In an industry obsessed with youth, creating hype among young consumers is vital to making a fashion brand desirable--and profitable. But Dior has decided that too much of a young following risks
damaging a brand's prestige and potentially dents its prospects for long-term growth.
The French fashion house is replacing T-shirts and pink logo bags with $4,500 python-skin purses. After
years of fashion shows inspired by homeless people and biker chicks, CEO Sidney Toledano promises an "elegant" collection when Dior puts on its semi-annual women's ready-to-wear fashion show today in
Paris.
The evolution at Dior is part of a subtle realignment rippling across fashion's upper echelon. Gucci's racy advertising several years ago sparked outrage from older magazine readers; it
is now cultivating a prim image, with knee-length dresses at its fashion show in Milan last week. And Louis Vuitton's colorful Murakami purses swung from the arms of thousands of teenagers in Tokyo in
2003, but it recently limited its run of $52,000 patchwork bags to 24.
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