The world wide renowned French retailer Groupe Galeries Lafayette is one of the most important fighters in the internationalization trend war. Tendency criticized in France as invasive and stealing away French individualism. But France itself pales in comparison to the ambitious Lafayette Groupe.
Whether it’s about les Galeries Lafayette, les Monoprix, the Groupe had a fabulous economical grow – from 1895 when two entrepreneurs opened a small store where they sold what was coming out of their first fashion atelier to today’s giant it was, certainly, a long road, but a very successful one!
While the world is questioning financial security and lives looking back with fear as the cold breeze of recession is seemingly not far, the Groupe Lafayette reports a 6.5 percent gain (to $7.4 billion) in sales for the last year. The sparkling luxury of the Galeries (pictured by me own hand when I was sales-driven to Paris ;) ) catches you instantly.
We like to think that fashion’s not an industry. We even indulge ourselves in saying fashion’s a luxury, an art. We should, instead, whisper, frightened, that fashion is a cash machine. And its monstrous mechanism works! And we’re the slaves fueling up the monster!
I’m not driven by pessimism, nor should you say to yourselves that I’m going economical. It’s just pure reality. Just as the last fashion week’s show, just as the latest Red Carpet Appearances. Do you sometimes think of positioning yourself in relation with the fashion industry? Or you prefer living with the saying “ignorance is bliss”?
Leave a Comment