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Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele has responded to claims that the label's new alien-inspired video series is plagiarised from the work of a Central Saint Martins BA student.

image: Billiga Festklanningar Sverige
The videos, shot by Glen Luchford during a casting session for Gucci's Autumn/Winter 2017 campaign, were released on Thursday via Instagram and show models styled to look like aliens. But the label was quickly accused of plagiarism by student Pierre-Louis Auvray, who wrote on his own Instagram feed: "Young creatives struggle enough without big companies shamelessly stealing from them."

Auvray's supporters flooded the comments beneath Gucci's posts, and fellow Central Saint Martins students also showed their support via the @bafcsm Instagram feed, which is managed by students at the famed fashion school.

Speaking exclusively to BoF yesterday, Michele refuted the accusations of plagiarism. "It's not true," he said, explaining that he only came across Auvray's work for the first time this weekend when the allegations surfaced. "It's something that makes me feel really sad. People build a story around nothing."

Michele added that he would be open to speaking personally with Auvray to straighten out any confusion. "I’m so sad, because I think it’s not a good idea for a teacher at a school like this to push a young guy to destroy, in a way, his creativity," he said. "Creativity [is] not about the fame. I mean, it could be possible that you are thinking something that is in the mind of someone else. The idea that I’m 45 doesn’t mean that I have no creativity. I’m like a student, it’s the same, it’s not a war!"
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While Burberry remains the top digital brand in luxury fashion, its advantage over its competitors is narrowing.

image: Festklanningar Online
While Burberry, closely followed by Louis Vuitton and Gucci, remains the brand that has most successfully integrated its digital offering with physical stores, its advantage over other luxury players in the market is narrowing.

In a report by Exane BNP Paribas, which graded leading luxury brands on digital performance including reach, customer experience and engagement, Dolce & Gabbana, Hugo Boss and Ferragamo are fast closing the gap on luxury fashion's digital leaders.

Of the 32 brands assessed, five companies improved their performance by more than 20 percent year-on-year: Hugo Boss by 28 percent, Dolce & Gabbana by 23 percent, Ferragamo and Michael Kors by 22 percent, and Chanel by 21 percent. These brands, which have traditionally lagged behind in terms of digital performance, have dramatically improved their online presence in the past year, narrowing the gap between those at the top of the report and those in the middle.

Exane BNP Paribas calculated the ranking by assessing 18 different criteria including online shopping, delivery and personal services in 2016. Burberry ranked top with a score of 183, while Louis Vuitton was in second place with a score of 174 and Gucci third with 171.

According to the report, 10 companies regressed, including Ralph Lauren which lags behind its competitors by 11 percent, Tiffany was down by 9 percent, Dior was behind at 5 percent and Celine was down by 4 percent.

Looking forward, Solca expects to see a vast improvement from Hugo Boss, Prada and particularly LVMH, which is reportedly working on an e-commerce site to unite all of its brands on one platform, expected to launch in May.
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