PARIS — “That’s it, I’m taking a vacation.”
After 28 years, 80-plus collections, more than 10,000 designs and his first retrospective, Andrew Gn offers the fashion world au-revoir, he told WWD exclusively.
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“It’s been a very long time and I think I’m at the peak of my career. I have done a lot and worked very hard for my company,” he continued. “So I would like to take this opportunity to take a step back, enjoy my life and see what happens.”
His latest collections are the cruise 2024 and vacation capsules that are currently in stores at full price. Current orders from private customers are still delivered as planned.
The brand will remain in its Paris headquarters and salon for the foreseeable future and will take at least a year to wind down operations. Another priority is to ensure staff are properly compensated, as “some people have been with us since day one,” he said.
After that, the Paris-based company will be put into a dormant state.
Gn said he “could afford to do this because it is a medium-sized house – but a profitable one.” Although he doesn’t disclose sales figures, his eponymous label has 75 to 80 retailers worldwide, including Net-a-porter, Neiman Marcus, Harrods, Bergdorf Goodman, Moda Operandi, Saks and Matchesfashion.
“It is our choice to take a step back; it is not because we are not doing well,” he added. That is also the reason there are no plans for him to sign licenses. Maintaining his name and independence is “something he cherishes,” and he wouldn’t get involved in fast fashion for anything because he “doesn’t believe in it,” he said.
While wholesale accounted for 70 percent of sales, its own retail business developed satisfactorily, with an e-commerce site selling accessories and ready-to-wear. The custom and made-to-order activities represented approximately 5 percent.
The Paris-based salon also brought with it “quite an extensive retail business,” especially since the pandemic, where one-on-one appointments for clients via Zoom generated an influx of ready-to-wear purchases.
Retailers were reeling from the announcement.
“I’m still processing Andrew’s call letting us know he is closing his retail chapter,” said Linda Fargo, Bergdorf’s Senior Vice President of Fashion. “There will certainly be a run on his latest collection on the news, because without him there will be an unfillable void in our offering.”
Fargo praised Gn’s “life of taste and connoisseurship” and said Bergdorf Goodman had been a partner for 23 years, not just out of friendship, but because he “consistently designed beautiful, wearable, cheerful clothes, with a touch of exoticism and unabashed glamour.”
While consumers may be disappointed if they don’t find Gn’s designs in stores next year, Elizabeth von der Goltz, president of Farfetch, said it will be “ [her] I am so happy to see that he now decides to take a step back,” after seeing that Gn and partner Erick Hörlin “personally put all their passion, commitment and hard work” into the brand and company since they joined 2003 as a buyer at Bergdorf.
“Andrew will finally be able to devote himself to his family and pursuits such as collecting art, traveling the world and enjoying delicious meals,” she said. And she believes his retrospective, which opened in Singapore last May, will take his oeuvre around the world.
“This is not an adieu but an au revoir, the beginning of a new chapter in my life,” repeated Gn.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling – more sweet than bitter,” he said. “I’m sad to leave behind something that has taken me almost thirty years of my life, but in a way I can breathe some fresh air and not just focus on one thing. When you’re in fashion for a long time, you live it, you sleep it, you eat it and that’s what all the topics revolve around.”
And don’t call it a pension. First of all because “I’m too young for that,” he joked.
But especially because the role of the designer is already full of new projects.
Talks to bring “Andrew Gn: Fashioning Singapore and the World” to several museums in the US are already underway, and the designer has further plans to bring the exhibition back to Asia. Although he kept his mouth shut at the next stop, the entire plan “will take at least 10 years of my time,” he said.
Next on his to-do list is setting up his own foundation. An avid collector, Gn has an extensive art collection spanning from the 17th to the 21st century, currently spread between his two apartments in Paris and a few warehouses.
“I am a Renaissance man. I like many things. I love art and I love everything that is beautiful,” he admitted. Those thousands of works of art will have to be photographed, cataloged and prepared for exhibition.
He and Hörlin are also looking at a Georgian house in Dublin that Gn wants to restore to its full glory. Although interior design is not something he is interested in, he sees a market for it. “In the times we live in, the castle we build for ourselves is so essential,” he noted. “Going home and feeling safe.”
Above all, he is interested in giving back to the next generation. That idea was woven into his retrospective, but he is also exploring ways to share his experiences with young designers and “help younger people as best as possible.” [he] can.”
“There are many organizations that just give designers money or a prize, without guiding them,” he explained. “Encouraging them is fine, but I learned the hard way that the hardest thing, besides being creative and constantly evolving, is running your own business, figuring out the marketing, the purchasing, the production and all that.”
“There’s so much to do,” he continued. “Maybe I’m just like those rock stars, who give a farewell concert and boom, in three years a new record.”
But first things first. “I’m going to spend the Lunar New Year in Singapore for the first time in my 30 years in fashion,” he said with obvious pleasure.
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