Speed, data, and customer focus: Is luxury abandoning the creative genius for the customer?
Luca de Meo, the Renault-CEO-turned-luxury-boss, has presented his blueprint for reviving the Kering group. His plan involves a radical shake-up: splitting design between creative vision and consumer goods “common sense”, while dramatically slashing development times.
A new mantra emerges: 20% pure creativity, 80% consumer understanding. Let us explore the plan to put the customer at the heart of the house whilst accelerating its pace. In essence, what does it mean for the fashion industry?
Luca de Meo blueprint: The 80/20 rule comes to high fashion
Central to Luca de Meo’s strategy is a decisive move to “put the customer back at the centre, so as to no longer depend exclusively on the creative director’s vision.” This is not about eradicating creative skill, but about applying it more strategically. He asserts that a designer’s individual vision remains essential—but only for the top 20% of a collection, the “most innovative and iconic products” that define a house’s dream.
For the remaining 80%—the core assortment of small leather goods, footwear, and ready-to-wear—a new discipline is required. De Meo argues it is vital to “instill the common sense that prevails in the consumer goods sector,” grounding decisions in a “precise understanding of consumer expectations.”
This heralds a fundamental shift towards a customer-centric vision. Aesthetic choices will no longer flow purely from the designer’s intuition but will be informed by hard data, including market analysis, sales figures, and direct consumer feedback. The challenge — and the ultimate goal — is to meet these tastes head-on “without sacrificing the identity of the houses”.
The need for speed: Halving the horizon
A direct consequence of this data-driven approach is a dramatic increase in speed. According to French media reports, de Meo aims to halve product development times, compressing the journey from initial idea to market launch from a year down to just six months.
This rapid acceleration signals a fundamental shift, borrowing tactics from fast fashion and intentionally breaking away from the luxury sector’s traditionally measured, meticulous pace.
It’s a bold gamble that seeks to make luxury more agile and responsive.
Final thoughts
The Luca de Meo blueprint presents a pragmatic, if radical, prescription to stabilise Kering. But for the wider world of fashion, it prompts a more fundamental question: what truly defines luxury in the modern age?
On one hand, the logic is compelling. In the face of an industry downturn and global instability, the 80/20 model acts as a crucial safeguard. It is a direct response to the kind of reinvention seen at Gucci under Alessandro Michele—a creative explosion that ultimately saturated the market, turning the brand into a marché aux puces where anything goes. In this context, a disciplined return to steadfast maison codes is a defensible strategy for ensuring brand integrity and commercial resilience.
Yet, this very discipline—with its customer-centric data and relentless push for speed—forces a confrontation with the soul of luxury. Can the core values of creativity, craftsmanship, and exclusivity survive a velocity that halves development times? The strategy seems to accelerate the industry’s existing trajectory towards industrialisation, leading us to a critical juncture: are we heading towards a future of mass-produced luxury? If so, what, then, becomes of exclusivity?
This tension invites a pointed critique, coloured by de Meo’s own background: is this a redefinition of luxury, or simply running a fashion house like a car manufacturer, with seasonal collections rolling off a conceptual production line? The blueprint makes its priorities clear; championing a ‘slow fashion’ paradigm is not part of the equation.
In conclusion, the answer, in de Meo’s vision, is unequivocal. For the architect of this blueprint, there is no room for nostalgia. In the race for the future of luxury, there is no space for slow fashion.