Gucci in the middle of Times Square or Chanel on a New York subway platform. The most renowned fashion houses on the Old Continent are increasingly organizing spectacular fashion shows in the USA. For them, the market is both a priority and a way forward.
The French fashion house Dior presented a collection with retro accents in the colors of the American flag at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024. In mid-May, the house chose the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for a cruise collection. This was a tribute to the golden age of Hollywood cinema.
French luxury house Louis Vuitton will use another museum for its own cruise show on Wednesday: the Frick Collection in New York. This comes just days after the launch of a menswear collection inspired by the ‘Big Apple’. The fashion house and the renowned cultural institution also announced a sponsorship partnership. This includes exhibitions sponsored by Louis Vuitton and free evening events.
All of this shows the renewed interest of luxury houses in the US market, experts agree.
“In recent years, the Chinese market has grown significantly more slowly. The market in the Middle East is also suffering,” notes Pierre-François Le Louët, President of the strategy consulting agency NellyRodi.
Despite the recent bankruptcy of the group that owns the luxury department stores Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, “the American market (…) remains a safe haven”. This adds Serge Carreira in a context of geopolitical and economic instability. He is a professor at Sciences Po in Paris and one of the leaders of the Fédération de la haute couture et de la mode in France.
In New York in particular, “we make a lot of sales,” says Pierre-François Le Louët. And with its rapid construction pace, the city regularly offers new spaces for luxury boutiques.
‘Embodying modernity’
However, the challenge for the big fashion houses remains to reach the widest possible audience, continues Serge Carreira. Since the US is “a very strong cultural reference point,” a fashion show there allows both a “specific local message” to be conveyed and a response “to the global market.”
Pictures of Chanel models on the New York subway in December went viral. Two of them made it to the steps of the Met Gala, the annual gathering of fashion and celebrities, at the beginning of May.
The pictures of former American football player Tom Brady and reality TV pioneer Paris Hilton also made the rounds worldwide. They walked for Gucci in Times Square on Saturday, with Kim Kardashian looking on.
The big European houses want to continue to “embody modernity”. According to Pierre-François Le Louët, this also happens through the prominent guests in the front rows of the fashion shows.
New York Fashion Week is losing momentum compared to its European counterparts. The event, which takes place in February and September, is scheduled to be reformed by 2027.
“In the short term, it might seem that Americans are being overtaken,” admits Valerie Steele. She is curator of the fashion museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. But “competition is generally a good thing.”
These spectacular shows on their own turf “remind American brands of the immense prestige of European haute couture.” “So if they want to compete, they have to put in extra effort or consider a different approach,” she says. And above all: “In a broader sense, this revives interest in fashion.”
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