you are here

What do you mean by the degradation of fashion?
Luigi Vitali: We think that fashion is exhausted. It is degenerating because it doesn’t have to fight for anything any more. Fashion used to be about getting rid of constrictions. When there were political, moral, religious, or social restrictions placed on people the way they dressed would be a way of making a statement. Fashion was a way to liberate people. Now we have finally got rid of a lot of social restrictions fashion has become restricted again. In turn, it has become the best friend of our economic system. Fashion has become just a look and it doesn’t seem to have any spirit anymore. It should be fighting against its own canons and restrictions. The driving force of the young designer should be to redefine fashion.

You seem very serious about the state of things within fashion at the moment. Why is it so important to you?
LV: Because it is massive—as an artistic expression it is the most important one to people right now. Brands for young people are incredibly important. It used to be that people would associate, for example, with music through what they wore. Historically, music - from opera through to pop - was the way of culturally representing yourself. Now, it is simply fashion, or the brand, that is important. The idol is fashion.
LG: Not just the brand, but also the style codes that you see internationally. Some of them are based around provocation, but it is useless provocation, because it’s not related to anything. Like Lady Gaga.

Do you like or dislike her?
LV: It doesn’t even matter, whatever. She is the end. From Andy Warhol to her is like the dead end of the road. It’s gone as far as it can go. Ultimately, she is essentially a part of that same idea—the financial market and the cultural market following the same trajectory. She has completely sold herself to fashion.

So she’s the ultimate fashion sell out?
LV: Unconsciously, yes. I don’t think she would stand by that or is aware of that. She really represents the end of this era.
LG: She’s dated. This way of thinking is over, nothing can come out of that.
LV: At the same time, I can see why the world is so obsessed with her. She is all about reinterpretation. She really represents the decadence of our time, she doesn’t fight or criticize anything, she just wants to embody it. She takes from pop culture, from respected high art, from underground and subcultural references. She shows how everything is on the same level, how everything is just a part of this corrupted game. She embodies this way of thinking in a very nihilistic way, she doesn’t criticize it. She is like the last martyr of fashion as religion.

Luca Guarini and Luigi Vitali for Vice Magazine

- Est-ce que le marketing culturel introduit de nouvelles approches, de nouveaux outils ?
Quelle que soit l’orientation de l’organisation culturelle, le marketing est toujours l’ensemble des outils dont dispose cette organisation pour susciter, de la part de ses publics, des comportements favorables à la réalisation de ses objectifs organisationnels. L’outil central du marketing est l’étude des publics qui permet de décrire et comprendre leurs comportements, et donc d’oeuvrer efficacement à la réalisation des buts que s’est fixée l’organisation.
Dans un tel contexte, les objectifs de l’organisation sont d’améliorer la relation au public afin d’accroître sa satisfaction en créant de la valeur, puis de le fidéliser.
Les efforts des professionnels doivent porter alors sur :
- l’offre principale en favorisant et encourageant le public à s’approprier les savoirs dans un contexte spécifique (stimulation sensorielle) ;
- la relation avec le client lors de la prestation de service (rendre le public acteur de son expérience) ;
- les dimensions de l’environnement (lieu, ambiance, services périphériques…).
Les publics vivent de plus en plus d’expériences culturelles différentes à travers des logiques de consommation que l’on peut qualifier d’éducative, d’esthétique et/ou de ludique (edutainment), à travers un mélange des genres culturels. Les apports du marketing peuvent alors être considérables pour aborder la problématique du comportement de consommation culturelle et agir sur la fréquentation des institutions culturelles. Il peut contribuer ainsi à approfondir et à améliorer la connaissance du consommateur afin de proposer aux professionnels des préconisations leur permettant d’améliorer la relation au public que l’on pourrait caractériser d’hypermoderne.

l’interview complète ici