Name: MPW London 2019: A Conversation with Kristina Blahnik and Anya Hindmarch
Uploaded: 2019-06-07
Duration: 18 min 10 s
Description: Hindmarch, founder of Anya Hindmarch handbags, and Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik, talk reinventing luxury with Prof. Frances Corner of the London College of Fashion.

[ MUSIC ] Good morning everybody. And I know that we're all delighted to be representing the fashion industry and also making it very clear How the industry is changing so much from within and very much from the leadership of people like Anya and Christina. So we're very very lucky. I'm sure that some of you may be fortunate enough to have an Anya handbag, or a Blanik pair of shoes. You may be very fortunate to have both. [ LAUGH ] So they really do epitomize. What it is to be at the forefront of thinking about what is luxury? What is beautiful design? How do you keep reinventing? In a way, we all know what a pair of shoes looks like, or how a bag might function. But they are really synonymous with How do we really think about technology, how do we think about materials and how do we think about the people that make the beautiful things that we have but also want to buy them. Talked about obviously 23 million people employed by the fashion industry, and 80 % of those are women, so to to have great female leaders like Anya and Christina here this morning Is really important. So I thought I'd begin by just asking them very briefly to in a way say why set up Hindmarsh bags? Well hello. First of all thank you so much for having me. It's wonderful to be here today and. So I started designing handbags when I was about five actually. I've always passionate about leather goods and actually how they make you feel. I think that's the bit that really interests me. And I started my company as soon as I can, which was 18. And I started in Florence where it's very much this sort of home of leather. Started selling to stores and then whole selling and then opening your own stores. And really, it was just the passion for craftsmanship and the joy of fashion and the difference it makes to your mood, really. Great, and Christina, yours is a slightly different route. It is, I I actually avoided fashion and went into architecture cuz I kind of grew up in a shoe box pretty much. [ LAUGH ] So I thought I'd go down a different adventure and did a walkabout until my mid 30s, and then as an idea was asked, was it destiny or choice For me, it was a serendipity and destiny that kind of drove me to or guided me to really understand what my purpose in life was. And I know now that that's to protect the legacy of what my mother and my uncle have built in almost 50 years and it's a very exciting journey to be on. Absolutely. Well, obviously as we know the idea of fashion forward, and in a way fashion is thought about in those terms all of the time. It seemed to be revolutionary but in many ways I think it is evolutionary. And one of the things we're considering at the moment is obviously The fashion industry's impact not just on the environment, but also on the peoples who are employed by it. And also, generally how do we meet the needs of a very changing consumer base? And but I thought I'd begin by asking, I mean, obviously, you know, the bag that you produce some years ago, you know, I'm not a plastic bag in a way signal way before blue planet and David Attenborough Really the issues around plastic. Do you want to say a little bit about why this is being so important to you? Well that was a project we did I think back in 2007 and was a time when I think we were all talking about the environment and yet we didn't quite understand what we could do as individuals. And I have felt that we were the platform of fashion. And fashion is an amazing platform for visibility and communication. If you like in those days, that sort of the formula of the hip bag to communicate the fact that we're all actually abusing waste and the misuse of plastic. And you know, the real concern of landfill and So, we design the bag that we sold for five pounds, which was quite revolutionary for us. But therefore was widely available, we distributed it in a way that was quite scarce, and it sold out very quickly. I mean, the project Went mad, and I think 80, 000 people queued in the UK for that bag, and went on around the world. 30 people ended up in hospital in Taiwan as the project was, when we stopped it, obviously. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] The point is, not quite what we had in mind, the point is actually when you throw something away, there is no away. And that was the line that really spoke to me during the project and the lovely outcome of that project that made people stop and think. And I think, well, it actually also dramatically reduced the consumption of plastic bags, people now realise that it's you know Reuse, reduce, recycle, is the main thing. So it was an incredible project and something that was a starting point for us and it's a journey for us all. I think that the other thing that's also really wonderful about your Presentations that you give rather than shows. I mean, I've been privileged to go to a couple of those. There was the one you did around the shipping forecast. [ LAUGH ] Yes. And also the recent [ UNKNOWN ] projects. And for me, it's a bit like I am not a plastic bag. It again makes people think differently about materials and our place in the world. Do you want to say a little bit about how you actually Arrive at some of these extraordinary events I think it's very important to connect people back to how things amazing I'm sure we both feel the same way about this that she people so disconnected I we're lucky because we we work with cross when all the time and and that you know I was I think that the so much talk about celebrity. And the culture of [ UNKNOWN ] not nearly enough spoken about the culture, and the heroes, and our craftsmen, and these are really clever people. I mean, it's awe inspiring, I find that's why I do what I do. And so to connect people back to how things are made is interesting and important in lots of ways. But, not least because actually they have much more respect for the product. If you realize how much love and Passion and training and skill goes into how things are made. You actually, don't abuse things in quite the same way. It's not so disposable. Totally agree. I think the interesting thing about Christine having studied architecture, is that I've often talked about the relationship between architecture and clothes and shoes. Because People tend to think of them in two dimensions. But in actual fact the materials, how they're constructed, if you get a pair of shoes that aren't properly made obviously they fall apart and you can't walk in them. So the understanding of construction Is really important and I wonder if you could obviously that's really important for the people that come and work in your company and the people that obviously buy your wonderful shoes. You talk a lot about responsibility and and also issues around our health and well being How do you How are you using the sorta wonderful construction that your shoes have to sorta highlights this sorta thinking about about fashion and how important it is? I think I look at fashion slightly differently. I look at the world of luxury and we look at the world of luxury say definitely. Luxury for us is time and freedom. It's not An object. And my uncle has been very fortunate for all of his life to been protected by time freedom totally privately owned family business always has been and that's one of the joys we have and you know for him to come to express himself on his culture and his intellect and his knowledge. In what happens to be a shoe is the beginnings of the foundation of creativity in its product shouldn't just be product for product sake. It is the word artists and has lost the Word Art in it you know this is one of the big passions I have is how do you celebrate that. So it's a very important part for us to make sure that everyone that's involved in the process of doing what we do is doing it out of a place of passion and love and respect and humility. Because really, the product is the outcome Of all the values and foundations of us as humans, whatever we end up doing and presenting. It happens to be that we do shoes, Annie does beautiful bags. And we need to protect the kind of forefathers of the object. Because like you say the more energy you put into something and I watched one also the factories and it's his happiest place he's talking to the objects he's talking to the last as he's He's drawing on them, he's breathing life into them. And as an architect, I know that buildings that took hundreds of years to build are still standing, thousands of years later. Because the energy put into something radiates back out Again, and you walk into a cathedral of thousand years and you can feel the energy. And I think nowadays consumers, they don't just want an object they want something that talks to them that has has a spirit has life has honesty and purity to it and people are getting very discerning now. Because they're being talked to so much that they shift out an instinct is starting to really kind of play a part in it and emotion and the human part, the human element. That's very important, so has been looking forwards. [ LAUGH ] I'm sure everybody, I mean that's a really interesting point because there's a lot of discussion all the time about mental health. Health and well being and we recognize that in many ways our society has has made me become dislocated. And people also talk about how important you know fashion clothing, shoes are to make us feel better about ourselves and in many ways you're able to spot when people are distressed because actually that's the thing. They begin to Guess about not not pay sort of care and attention to So, you know, I always get irritated when people think that fashion is frivolous, because actually it's supremely important to us on so many different levels. I know this is something that obviously interests you. You talk a lot about issues around mental health and advancing some of these debates and What has been that link? I mean I've talked a bit about obviously the energy and the creativity. Do you want to say a little bit more about that? I think, no, I think other than protecting my family legacy I think the most important thing, in my own personal life and in everything that we do as a business, is to smile. It's actually our number one, overriding, strategic Objective of the year is smile. And it sounds quite simple but actually making someone smile, smiling yourself is probably the hardest thing I've ever tried to get to. And making other people smile either within the workplace or challenging yourself to make people smile outside of that That's, if we can succeed in that, we've succeeded cuz no new miracle success that it's the intangibles now that I think are becoming really important in our industry. You know we Yes, I want to make someone smile with a beautiful object and not just an object that is disposable, but an object that is there to keep, and I love it when, I love it and kind of I'm challenged by the fact when someone says I have a pair of shoes, and they're in a box, I've never worn them. I'm like, no please wear them, please wear them. [ LAUGH ] They're there to make you smile, but it's It's important to do everything right even if it's communicating it. In the world, digital world that we're in now loneliness is an epidemic. And you're scrolling through Instagram images constantly, and you're kind of almost in an anesthetized state. But if something makes you stop and smile you're emotionally connecting, and I think it's the emotion part. Though we're getting you know its getting drained from us. It's almost we're being starved of it. So that's what we're trying to do things to make people smile not to consume but to smile. And I think for Anya I mean that's you done. You never mentioned to your amazing productions that you've done but also your your most recent postbox bag which today has been launched which is. And in a way, but that it's also years of research and experimentation, and keeping at the forefront of technology. But also, keeping that sense of heritage. Do you want to say a little bit about [ CROSSTALK ]? Well, I think to your very good point about the aim, I was talking about confidence earlier. You were talking about a smile, and they're the same thing, to a certain extent. For me I think that the word luxury is so overused it doesn't mean anything anymore. I think the same with the word brand. I think brand for me is about behavior actually and I think people really brands lose that. And I think luxury for me is about stories actually. And so you know I bought that beautiful pair of shoes. I wore them to my wedding. I went to a special place. They bring back lovely memories. They made me feel fantastic. I had this beautiful handbag. Every time I open it, I feel more organize because the post box, for example opens and has all those little credit cards on the inside. And how great that makes you feel when you all organize. You feel special things with you or I just love the feel Leather or I was given this by or in fact, we have a beautiful bespoke range where you can actually have your handwriting in Boston to the inside of a letter and a wallet, a secret message, a box neighbor, the photograph printing it onto the lining. Those are stories. Those are things you talk about, and those there's a reason for those things. And that's what luxury always used to be about. I think, and I think that Was a stage where luxury became very mass produced honestly. Without the care and the love that we talk about with our products and truly the passion that goes into no, I know I speak for both of us that goes into what we do is ridiculous in this bag. We're launching stairs been to over two years. The Making of every little diesel is because about. So the idea that being fast fashion or sorta,, mass producing is so far from that. So I think it's important to connect people back to those things. That's what matters and, and it feels in the light of everyone looking at sustainability it feels wholly appropriate actually, that's what we do. And we will be having to draw to a close in a minute. I just wondered if you could say what you think is the big challenge that you think you've got coming up over the next couple of years? From our perspective, you are wanting to do the right thing and make things in the right way. And also, we're employing lots of people, and it's a business at the same time as well. So Whilst trying to do the right and correctly- sourced materials and way of making things and transporting things. There's a real challenge as a business, speaking really honestly, because often that can be a hit on your margin, or it can be a hit on the prices to go up and actually customers don't want to pay more and businesses can't always afford taking it on margin cuz there's many bills to pay. So There's a period as we adjust to behaving in a more sensible, sustainable way. Well if you like, I think both the customer and the business have to kind of hold hands and partner a bit to get through that stage. Once we're through that stage actually, all the suppliers, the supply chain will realize that actually that is what is needed and they will change their practices as well. So, we're in the sort of stage, a lot has happened already, I believe And I think that we all need to just give a little bit to kind of nudge over into a more sensible way of making things. So can we agree? Christina, what about for you? I clearly agree. So there's actually another point that I think is gonna be the biggest challenge. It's the It's combating the Excel spreadsheet. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] It's like I go into buying equipment. [ LAUGH ] No, exactly, I wish it didn't exist. I mean it's created all sorts of problems. People, the world of the buyers buying for the consumer, as in big department stores, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] By numbers. They were kind of losing their instinct, and the passion, and the love for, this is actually a beautiful object. I'm going to take a risk. People are taking less and less risks because of numbers. And that really frustrates me because I believe that numbers are there, Fueled, whilst you're driving to, give you information as opposed to actually lead you and give you answers numbers, especially in our world which is underpinned by creativity and and the Genesis is creativity can't be defined by numbers. So we taking numbers With, using the science and actually finding art in it and finding the emotion in it I think is something that's gonna be a challenge in the future. I think both of these are really important points. I think we've ended up with a lot of the problems where we forgot about fashion and also the idea of luxury being so ubiquitous that it loses its meaning. Is partly driven by the fact that the full cost of making something isn't really taken into account and also how you look after and pay attention to the beautiful things that are created so they become these valuable Objects, which you do wear, and you do use. But you nevertheless want to be able to pass them down. Clothes, shoes used to have that sort of significance, and I think that's really important. Well I think one lovely takeout if you like from this movement towards us all being more sustainable and behaving in a way that's appropriate for the planet is actually much better to buy less beautiful things and wear them more. And that is a shift in thinking from how everyone's been behaving over the last 2030 years probably. And if that happens, it feels right in every level and it totally fits what we believe in, but it's also the right way to behave I totally agree. And on that Excellent bit of advice and support in every way. I really love to thank Anya and Christina for real insights into why they are so successful at what they do. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Edina. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

MPW London 2019: A Conversation with Kristina Blahnik and Anya Hindmarch

Leadership

Hindmarch, founder of Anya Hindmarch handbags, and Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik, talk reinventing luxury with Prof. Frances Corner of the London College of Fashion.