Of those brands that are no longer run by their founders, only six currently have female creative directors: Chloé with Chemena Kamali, Isabel Marant with Kim Bekker, Givenchy with Sarah Burton, Hermès with Nadège Vanhée-Cybulski, Icicle with Bénédicte Laloux, and Lacoste with Pelagia Kolotouros. That’s 18%. Just like in Milan, when looking at independent brands in terms of gender, they are almost equally led, with a slight favour in terms of the women
What these stats demonstrate is that if women want to be creative directors, the more likely way to succeed is by starting their own brands, because the system of who gets appointed as creative directors is skewed against them. Women are simply not given the same opportunities as men are, even if they have the same successful output and identical CVs at a senior level. As one of 1 Granary’s editors Aya Noël wrote in 2023: “The story is always the same. Their experience and skill set meet the demands of the house and their portfolio receives a positive response, but then they are rejected based on the final interview ‒ without any feedback.”
When we talk about successful female creative directors, often names of independent brands come to mind. Conversely, when we think of men, the ones that we think of have mostly been appointed creative directors for legacy fashion houses by CEOs, achieving that success without having to start their own companies.
When we spoke with editor Katie Grand for our recent piece about gender disparity, she also flagged this: “There are phenomenal women who started their own brands who have been essential creatives and arguably the more interesting designers of the last 30 years: Miuccia, Donatella who’s been creative director of Versace longer than Gianni was. Rei Kawakubo, Vivienne Westwood, Phoebe Philo, Luella Bartley, Stella McCartney, Isabel Marant, Sofia at Aries, Martine Rose, Simone Rocha, Bianca Sanders, Dilara, Miss Sohee, Karoline Vitto, Iris Van Herpen, Grace Wales Boner, Mowalola and on and on.”
For all these women, success was never handed to them the way it has been to their counterparts. If we have only seen three women appointed to the top of 20 houses in the past year – Veronica Leoni at Calvin Klein, Sarah Burton at Givenchy and Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta – leadership really has to take a long, hard look at itself. The talent is there. There really is no shortage. Remember our stat? Women make up 74% of fashion courses, but 12% of creative directors.
As Anja Cronberg of Vestoj says: “I think gender disparity exists in fashion because it persists everywhere else. Fashion sells products still mainly marketed at women, but the hierarchy within the industry reflects the status quo in our society overall. It’s hard to imagine a less patriarchal power dynamic in fashion when the rest of our society and culture has not changed more.”
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the reality of inequality. The answer, in spite of gender bias, is simply: hire women for these roles. It can be that straightforward. When we lose Miuccia in the next few years, she will already have somebody appointed to avoid the musical chairs hype. But we’ll still have lost a great. And what will female representation in the Italian fashion industry look like when she ultimately says ‘ciao!’?
