According to the Women's Daily, the American Fashion Designers Association (CFDA) will hold a board meeting on March 19 to vote on the nomination of the chairman Tom Ford. The current president of the association, Diane von Furstenberg, will resign after Tom Ford takes over.
Prior to this resolution, designer Diane von Furstenberg had been in the position for 13 years. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Fashion Designers Association in 2005 and was elected in 2006 as the successor to Stan Herman, then president of the American Fashion Designers Association.
During his tenure, von Furstenberg and CFDA CEO Steven Kolb (CFDA joined in December 2005) witnessed the exciting growth period of the American Fashion Association and the American fashion industry, as well as the turbulent times of the world fashion.
If Tom Ford's appointment is approved, he will become the 11th chairman of the CFDA. This list of chairs is like a record of celebrities in the American fashion world, including Herman, Sydney Wragge, Norman.
The addition of Tom Ford will also bring a lot of benefits to CFDA. As a commercial designer, Tom Ford has more than 30 years of design experience. He launched the eponymous beauty brand in 2005, the menswear collection in 2007, and the women's collection in spring 2011. His design career has experienced the 2008 US economic crisis, so Tom Ford also understands the challenges faced by start-up luxury goods companies and the grim reality that the luxury goods industry is intensifying global competition, especially since most of the competition comes from European fashion group.
And in terms of Tom Ford's personal experience, he may also bring a unique perspective to the CFDA leadership. Since 1994, he has served as creative director for Gucci and the Kaiyun Group, and has designed parts for Gucci and Saint Laurent. He has also evaluated and acquired acquisitions of designer brands Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Tomas Maier. This international experience will be invaluable when he works with CFDA members to develop new projects.
However, in the New York Fashion Week led by the CFDA, this job may also be somewhat unpleasant.
With the loss of New York Fashion Week brand, many viewers expressed their wish to see CFDA impose stricter management on its members, but CFDA firmly adhered to the principles of the Boston Consulting Group research a few years ago, “Every brand You have to do the right thing for yourself,†Kolb said. “The release order is outside the scope of CFDA. We are going to provide information sharing and support the designer's ideas and opinions. Ultimately, the brand will do what they want to do.â€
It is hard to say whether Tom Ford will try to change this position.
In fact, around the 1980s, the American fashion industry experienced a golden age when new young designers were at the forefront of fashion. However, with the impact of the technological revolution on business, American companies that focus on the wholesale model have encountered arguments when they turn to the face-to-face consumer model. Especially in the face of competition from European fashion groups, it is difficult to support independent designers with meager capital investment. development of.
This has also led to a sharp decline in the influence of the CFDA and New York Fashion Week in recent years.
Earlier this month, Swarovski announced that it would abandon its 17-year partnership with the CFDA Fashion Awards, no longer support the Emerging Designer Awards and the Positive Change Awards, and withdraw from the awards ceremony to be held on June 3. Previously it was the title sponsor of the event.
On the other hand, in the past few years, the CFDA is studying the sustainability and diversification of the fashion industry. If Tom Ford is elected on Tuesday, all of this will be the problem he needs to solve.
But it is undeniable that the rise of Tom Ford also shows that the CFDA not only needs to enhance the influence of its member designers, but also wants to enhance its institutional role in the US industry, and eventually become one of its main external representatives.
As of now, neither Tom Ford nor the CFDA have responded to this news.