European labels renew their focus on the US

New York - From Gucci in the middle of Times Square to Chanel on a New York subway platform, Europe's most prestigious fashion houses are increasingly staging spectacular shows in the United States. The US is a market that is both a priority and a trendsetter.

Dior presented a collection with retro accents and American flag colours at the Brooklyn Museum in 2024. In mid-May, the brand chose the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) for a cruise show paying homage to the golden age of Hollywood cinema.

On Wednesday, Louis Vuitton will take over another museum, the Frick Collection in New York, for its own cruise show. This comes just days after launching a menswear collection inspired by the Big Apple.

The French house and the prestigious cultural institution have also announced a patronage partnership. This will include exhibitions and free evenings sponsored by Louis Vuitton.

Experts agree that all this demonstrates a renewed interest from luxury houses in the American market. “For several years, the Chinese market has seen significantly slower growth. The Middle Eastern market is also suffering,” observes Pierre-François Le Louët, president of the strategy consulting agency NellyRodi.

Despite the recent bankruptcy filing of the group that owns luxury department stores Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, “the American market (...) remains a safe haven” amid geopolitical and economic instability. This is according to Serge Carreira, a professor at Sciences Po Paris and an executive at the Fédération de la haute couture et de la mode in France.

In New York specifically, “turnover is very high,” states Pierre-François Le Louët. With its frenetic pace of construction, the city regularly offers new spaces for luxury boutiques.

Embodying modernity

The challenge for major fashion houses, however, remains to reach the widest possible audience, continues Serge Carreira. Since the United States is “a very strong cultural reference point,” showing there allows them to deliver both “a specific local message” and resonate “on the global market.”

Images of Chanel models in the New York subway in December went viral, propelling two of them onto the steps of the Met Gala, the annual fashion and celebrity event, in early May. Images of former American football player Tom Brady and reality TV pioneer Paris Hilton walking for Gucci in Times Square on Saturday, watched by Kim Kardashian among others, went around the world.

Major European houses want to continue to “embody modernity,” and according to Pierre-François Le Louët, this also involves the celebrities present in the front rows of the shows.

Losing momentum compared to its European counterparts, New York Fashion Week, held in February and September, is undergoing a reform attempt with a 2027 target.

“In the short term, it may seem like the Americans are being overtaken,” concedes Valerie Steele, curator of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She adds, “competition is generally a good thing.”

These spectacular shows on their home turf “remind American brands of the immense prestige of European haute couture, and therefore, if they want to compete, they must make an extra effort or consider a different approach,” she says. Above all, “more broadly, it revives interest in fashion.”

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.

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Nelly Rodi

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