Sarah Swindell, M.D. & Founder, WATERMELON CREATIVE

On the recently passed Paris Men's Wear Week, Louis Vuitton Men welcomed the brand's first "Guest Designer" and the founder of KidSuper, Colm Dillane. This is also the first important appointment to Louis Vuitton's menswear department nearly a year and a half after the death of legendary designer Virgil Abloh.

The unique interest, complexity, and ease of Abloh are still magnified in the latest design - if it comes to selecting a qualified "successor," Colm Dillane has indeed played his part.

However, the title Guest Designer is also meaningful.

First of all, this indicates that Colm Dillane's tenure at Louis Vuitton may be "temporary", although the effectiveness may be one season or one year. The time constraints on the one hand indicate the doubts in the mutual choice between the two sides - after all, Virgil Abloh is a difficult character to surpass, but Louis Vuitton does not want to bring a precipice in style and brand influence due to the replacement. Some fashion critics also believe that both parties are in a "review period", which not only requires time to blend in with each other, but also requires the audience to accept Dillane's role in Louis Vuitton during this period. If there is positive performance and market feedback, "becoming a regular" is not impossible.

However, more people expect Louis Vuitton to attempt to replace the "guest designer" model in the next few years to bring more creative direction to the brand. This model is a less risky option for both brands and designers, as both parties do not have to bear the impact of a lack of creativity and weakened market feedback caused by too long a collaboration. For a brand like Louis Vuitton that stands at the top, constantly changing "guest designers" can also ensure long-term audience attention and freshness in brand content dissemination, while also creating surprises for candidates from time to time.

So far, Jean-Paul Gaultier's "Guest Designer" model has been very successful.Each invited designer has a certain amount of weight and flow, and they are all powerful "Keban Fashion Designers". Therefore, when they are in charge of the Jean-Paul Gaultier series, they can bring surprises and splashes. While retaining the spirit of Jean-Paul Gaultier, they inject their own design style and trend elements, and have a remarkable display in both "shape" and "spirit". Even Rouseing, who has performed ups and downs in Balmain in recent years, has been exceptionally brave on the runway of Jean Paul Gaultier, reflecting the synergy and inspiration collision of the "guest designer" model in fashion creativity.

From high definition to ready-to-wear, Jean-Paul Gaultier also continues the brand's height in the fashion circle through every presentation of "guest designer", leading the brand's topic and sales.

As Colm Dillane handed out his first answer, he largely continued Virgil Abloh's expressive style. However, it is well known that Abloh is not a designer with a clear and fixed style. He prefers to be a creative leader who can play with social media and use multimedia to create dreams on the show. For future generations, it becomes very difficult to "salute" or imitate Virgil Abloh. At the same time, Louis Vuitton, who specializes in luggage manufacturing, lacks depth in the heritage and history of men's ready-to-wear, and new designers have limited materials to explore. Not only Louis Vuitton and Jean-Paul Gaultier, but Dior Homme also invited Denim Tears executives to participate in the design of the capsule series at the end of last year's show in Egypt. At that time, the official script also mentioned the "guest partner" model.

People can't help but wonder whether "guest designers" will become a trend in the field of future fashion trends? Change the rules of the game in fashion circles, or replace the earlier "co branding"?The way in which "guest designers" are employed is still seen by many brands as a "double edged sword". The biggest reason is that changing designers too often leads to fluctuating styles, which leads to the loss of fixed and clear characteristics and recognition of the brand. For example, Alessandro Michele is to Gucci, Daniel Lee is to Bottega Veneta, and the value that creative directors bestow on a brand lies far beyond the creative level. Their aesthetic and behavioral style permeate the overall brand building system. Of course, this puts a high demand on creative directors themselves, such as Karl Lagerfeld, Alessandro Michele, or Virgil Abloh and Kim Jones. The reason why they can be compared is not their ability to design clothing, but also the layout and comprehensive vision of brand creative directors.

However, Hermes and CHANEL, the "ceilings" of the fashion industry, are now weakening the aura of creative directors and choosing suitable and experienced leaders in their teams, rather than a star designer who may easily change the brand style or override the brand. This requires extremely profound sales ethics and brand myths as a guarantee, which is still unattainable for most luxury brands.

"Guest designers" can attract people's attention to a brand in a short term, but in the long term, the addition and replacement of multiple creators may also be a signal that a brand weakens the influence of creative directors and highlights brand integration. Because of the rapid transformation and brand control, most consumers forget about the creative director and focus instead on the product content itself, accustomed to paying for the brand.