As Alexander Wang and Balenciaga stage comeback shows of sorts, it all makes us wonder, can you really cancel a fashion brand in 2023?
Last night at Alexander Wang’s fall 2023 comeback show in New York, Anna Wintour was prominently seated along with at least seven other senior Vogue staffers. And even if you didn’t see them post about it on their Instagram stories, a large portion of the most powerful fashion magazines in the world had an editor-in-chief or executive at the show. If you didn’t know the designer was facing serious sexual assault accusations, everything would have seemed normal, for the most part.
And yet! Wang’s fall 2023 show took place in Chinatown and definitely had an eerie feel about it. For example, there were no large crowds at the door. There were no street style photographers outside, and only one person in the crowd mentioned an after party, versus the typical mob raging to get in. In the mid 2010s, Alexander Wang shows were the main event of New York fashion week. The untouchably cool designer staged shows everywhere from Harlem to an iconic gas station on the west side. His shows were full of celebrity supporters and it was a hard ticket to get. In comparison–as the first model opened the fall 2023 show, it seemed like everyone was looking around the room to see who would be the first to raise their phone to take a video. In fact, many of the more senior editors from traditional magazines didn’t take any photos at all.
Last season, Wang staged an off-schedule show in LA and both CNN and New York Times wrote reported features on the show. And even though these features mentioned Wang‘s reputation being marked by his sexual assault accusations, these publications still gave him ample space. In the age of cancel culture with famous creative directors becoming personalities so closely tied to the brand, it’s all enough to make one wonder, can you really cancel a fashion brand in 2023?
The concept of canceling a major, international fashion brand is an interesting one to think about. For instance, many might think of these creative directors as artists, regardless of when they make questionable decisions. Most people know that not all great artists are great people, but because fashion is something the average person consumes regularly whereas fine art is something the average person might only look at once in a while, it feels like there’s more of a responsibility placed on consumers and fans of fashion, even if it’s all superficial. Take for instance, the Balenciaga scandals. As it was happening and therefore after, it’s felt like there’s been an unspoken new ruling order not to wear Balenciaga. Selling your old Balenciaga on The Real Real is the new weekend hobby. Even some of the biggest fans of the brand stopped tagging their Instagram posts with Balenciaga when they wear it. But they still wear it.
The scandal was bad enough, and ultimately how Balenciaga handled it was what positioned the brand with such a muddy reputation and reflected back on the artistic director Demna. And yet there are fine artists, chefs, musicians and others from differing creative fields (besides fashion) who have done horrible things, ethically and morally. But have you ever seen people on social media and demanding these other creatives be canceled or removed from our greatest institutions in the world in 2023? The reaction fashion scandals receive is somehow different. Have you ever seen people judging others for sharing the work of controversial artists from fields beyond fashion on social media? Or have you witnessed claims that they support the artist and their actions by participating in simply sharing or observing their work?
Come October, when Balenciaga has its fall 2023 show (the first since the scandal) you can bet all the major players will be attending the show, and in turn, supporting the brand. Most of the same magazine editors who attended Wang’s show will be there because the brand is an advertiser and fashion media very much needs heavy hitting advertisers to survive. A quick Google search reveals that Alexander Wang is still sold at top retailers from Saks Fifth Avenue to Nordstrom, Net-a-Porter and Bloomingdale’s. And, it doesn’t seem like any retailers dropped Balenciaga. According to the latest update, Wang apologized and met with his victims and there hasn’t been any updates since. His brand is uncancellable, just like many others.
Dolce and Gabbana is, perhaps the best example when it comes to proving you can’t cancel a fashion brand in 2023. For years, the designers have said offensive things relating to race, body diversity, and even sexuality, and still the brand survives. The partnership with Kim Kardashian was perhaps fashion’s biggest act of showmanship, but also the industry’s most ingenious veiled crisis management move of all time. Like the controversial Dolce and Gabbana and Alexander Wang (the latter which had Julia Fox walk in the fall 2023 show) Demna’s Balenciaga has so heavily relied on celebrities to gain its brand image, that it will be shocking if the brand doesn’t try to use a Kardashian, or someone else (anyone else but Kanye) to attempt to reclaim its reputation at its upcoming fall 2023 show in Paris.
Regardless, it’s worth remembering that these fashion brands like Balenciaga, Dolce and Gabbana and Alexander Wang employ thousands of people in the industry; unlike a celebrity, or say, a politician, who gets canceled much easier. These brands have a direct line to people who consume them–and most of them aren’t paying attention to industry news.
What Wang was accused of was horrible, and how Demna handled the scandal was disappointing. Balenciaga reportedly fell out of the top ten brands in the industry index Lyst Hottest Brands compilation. But guess which label was in the top ten? Dolce and Gabbana. Brand perception and brand cancellation, are, of course, two very different things, and it will be interesting to see how earnings play out. Still, at the end of the day, for most people who aren’t in the industry, shopping and fashion aren’t a direct reflection of ethics and morals.
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