Chasing desirability –
The Trend of 2024: Heritage Re-Connection
„Luxury is about desirability.” said Sidney Toledano last year at a panel discussion at Institut Francais de la Mode. Sidney Toledano was the long-time CEO of Dior, pushing it to a billion-dollar business, later he became the CEO of LVMH Fashion Group, where he oversaw the development of Loewe, Celine and Givenchy amongst others. After his over 40 year-career he moved out of the role of an operator to becoming a senior advisor for LVMH in January 2024. If somebody knows what luxury is about, he is in that conversation.
Desirability surely is a key attribute driving luxury demand, especially with regards to “heritage brands”. I consider heritage brands to be brands that have been around for a while and whose – often eponymous – founders have deeply influenced the creative direction of the brands. They established the codes, they built the looks, their genius sparked the initial interest in the brand, and that desirability carried on until today. Top-of-mind heritage brands are Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès and Dior.
In contrast, contemporary high-end brands such as Off-White, Rick Owens or Jacquemus, rely less on this feeling of being bigger than life and much more on the feeling of community they provide when buying into them (I will explore this in further detail in an upcoming blog, so stay tuned).
Another key factor characterizing heritage brands is that their founders have mostly passed by now, which also means that a new creative direction has been installed. This brings new energy, passion and creativity, which can propel the house even further and enhance the original identity. However, new creativity can also involve the establishment of new codes which dilute the original appeal of the brand thus diluting the heritage – potentially hurting long-term desirability?
In 2024 we can observe a key trend among luxury brands that are not as commercially successful as others: Heritage Re-connection. Their goal: (re-)ignite desirability.
Let’s explore this trend at the example of three brands. Each of the brands belongs to another of the three key luxury groups, showing that it is not limited to singular strategic decisions but part of a broader movement shaping luxury fashion in 2024.
- Alexander McQueen (Kering)
- Givenchy (LVMH)
- Chloé (Richemont)
Alexander McQueen – When a product becomes bigger than a brand
McQueen, as a brand, is considerably younger than the two other brands analysed in this article. The brand was founded in 1992. Originally McQueen (the brand) was particularly focused on and famous for the theatre-like haute couture shows. Each collection, Lee Alexander McQueen (the designer) focused heavily on a key theme that shaped the season’s presentation. Overarching all his collections is an inherent darkness and exploration of the border between life and death – I highly encourage you to watch the documentary on him that highlights exactly this tension. Under his realm, the brand and its design were characterized by powerful and expressive collections as well as their high level of tailoring, a skill Lee McQueen had obtained on London’s very own Saville Rowe. Their commercial success is unclear, but their critical acclaim is outstanding.
McQueen tragically committed suicide in 2010. After his death his long-time right-hand Sarah Burton took over the creative direction in 2010, a role she held until last year. While her runway shows were also received well by the broader fashion press. Her most outstanding design in terms of commercial success must be the “oversized sneaker”. Introduced in Spring/Summer 2015 at the peak of the Stan Smith Hype, it provided a fun twist on Adidas‘ sneaker. With its rapid success the product was subsequently merchandised from a luxury item to a commodity – there are 58 variations on the website right now. The shoe overshadowed all other products of the brand, all its brand equity and its previous highlights, the shows. This (to me) drastically reduced Alexander McQueen‘s mid- to long-term appeal. As the sneaker became synonymous with the brand, the decline of the sneaker meant the decline of the brand too.
Nowadays, McQueen’s positioning is dramatically unclear. The men’s collection is described as “focused on cut, proportion and silhouette” – linking it to the tailoring heritage, but as their top-of-mind product has nothing to do with tailoring and as it has been appropriated by such a diverse range of different subcultures (early adopters still carrying the edgy ethos, private school girls, bourgeoise bankers, etc…) the brand’s identity just cannot be considered to be pin-pointed nor executed systematically at all. Therefore, McQueen lost control of its intangible appeal.

To see the impact we have to turn to quantitative measurements. In the annual report of Kering, we unfortunately cannot fully identify how this is translating into AMQ’s performance. The brand is consolidated within the “Other Brands” section. Nevertheless, sales for this whole category dropped by 9% year-over-year from 2022 to 2023. So overall a change at Kering, including McQueen, seems necessary.
After the appointment of Sean McGirr, we can see how the brand is aiming for a new chapter by re-opening an old one. It is focusing on its initial codes.
The latest Instagram posts of the brand (and the first leading up to Sean McGirr’s debut show), go to the archive and show a runway invitation to Lee McQueen‘s Dante show as well as a picture of the houses founder. Then the new, old, logo was re-introduced. Finally first images directed by McGirr show models posing with skull masks – the skull and its connection to death evidently being one of McQueen‘s key codes.
Clearly the brand is looking to reclaim ownership of its positioning by re-connecting to its heritage.
They aim to reinstall desirability linked to the enfant terrible status of Lee McQueen; to re-spark the connection of beauty in grim that characterizes his and the brands original design.
Even though the brand is young, its story is unbelievably rich and unique. Now Kering has the chance to tell it. Not through a sneaker but through the originality in its legacy.

Givenchy – too many cooks spoil the broth
Givenchy was founded in 1952 by then 25-year-old Hubert de Givenchy, who was son to a father from nobility and a mother who wanted him to become a lawyer. Nevertheless, de Givenchy, first an admirer and later friend of Cristobal Balenciaga, decided to pursue a path in fashion – this transgression and ownership of the own life are ideals the Maison is still aiming at today. Hubert de Givenchy’s clear lines and elegant silhouettes were what propelled him and his brand to broad acclaim. Additionally, his close connection to various celebrities, most importantly, Audrey Hepburn is what enabled his success in broader society.
After Hubert de Givenchy many different designers have led the house, immediately John Galliano (1995-1997) and Lee McQueen (1996-2001) come to mind. Later Claire White Keller (2017-2020) held the creative director role. She is among other things famously known for dressing Megan Markle at her marriage.
Nevertheless, one name in Givenchy’s contemporary history overshadows all the others: Riccardo Tisci. The Italian led Givenchy’s creative direction from 2008 – 2017. He propelled both womens- and menswear at the brand. He introduced the Shark Lock Boot, that Givenchy still relies on today. He gave it the streetwear appeal it still carries today. During his time the close ties to the hip-hop-subculture were established. Kanye West (at that time a less controversial but similarly influential figure) wore Tisci’s Givenchy frequently. Tisci also designed the cover to West’s collaborative album with Jay-Z “Watch the Throne”. His cultural relevance, and therefore, also Givenchy’s cultural relevance was at an all-time high. However, cultural relevance is probably more linked to community and less to desirability. It is also more short-term than long-term. After his departure Givenchy is still “haunted” by his legacy in streetwear and jersey product, which is both much less of a luxury product than haute couture dresses and leather goods.

Nevertheless, with the installation of Mathew M Williams in 2020 it seemed that LVMH was doubling down on that connection. Who can blame them, LVMH missed a “streetwear luxury” brand in its portfolio, similar to Kering’s Balenciaga. That he was let go off in December 2023 lets us know that the doubling down has abruptly ended. LVMH famously does not publish sales of any of its brands. The most recent annual report stated “growth” for Givenchy, however, when comparing it to the comments for: Loewe – “very strong growth”, Loro Piana – “excellent momentum” or Marc Jacobs – “strong momentum”, “growth” seems to be a rather powerless term. No commercial success, no place at LVMH.
The abolishment of streetwear and the focus on heritage at Givenchy was confirmed by the brands most recent show (it was created by the studio team, without a creative director). In its Menswear Spring Summer 2024 collection the studio team was not inspired by Tisci, Galliano, or McQueen – they went back all the way. The singular message of the show was: Hubert is Givenchy, Givenchy is Hubert. We saw both, garments in a style he was famous for in terms of their savoir-faire, as well as garments inspired by the way he would dress himself.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the next creative director takes over. However, for now it seems that Givenchy wants to re-connect to its origins to shake off all the confusion that is now engrained in the brand through its diverse history – an integration of all these influences seems almost impossible. The next presentation will still be created wholly by the studio, let’s see when Givenchy finds the right person to take on the challenge of building Hubert’s vision in the 21st century – it seems that is what they are pushing for to create yet another heritage brand, whose appeal will be, once again, rooted in its long-term desirability.


Chloé – Sustainability (unfortunately) does not equate to desirability
Chloé was also founded in 1952. Other than the other brands in this article it does not carry the name of its founder, Gaby Aghion. At the time of founding Chloé, Aghion was frustrated with, as she felt, the heavy copy-and-pasting of the similar styles for women. She believed that women should dare to be themselves and wanted to offer something unique, thus founding her own house. Her clothes borrowed inspiration from her Egyptian roots. She offered dresses that were much more relaxed and lighter than the very structured creations of her peers, such as Yves Saint Laurent or also Hubert de Givenchy. She wanted to exude a relaxed sort of elegance and effortlessness through her clothing. Later the brand’s design was headed by Karl Lagerfeld who further propelled its bourgeois-bohème hippie chic spirit. After the creative direction was taken over by Stella McCartney and Phoebe Philo amongst others. Its last creative director being Gabriela Hearst.
In recent years it seems that Chloé has placed its bets less on the effortless-woman-heritage. It brands itself as the sustainable luxury brand – a very admirable and in terms of the need for change in the clothing industry outright morally correct transformation. Chloé became a B-Corp certified company and overall very transparent concerning its products value chain, e.g., featuring traceability information on country of origin. I truly believe, more fashion companies should aim at creating true transformation with regards to their sustainability efforts. Nevertheless, recent high-level executive changes at the helm of Chloé – both CEO and Creative Direction has been changed within the last 6 months – let me infer that the Richemont-daughter was not developing commercially as expected.
We can’t – yet again – fully assess Chloé’s commercial performance as the annual report does not individually disclose the brands performance. However, when referring to Chloé, Richemont’s annual report 2023 only talks about growth once! All the other mentions refer to sustainability efforts. This does not give me the feeling that the strategy, no matter how important and morally right it was, was translating into creating the sufficient growth expected from a listed group by its investors.
Chloé has now taken similar steps in terms of heritage re-connection as Alexander McQueen. With the announcement of new Creative Director Chemena Kamali in October 2023 a quote was published in which she was already referring to the house’s heritage, name-dropping both Gaby Aghion and Karl Lagerfeld. With their first post in January the house re-introduced its old logo from the Karl Lagerfeld era in the 1970. The following posts that give us insights into Kamali’s creative vision, feature quotes from the new creative director that highly reflect Gaby Aghion’s original interpretation of femininity.
Yet again, we see that long-term desirability is aimed at through an increased consciousness of the past. Heritage re-connection to inspire a boost of contemporary brand equity.

Conclusion
Building desirability is a long-term process, it requires changing the brand perception of the ever-oversaturated fashion users. To become commercially viable by building brand awareness beyond the current brand community is required too. Another exercise which is not easy in a world full of (fashion) noise.
Re-establishing an old logo and posting some archive pics on Instagram won’t re-ignite a brand. Current creative directors must dig deep in the archives to connect to the original genius. They have to put back their own ego too, to build on the existing heritage without being obsessed with creating their own legacy. Then again, fashion is built on novelty, so don’t give us something we know. Nevertheless, fashion comes in cycles, so use the past to inform the future. The balance between all these tensions is the walk on a fine line.
At the same time, executives have to set the stage for their artists. They need to build the right structures to be able to present the vision in a focused way (pin-pointed, systematic, goal-oriented and disciplined) and ensure that focus is maintained over time (consistent).
Only the combination of both will build the aimed at long-term desirability through heritage re-connection.
For my part, the three fashion events I am looking the most forward to this season are Sean McGirr’s debut collection at McQueen on March 2nd. Chemena Kamali’s debut collection at Chloé on February 29th and finally, to the day when Givenchy announces their new creative direction (tbd.).

Sources / Further Links:
- https://www.richemont.com/our-maisons/chloe/
- https://edition.cnn.com/style/chloe-gaby-aghion-exhibition-jewish-museum/index.htm
- Kering Annual Report 2023
- LVMH Annual Report 2023
- Richemont Annual Report 2023
- Movie: McQueen (2018)
- https://www.instagram.com/chloe/
- https://www.instagram.com/alexandermcqueen/
- https://www.instagram.com/givenchy/
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