Michael Rider

Everybody wants their Michael Ryder or Dario Vitali now.

And not everybody is gonna be a Michael Rider or Dar- Dario Vitali.

We now know that from the, uh, class of 2025 and, and what happened with all those designer appointments.

Anyway, Kering CEO, Luca de Meo, he's already changed two designers in his relatively small portfolio.

Yeah.

Or the other example is Phoebe Philo's old employee, Michael Rider, who is a full-on company man, who's like, "I totally understand my job is in service to this greater business, and I'm gonna have a great time and make something I think is interesting." And he is less in- influential on, like, silhouette or what people ...

Like, other brands copying the physical clothes, but, like, the way that show is styled, the way the set is done.

We were both at Céline.

Very nice man who would say he empowered his employees, and it kind of went off the rails at, at some point.

Yeah, it's gonna be very interesting to see if Demna stays.

If Demna were to leave, who could, would even wanna do Gucci? 'Cause the b- the two people that would be great at Gucci are Jonathan Anderson and Michael Rider, and they are not leaving LVMH.

It's an interesting time, and especially because these brands are just not going to ever be, I don't think, like what they were in terms of cultural influence, but also in terms of size.

That felt like far and away of the people that were at the shows, the favorite collection of Paris Fashion Week.

Well, I think it's speaking to the Phoebe Philo customer and The Row customer, and it's, like, getting them excited about something else, 'cause it is quiet luxury in a lot of ways, but Michael Rider also does make some more sort of idiosyncratic design choices that make it a bit more exciting.

Like, he's putting models in rose-colored Lennon glasses, and we're getting big statement belts, and we're getting men in pink satin and stuff like that.

And I think his background at Ralph Lauren aids to that in differentiating it from The Rows and the other quiet luxury brands.

Yeah.

It feels like Michael Rider has his eye on every element.

Yeah.

People went to the resee the next day, and were talking about, you know, the different flowers in, in-

Mm

... because sometimes going to shows in Paris are just like, or just Paris in general can be a bit humorless.

[laughs] And I love that Michael Rider brings kind of a bit of a l- kind of levity, and-

Brightness

Um, I think that there were many other designers who would've made more sense for that post-Alessandro.

Jonathan Anderson, Michael Rider.

Like, there are a lot of people who they should've done everything in the entire world to get them to do that job.

Demna, we have to remember that Demna wanted this job.

Um, and someone had a Bottega shirt on, and it looked, it was chic and cool and all of that.

Unfortunately, I still don't see her.

I see, now I see Michael Rider.

I see Phoebe, obviously.