Didier Grumbach : It is the only industry that put an innovation which is our main asset, at the disposal of the manufacturers and the distributors worldwide, and this, for free. And the copies, made out of the models available on internet, are delivered before the originals. We don’t even know who their inventors are.

Furthermore, the young brands that you represent do not have as many press publications as they used to a few years ago. The editorial teams are not independent anymore and the advertisers are talented.

KdS: According to you, what is the way to counter this?

DG: I assume that the creative brands which are worldwide distributed could show during the Haute Couture calendar.
This will enable you to invite the journalists that you’re interested in and correspond to your target to see the collections on showroom appointments during the ready to wear week, and to organise the catwalk shows on a different time, when the shops are delivered.

KdS: And what about the journalists?

DG: To provide everyone with the same information is to provide no information. It is for each brand to choose its press target as it does with its stockists.

On the contrary, the fashion show is destined to the whole planet, the internet, the television, and thus to the customers.

KdS: Is this solution suitable for all the brands?

DG: Of course not. But it is anyway a good one for the brands which didn’t adopt yet the old practices. Viktor & Rolf, Anne Valérie Hash, Felipe Oliveira Baptista knew how to take advantage of it. Moreover, in this formula, you only show your collection once the orders are taken. The opposite solution is definitely unwise.

KdS: The Paris fashion week is indeed overcrowded. Apart from the solution you have just advocated, which improvements could you suggest?

DG: To eliminate the shows out of town. They make the journalists angry. The Arche de la Defense isn’t more comfortable than the Plaine Saint Denis. The “Louvre – Quai Branly” line should be sufficient when the Palais de Tokyo and the spaces of the Trocadero are available. And this will happen in 2007. March, July and October 2007 will be much easier to live for everybody.
The outlying venues must be forgotten.

KdS: What more could you do for the emerging brands?

DG: Giving them notoriety in new areas….China, India, Brazil etc…2006 is a pivotal year. Soon no more borders, no more quotas. Selling and producing worldwide is now a necessity.
On these two conditions, the design, the control and the production of the top-of-the-range lines will stay in France…in Belgium…in Italy…