Some designers prefer to pull away from the limelight early

Three who designed past retirement age: (from left) Karl Lagerfeld, Coco Chanel, and Yves Saint Laurent. Photos: Fashion Stock, Getty Images, Musee YSL respectively

Last week, Andrew Gn announced with little fanfare that he wished to “bid goodbye” after close to three decades running his business. He told Vogue that he will be celebrating his 60th birthday next year (in January, but some who knows him well say he’ll be 59 in 2024). Some observers have commented that, even at 60, Mr Gn’s stepping down is somewhat early. One recent fan commented, “Wah, so young retiring!” It is, if you consider that American presidents stay on till their late 70s—best recent examples: Joe Biden and inexplicably still-popular Donald Trump. And in fashion, designers do stay on too. In Paris, the late Yves Saint Laurent, a createur Mr Gn is known to have admired ardently, was working till 2002 when he announced his retirement, aged 65. Karl Lagerfeld, Mr Saint Laurent’s one-time rival, never retired; he worked till his death in 2019—he was 85. Until he passed away unexpectedly at age 82, Azzedine Alaia was still designing. If you look further back, Hubert de Givenchy retired in 1995 when he was 68. Coco Chanel worked till her death in 1997, aged 87 (in fact, she retired in 1939 and then famously made a successful comeback in 1954).

In the present, an individual working past 65 is not unusual or uncommon, given improved public health and medical advances, as well as new approaches to ‘anti-ageing’ strategies. In the creative field, healthy older individuals may not wish to retire, especially what they have done is a life’s work that remains recognised. Today, designers still putting together collections despite their advanced years include Miuccia Prada (74), Vera Wang (74), Norma Kamali (77), Paul Smith (77), Dapper Dan (79), and octogenarians Yohji Yamamoto (80), Rei Kawakubo (81; in Japan, they tend to design into their later years. Another one of them is Junko Koshino, who is 84), Ralph Lauren (84) and Giorgio Armani (89). On our shores, Thomas Wee, 74, is still designing. We heard he is re-launching his demi-couture line next week. Mr Wee has intermittently contemplated retirement, but has yet to succumb to it.

“I’ve stopped making frocks, but not making discoveries

Hubert de Givenchy

But retirement is seen very differently by different designers. Just before Hubert de Givenchy retired, his friends recalled him telling them, “I’ve stopped making frocks, but not making discoveries.” Karl Lagerfeld, when asked by Elle magazine about retirement in 2012, said, “Why should I stop working? If I do, I’ll die and it’ll be all finished.” When Giorgio Armani celebrated the 40th anniversary of his brand, he admitted to WWD that he could not pull himself away from his studio as his “ego forced him to say there will never be anyone else like Giorgio Armani.” After his autumn/winter 2023 in March, Yohji Yamamoto responded to a W magazine question about succession: “As long as I’m around, the brand will be forever. Fashion is the last chance, the last capability for how I can work and where I can come from. I’m tired. But when I finish one collection, I don’t make myself go any other way.”

This morning, a mere week after Andrew Gn’s stunning broadcast on Instagram, Song Wykidd of Akinn also shared on IG that he is “no longer associated with the Akinn brand”. Although it is not entirely clear what the dissociation meant, it has been suggested that retirement is a possibility. Mr Song would turn 60 next year, the same age (or about) as Mr Gn. The two spoke of a vague, ensuing “chapter”. And if both bow out of the industry soon, they would have retreated from fashion at the same age as Kenzo Takada, who retired in 1999, 21 years before he died from complications due to COVID-19 infection. Mr Gn did exhort that his decision is not tantamount to a retirement. “I’d like to spend the following years,” he said, “continuing to build the Andrew Gn legacy, giving back inasmuch as I can.” The road ahead is still very much paved.