Women designers ‘not getting the breaks’ despite global fashion shake-up

In fashion at the second, as seen on catwalks: frills, corsets, large shoulder pads, and “naked dresses”. Out of fashion: using ladies as chief designers.

In the most up-to-date Spring-Summer 2026 womenswear Fashion Weeks in Paris and Milan, the results of an enormous reshuffle at the high of the European luxurious clothes business have been plain to see.

From Chanel, Dior, Celine, Balenciaga, Loewe to Jean Paul Gaultier, round 10 main labels unveiled debut collections from new inventive administrators.

In Milan, heavyhitters Gucci, Versace and Bottega Veneta spotlighted freshly appointed designers too.

On just one event, the new face taking the bow and applause at the finish was a girl — Britain’s Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta — whereas Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Jonathan Anderson at Dior each changed high-profile feminine predecessors.

“It seemed that there was a bit of an opening (for women) just before Covid,” Karen Van Godtsenhoven, a fashion tutorial at the University of Ghent in Belgium and visitor curator for the 2023 exhibition “Women Dressing Women” at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“But I think Covid played a role in society at large in bringing back more conservative and reactionary ways of thinking. For the fashion industry it has meant going back to the old certainties of the male solo designer,” she added.

Dana Thomas, an American fashion author and writer of “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster”, places the retreat right down to the proven fact that the extremely concentrated business is dominated by conservative aged male house owners at LVMH, Kering and Chanel.

“I think that Chanel missed a really big opportunity in not hiring a woman to run a house that was founded by the most famous woman and influential person in fashion,” she informed AFP, referring to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel.

She lists different labels created by illustrious Twentieth-century feminine designers — Lanvin, Nina Ricci, Schiaparelli or Celine.

“They all have men as creative directors now,” she mentioned.

Recently appointed Sarah Burton at LVMH-owned Givenchy and Maria Grazia Chiuri at Fendi, named this week, are the solely exceptions in the new boys membership operating main labels.

Family-owned Hermes, which has had two ladies answerable for its traces for greater than a decade, introduced on Friday that its menswear designer Veronique Nichanian was stepping down after 37 years.

– Male fantasy? –

The causes for the male domination at the high of the business are a number of.

“There is a glass ceiling for women in most industries, so in that sense luxury fashion is no exception, but it has its own specificities,” defined Frederic Godart, a professor at French enterprise college INSEAD and writer of “Unveiling Fashion”.

He cites the “historically male dominated” management of the business, in addition to its punishing work tradition and pay inequalities that make it harder for ladies to rise to the high.

He referred to as the absence of ladies in the newest mega-round of job modifications “quite glaring” provided that the business “has collectively and in many instances claimed it cares about diversity.”

The third cause he cites is the fantasy of the “male genius designer” which continues to affect resolution makers.

The two most up-to-date ladies designers at Chanel (Virginie Viard) and Dior (Maria Grazia Chiuri) have been each broadly seen in the business as transitional or continuity figures, Van Godtsenhoven mentioned.

She believes ladies are nonetheless consigned to roles of “craft” — they’re overwhelmingly current in any respect ranges of the manufacturing course of — whereas males are seen as the “fashion” visionaries.

“I just think it’s a cliche that remains in the heads of people. And I think it’s very damaging, both to men and women in the industry,” she defined.

– New era –

As fashion colleges proceed to churn out a majority of ladies designers, there is no such thing as a lack of feminine expertise in the business both.

In administration positions, they’re effectively represented, with Chanel, Gucci and Dior run by ladies (Leena Nair, Francesca Bellettini, and Delphine Arnault respectively).

Figures from luxurious large Kering present that girls maintain 58 p.c of its administration positions and are half of its govt board.

LVMH didn’t reply when contacted for remark.

Given the difficulties of rising to the high, consultants say proficient feminine designers like Iris van Herpen, Molly Goddard or Simone Rocha are as a substitute taking the route of different ladies designers like Donna Karen — beginning their very own labels.

“There’s a whole generation of women who are really, really good, and they’re just not getting the breaks,” mentioned Thomas.

adp/cwBy Adam PLOWRIGHT