Fashion's glass ceiling is shatterproof – why are so many brands targeted at women designed by men?

Telegraph

08-03-2025

Fashion brands are swapping monogamy for short-term flings. The rate of creative director turnover is making everyone feel dizzy – but for all the break-ups and make-ups, one constant remains: male domination.
With International Women's Day today, this should feel like a triumphant week for our sex. Yesterday, Sarah Burton debuted her long-awaited first collection for Givenchy, last week Silvia Fendi designed the women's line at her namesake house to huge praise, while the influence of female-run brands like The Row and Khaite is shaping global trends.
And yet these can feel like bright spots in an industry that still bows down to male genius. I can't be the only one who finds it depressing that three-quarters of the intake at Central Saint Martins is female while nearly 90 per cent of top designers are men, according to a study done by creative platform 1 Granary.
And it's not getting any better: across the nine new creative director appointments at the big houses lined up so far for 2025, only three are women: Sarah Burton at Givenchy, Veronica Leoni at Calvin Klein, and Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta, while Matthieu Blazy replaced Virginie Viard at Chanel. Last year Chemena Kamali – who got the Chloe job – was one of very few women appointed to a heritage brand amid a string of male replacements.
Worse, in 2023, when Seán McGirr was announced as Burton's replacement for Alexander McQueen, every major creative director at Kering – so the head designers for McQueen, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Brioni, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga – was a white man. It even became a meme on social media (one that can't have struck a lot of hope into the hearts of young female fashion design students).
LVMH's line-up looked only marginally less like a wall of prefects at an all-boys school, thanks to Dior's Maria Grazia Chiuri. Now, she is joined by Burton, who replaces Matthew M. Williams at Givenchy – but Bernard Arnault's inner circle still remains overwhelmingly male.
Similarly, if you look at the winners of the British Fashion Awards over the past 10 years, it's easy to see a pattern – and it's not a pretty one if you happen to be female. Although women do often win various prizes, the coveted Designer of the Year gong remains fashion's version of the Oscars' Best Director (AKA you'd-better-be-a-man-if-you-want-this). As evidenced by the fact that the last time a woman took to the stage was in 2012, when Stella McCartney (who started her own brand) won. All the most recent recipients have been white men.
The glass ceiling in fashion is clearly shatterproof at the major conglomerates – but why is this happening in an industry where women dominate everywhere but at the top? Female-focused clothing lines bring in the majority of sales, women's ready-to-wear collections garner far more press than menswear, women run nearly all the publicity, marketing and communications departments of major brands, and female models and influencers are infinitely more famous than their male counterparts.
'Misogyny is rife in this industry,' said Jeanie Annan-Lewin, creative director of Perfect magazine, in an interview. 'We're marketing clothes to women but they normally all come through the male gaze.'
Part of it is, I think, a perception problem. Fashion still isn't seen as high art in the same way as some other creative industries, but the industry yearns to be taken seriously – and one way, depressingly, to project an aura of importance is by appointing a man to the top job.
Then there is the issue of children. The modern fashion schedule – with its ready-to-wear, cruise and couture collections – is brutal, and women in their thirties are often passed over for promotions in favour of male counterparts. As a last resort, they tend to launch their own brands – and thereby prove how successful they can be with nobody standing in their way. Tory Burch, for example, has spoken about starting her multi-million dollar label 'out of the necessity of having a place to work that had flexibility and understood the challenges that women faced in managing being a mom and having a career.'
'Childcare is the single largest hurdle to women achieving career, pay and pension equity,' agrees Tamara Cincik, chair of lobbying group Fashion Roundtable. 'Women and girls are now doing better than men at university and dominate the industry for years after graduation. This is massive. But we aren't reaching the C-suite in the numbers we need to because of years taken out to raise children.'
The irony is that many of fashion's most beloved collections have been made by women. Phoebe Philo's designs for Celine filled every editor's wardrobe for years, and even now the hashtag #oldceline remains a constant on Instagram. Hedi Slimane, who replaced her, made beautiful clothes, of course, but customers never fell in love with them in quite the same way, describing them quite simply, as less wearable. With her eponymous line, Philo has thus far refused to throw her hat in the fashion show circuit, even though the debut collection for her new line sold out in hours.
And it's not just on the design side of things that men dominate. Last year, the inaugural Fashion Diversity, Equality and Inclusion report found that only 39 per cent of executive team members and 24 per cent of power posts were occupied by women. This then continues the cycle, as men are more likely to appoint other men to senior roles.
'Honestly, the best chance you have of getting the CEO job as a woman is having a dad who runs the show,' says biographer Amy Odell, in a nod not only to Delphine Arnault – Bernard's daughter, who is now CEO of Dior – but also Marta Ortega, 41, who took the reins of Zara at just 38 when her father, who founded the company, retired.
'It's so short sighted of these brands,' says Peter Robinson, who has worked as head of PR at New Look and Harvey Nichols, among others, and cites his most recent post at The White Company as an example of how a female founder and CEO, and a board that is 50 per cent women, can be a huge asset.
'The White Company was an anomaly, which is ridiculous as having female executives who are interested in the minutiae of the products – the cut, say, of a pair of jeans – makes a really big difference. I don't understand why so many brands targeting women are still run by men over 50.'