The fashion designer has become emblematic of the entire industry, representing the notion of a creative genius with boundless inspiration. Designers now serve as creative directors at the top tier of the fashion industry. In recent years, there has been a notable shift in the role of the creative directors at leading fashion houses. They are switching from one fashion house to another at an escalating pace, which has become a standard practice in the fashion industry. Renowned fashion journalist Suzy Menkes described the change as a game of musical chairs in an article from 2014. The objective of this thesis is to examine the discourse of the current role of the designer as a creative director and how the discourse has evolved from 2014 to 2024. In order to comprehend this shift, a combination of theorists is employed for a deeper insight. The theoretical framework includes concepts from Karl Marx, Pierre Bourdieu, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Lipovetsky and Zygmunt Bauman. Through a discourse analysis, this thesis discusses the role which the creative director inhabits today in the intersection of creativity and commerce.
Mattias Lagerberg (Wed,) studied this question.