The Independent in the UK ranks Fashion’s greatest living designers in their feature “The looks that shook the world: A celebration of the 20 most influential designers on the planet”
Their list is spot on, mixing established elder statesman (Karl Lagerfeld and Giorgio Armani) with iconoclasts helming eponymous labels (Alexander McQueen, Martin Margiela and Vivienne Westwood), and the younger upstarts who have reinvented the most reputable of fashion houses (Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga, Christopher Bailey at Burberry, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, John Galliano and Hedi Slimane at Dior the list goes on and on…)
There will always be notable exceptions to these “conclusive lists” but this one is pretty air tight. My only suggestion would be Raf Simons, a designer who not only consistently impresses with his own label but turned around the fortunes and direction of the fledgling Jil Sander.
The list in no particular order is as follows…
Miuccia Prada: The innovator
Marc Jacobs: The maverick
Ralph Lauren: The elder statesman
Giorgio Armani: The king of lifestyle
Domenico Dolce & Stefano Gabbana: The glamour gurus
Christopher Bailey: The master of reinvention
Frida Giannini: The lady of luxury
Nicolas Ghesquière: The purist
Stefano Pilati: The modernist
Alber Elbaz: The craftsman
Rei Kawakubo: The iconoclast
Martin Margiela: The invisible man
Vivienne Westwood: The national treasure
Karl Lagerfeld: The icon
John Galliano: The artist
Alexander McQueen: The visionary
Jean Paul Gaultier: The rebel
Donatella Versace: The glamour puss
Helmut Lang: The absent friend
Hedi Slimane: The renaissance man
Title Image by Pascal Le Segretain via Getty
