INTERVIEW
MILAN VUKMIROVIC
«FROM ONLINE TO OFFLINE ALWAYS AGAINST THE TIDE» A year after the launch of the see-now-buy-now Ports V, Serbian designer Milan Vukmirovic reveals the brand’s first brick-and-mortar store opening, in 2019 in Shanghai, and why digital and in-store are crucial to fashion’s future BY ANGELA TOVAZZI
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fashion renaissance man if there ever was one, Milan Vukmirovic is much more than just a designer. Born in 1970, the ever cosmopolitan Serbian is also a buyer, a journalist and a photographer. A restless, creative mind who refuses to settle, he has a constant eye on market trends and the mood on the street. He’s not afraid to swim against the tide and forge new paths of his own. His resume includes an impressive list of high-profile positions, including creative director of the concept store Colette in Paris, designer director at Gucci back in the Tom Ford days, creative director of Jil Sander and Trussardi 1911, not to mention director, for seven years, of the magazine L’Officiel Hommes Paris, co-founder of the concept store Webster in Miami and of The Boon in Seoul. Today he shows no signs of slowing down. And since 2015 he has been at the helm of the menswear office Ports 1961 and its new Ports V line and director, since 2011, of the hard copy magazine Fashion For Men, where he also works as a photographer. Your interests have taken you in a thousand different directions... How do you manage to multitask all the time? Being like this has never been easy, which is why I have also received a lot of criticism. I often hear about how my involvement in thousands of things means that I am unable to do everything well. However
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for me, this is not just a way of following my passions, it is a necessity. I could never be any different. Diversification broadens your horizons and prevents you from getting bogged down. About a year ago you launched the menswear collection Ports V, based on a see-now-buy-now formula, with focus on e-commerce. How is that going? It marked a sharp, clear-cut turning point. We tried to transcend the traditional ‘two collections per year’ rule, to embrace a more rapid production and distribution philosophy, with four-five limited edition capsules, available immediately online. Fashion behemoths the likes of Zara and H&M have changed the markets: every 15 days they refresh their in-store selection and if something isn’t working, they move it. I asked myself: ‘Why can’t we adopt this business model as well?’ Consumers have everything just a click away from them, so when they see something they like, perhaps on Instagram, they want it now. They’re certainly not going to wait six months to buy it, by which time they might already be attracted to something else. Will Ports V be distributed online only? When we first started, we focused exclusively on digital drive, with important campaigns on Instagram. However a year later, I miss not being able to see the collection in
Born and raised in Paris, Milan Vukmirovic studied at Esmod, in Paris. He co-founded the concept store Colette and has been the Design Director of Gucci, Creative Director of Jil Sander and Trussardi 1911. Milan is currently Editor-in-Chief and Founder of the Fashion For Men bookazine and has been the Creative Director of Ports 1961 menswear up until the launch of Ports V in early 2018
a physical space, where people can look at it and touch it with their own hands. Online, the most popular categories are still basic items, like sweaters and T-shirts... This is why we have decided to open the first real single brand store in 2019, in Shanghai. At the same time we are also working on wholesale development, in Japan and China too. The physical experience is fundamental: offline and online are not mutually exclusive and fashion needs both dimensions. Information is increasingly shifting on line, yet you continue to invest in your hard copy magazine Fashion For Men ... I see myself as a little crazy, I like swimming against the tide. So this is why I haven’t given up on a newspaper with lots of pages, which still has some weight to it and is printed on beautiful paper. I am convinced that there are still readers looking for quality contents. While we’re on the subject of quality, what do you think about social media? We need to be careful how we use it, in terms of our awareness… and the fact that the Internet is full of everything, beautiful as well as vacuous things, interesting projects and influencers who don’t influence a soul. What we need is a cleanup. In the future, “sincerity” will be the key word for credibility. ■