype around this product. Telfar Clémens, founder of Telfar, worked hard for 10 years to make a name for himself. Little by little, he managed to create a strong community in New York around the values of his brand, based on inclusiveness and authenticity. Finally, the action in this store completes the experiential dressing of the bag. The eccentrics sellers shouting in the store create action in the pop-up and intensify the experience.

Now that we’ve laid out the essential characteristics of a good creative director, let’s take a look at the candidates vying to take over Louis Vuitton

Grace Wales Bonner, Martine Rose and Telfar Clemens, which of these designers will be elected Creative Director of Louis Vuitton?

You may not know these names, but Grace Wales Bonner, Martine Rose and Telfar Clemens, are the three personalities who have been named in the race for the title of Louis Vuitton creative director.

Wales Bonnes is a London-based designer who graduated from Central Saint Martin in 2014 and immediately after graduation opened her eponymous brand. In my opinion, what makes her a reliable candidate for the title of Creative Director at Louis Vuitton is her versatility. In fact, not only is she a designer, she also does magazines and has already opened an art exhibition. Her versatility sets her apart from her two colleagues and makes her a designer who is able to offer a global vision for the Louis Vuitton brand. In addition, she has the highest level of technique in clothing design due to her training at Central Saint Martin (John Galliano, Phoebe Philo and Alexander McQueen graduated from this school). Finally, her vision, built around fashion shows that are the result of intensive research in literature, music and art, bring reflections around the gender identity of black men. This highly educated and political approach to fashion could make Louis Vuitton stand out strongly from other competing luxury houses.

Telfar Clemens is a queer New York designer whose brand was spotted after over 10 years of hard work. His inclusive unisex style and spectacular runway shows have allowed the New York designer to create a community so strong that it has caught the fashion industry’s radar. It was this community that must have caught the attention of Louis Vuitton. Indeed, as we saw earlier, the designer must be an influencer capable of mobilizing a community in the service of a brand. Telfar Clemens, with his eccentric personality and aficionados, would be a very good candidate to give a boost to Louis Vuitton’s image. In addition, Telfar has shown during the covid his ability to sell hit bags, which leads me to believe that he is the most likely to create hits within the French luxury house. Added to that, this New Yorker has already distinguished himself several times by his completely out of the ordinary fashion shows. So, I think he’s someone who is capable of creating memorable experiences in Louis Vuitton stores, a skill that, as we’ve seen, is necessary these days.

Finally, Martine Rose. This one you may already know from her many collaborations with Nike. She is the creative director who would be the most in continuity with the work of Virgil Abloh, because all her shows have, as a guideline the representation of the London subcultural environment. While Virgil Abloh represented the hip-hop community through his person and his collections, Martine Rose is the one who represents the reggae and rave movement in London. Of the three designers, she is the one I would most like to see at the helm of Louis Vuitton because I feel that what she is proposing is the most in tune with our generation. Also, the fact that she regularly collaborates with Nike leads me to believe that she knows how to use the leverage of collaboration to bring out the best of both brands, but also that she is able to sell products with a strong aesthetic, but one that appeals enough to be bought by people not necessarily into fashion.

Well, I admit it’s hard to make a prediction from what I’ve outlined here, but I would see a Martine Rose at the helm of Louis Vuitton, she’s someone whose style has influenced Balenciaga (she’s been a consultant for Demna Gvasalia, Balenciaga’s creative director) and who has already done many collaborations with Nike, which makes her aesthetic something we’re already indirectly used to. Nevertheless, this Martine Rose seems to be the choice of continuity and Louis Vuitton could choose a creative director who is in break with what was started by Virgil Abloh, in order to give a boost to its brand.