Key Differences Between Creative Direction in Design Versus Fashion

MILAN — Is it better to have a sole captain of the ship, even for a moment, or a tight group of friends involved in decisionmaking?

Akin to fashion, the design industry has been pondering this question for some time.

According to curator Federica Sala, the most distinct difference between the creative direction in design and fashion is that “fashion is centered around one single person, while design is more of a team effort.”

Sala, who has envisaged and staged exhibits for some of the biggest names in both fashion and design, likened the work of an art director of a design house to a coach of a soccer team. Furthermore, she pointed out that the famous design furniture firms today were started by businesspeople. The teams of Cassina and B&B Italia, two of Italy’s most recognizable companies, for example, were built by their founders, entrepreneurs Cesare and Umberto Cassina and Piero Ambrogio Busnelli, respectively.

“Fashion was started by creative figures like Giorgio Armani, Valentino Garavani, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, some of whom sewed their collections with their own hands before becoming colossal figures. Design companies were born from producers and businesspeople,” she said, adding that these origins have very much dictated how we view creative leadership in those two fields.

Poltrona Frau on Strategic Control

At Poltrona Frau, for example, the company’s management is in control not only of its financial success but also of its design heritage and future.

“The real issue is how you create this consistency in a way that the brand communicates to its clients. And this, to a certain extent, is much closer to what the fashion brands are doing,” Poltrona Frau chief executive officer Nicola Coropulis said, adding that the designer changes recently in fashion have been “hysteric.” Given the speed at which they change direction and the money exhausted on contractual changes, “it’s not infusing any real value into the brands they represent,” Coropulis contended.

“Maybe we should ask ourselves why Hermès doesn’t have an overall creative director and this is the most credible brand,” argued Coropulis, adding that the real challenge is finding consistency in the communication, pinpointing the most strategic physical and digital distribution channels and spaces, and conveying emotion, among other things.

In fashion, designers are chosen to manage the pressure involved in creating an identity through the many collections each major brand issues each year — which now include a variety of seasons like pre-collections and cruise. In the case of design, however, bygone designers like Gio Ponti and Ray and Charles Eames continue to drive sales and therefore reedits and reissues, which cost less to make, and also alleviate the pressure of always having to create a sense of newness.

Another key difference is art directors in the design world can branch out and work for several brands, and so can the furniture designers they work with.

Piero Lissoni: Art Direction Is Crucial

Italian architect Piero Lissoni, known for his grand projects around the world including the Dorothea hotel complex in Budapest, and the Hotel Aka in New York City and Alexandria, Va., is currently the art director of Italian furniture and design brands Alpi, BoffilDe Padova, Living Divani, Lualdi, Porro and Sanlorenzo, a maker of made-to-measure yachts. He’s a firm believer that art direction is crucial to a brand’s future, coherence and style ideology.

“The art director of a company is like the conductor of an orchestra, and I have to choose the best players I can find on the market. I’m not interested in whether the projects are large or small, but in being able to bring players into the company to carry out the projects, obviously always in coordination with the company itself,” he said, adding that no project is too large or too small. Last year he designed the Tōka candle for Wa:it, an Italian clean beauty brand featuring natural skin care products, fragrances and incense with a Japanese ethos.

Why does this model work? 

Lissoni attributes its effectiveness to the strong figures within design firms, many of which are family-run and built on the industrial heritage native to northern Italy. “It’s crucial to have a very solid relationship with the person who is the true driver of the company. Without being able to engage in constructive dialogue and to cross swords on a daily basis, it’s impossible for an art director to succeed,” he said.

Francesco Meda: Nuturing Creativity and Growing Together

Younger names like Francesco Meda and David Lopez Quincoces serve as art directors at three firms: one with Ranieri, a quarry based near Mt. Vesuvius that now makes furniture and objects with volcanic rock; Fast, an outdoor furniture company, and Acerbis, an Italian brand known for its experimental designs.

“All of these brands have their purpose. Ranieri is unique, Acerbis has a vast archive to work with and Fast is an outdoor furniture company.…We’re able to lend a strong identity to these three companies,” Meda told WWD. At the moment, the duo is able to unleash their own experimental creative spirit with like-minded brands. At the same time, Meda and Quincoces have secured a plethora of design gigs with major companies around the world for single pieces.

Nemo Group’s Federico Palazzari: The Importance of Friends

For entrepreneur and former corporate lawyer Federico Palazzari, design has the advantage of avoiding the big, messy break-ups in fashion. “It costs a lot of money to get out of these [fashion] contracts. It’s a nightmare,” he contended.

Palazzari, who turned Nemo lighting into Nemo Group when he brought FontanaArte and Driade together, believes that the company’s ethos is firmly established under the daring, explorative spirit of fictional character Captain Nemo for which it was named. Palazzari forged a partnership with Israeli designer Ron Gilad after taking him out on his boat. Gilad learned how to swim for the first time that same day.

“We do not believe in creative directors. We believe in creative friends, which is something different. With these designers and architects it can be long or short love stories,” he said.

You bump into people, you discover someone and you can start again, without big drama, he explained, referring to Nemo’s latest model Dori, a brand new lamp with emerging designer, the Tel Aviv-based Alon Rotman, who graduated in industrial design in 2021 from the Shenkar School of Design.

Luca Nichetto: How Less Is Sometimes More

Luca Nichetto’s multidisciplinary studio based in Venice and Stockholm has worked with a variety of brands, among them Hermès, porcelain-maker Ginori1735 and Venetian glass-maker Barovier&Toso. One of the key differences is pay.

“Fashion is another story: Art directors there often earn enough to focus entirely on one brand, becoming almost like an internal staff. But the irony is that when they move to the next brand, their visual language moves with them and suddenly two supposedly different brands start looking like distant cousins,” he said.

Design is no stranger to frenzy, he added, noting that creatives in design often juggle multiple clients and tend to bring along the same core team of graphic designers stylists, and photographers. “So similar aesthetics [in design] start popping up everywhere” too, Nichetto said.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that art direction means going deep, not wide. Focusing on one single brand lets you get under the skin of it, whether that means honoring a rich history or helping define a new one. Then step by step you can build a real identity that doesn’t feel borrowed or recycled.”

Molteni Group: Family Ties

This is the case for Molteni Group. Its flagship brand is Molteni&C and its direction is spearheaded by Flemish designer Vincent Van Duysen, who works closely with the Molteni family members, who manage the company with CEO Marco Piscitelli.

“It has been a win-win because he became an amazing art director, and we became a company with a very clear, distinct vision with a very readable language that is clear, coherent,” Piscitelli said.

“Molteni&C has been working with Van Duysen for years and since then, he’s infused his timeless zen throughout Molteni&C’s collections and stores. We were looking for a person who could bring us rigor, discipline, attention [and] coherence. These are all abilities that Van Duysen has, skills that he has and that he expresses through his work as an architect and designer,” Piscitelli said, adding that the Molteni family members also have very clear ideas, which helps maintain continuity.

Yabu Pushelberg on Avoiding Ubiquity

Nobody knows what it’s like to work with both fashion and design more than New York- and Toronto-based studio Yabu Pushelberg, whose creativity gave birth to Paris‘ La Samaritaine shopping landmark and Tokyo’s Aman Residences.

“From our perspective, that constant rotation of voices [in fashion] can spark fresh ideas and reinvigorate a brand. At the same time, it challenges designers to adapt quickly and deliver something truly memorable. It’s fast-paced, exhilarating, and a bit daunting, which is exactly why it inspires us,” said the firm, founded by Canadians George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg.

One critique of the current state of design is that the circle of designers within furniture and home has become “overly concentrated.”

“Too few individuals are leading too many brands and, as a result, everything starts to feel the same. There’s no real differentiation between brands anymore, and that’s a problem,” Yabu said.

Pushelberg added that too many brands are led by the same voices. “You start to see beautiful but interchangeable products. Modular sofas and wall systems — they’re technically sound, but they lack a clear idea. The work looks good, but it doesn’t move things forward,” Pushelberg contended.

Fashion and Design: Cross-pollinating

At the end of the day, fashion designers have also been enticed by design brands and the freedom they promise, despite the challenges and lower pay.

About a century ago, and during the Art Deco heyday, fashion designer Paul Poiret founded his Martine furniture atelier. Careers like his paved the way for Pierre Cardin and later Rick Owens to contribute to both fashion and design. Before his death, Virgil Abloh had created some key designs for the home, including utensils for Alessi and chairs for Cassina, and in a way, his pupil Samuel Ross, who studied graphic design, is picking up where Abloh left off. Ross started an industrial design studio, Samuel Ross & Associates (known simply as SRA), and continues to operate within the fields of interior installation, architecture, furniture design and even sound design.

Indie homeware brand REdDUO’s founders Fabiola Di Virgilio and Andrea Rosso both have fashion backgrounds. Rosso is the son of Renzo Rosso and currently serves as a creative consultant for Diesel Living and is sustainability ambassador for Diesel’s parent OTB Group. In the past, Di Virgilio, who studied architecture, designed for Temperley London and Costume National.

“Fashion is almost too fast, and design is very slow but it’s starting to catch up. As the sector gets more saturated, designers are starting to work for many different brands at the same time,” Di Virgilio said of the frenetic nature of design to which he has become accustomed.

The two worlds are moving at different speeds but fashion is starting to realize it has to slow down while design on the other hand is picking up the pace, driven by an upswing in design events worldwide.

 “Even though we always say that they are two different worlds, fashion and design are more united than ever. And a lot of creative directors in fashion work really well with interior designers,” Rosso said, adding that the fundamental values behind the craftsmanship that goes into fashion prepare its creatives to foray into the arena of furniture and interiors. “There is a lot of cross-pollination,” he said.

After all, the design field needs to usher in the unexpected, too, Pushelberg said.

“What’s really needed are fresh perspectives, creative people who know how to conceptualize art direction, physical environments and experiences. Many of them are now backed by fashion experts who are doing interesting things. It’s about bringing in a fresh perspective not just to shake things up, but to reestablish identity,” he said.