MILAN — Kering and Vogue Italia have renewed their partnership for the internship Empower Talents, and will mark the second installment with an event tonight here during Milan Fashion Week.
The magazine’s editor in chief, Franca Sozzani, described the project as an “innovative and concrete model that will surely allow many young individuals to win the challenge of the future with commitment and creativity. It is a project that continues and is renewed to encourage the development of a new generation of talents.”
Vogue Italia and its Web site spearhead the selection process and the partnership offers posts in areas such as design, merchandising, visual display, digital and communications.
Here, Kering chairman and chief executive officer François-Henri Pinault discusses with WWD the progress of the program and its future prospects.
Related Galleries
WWD: A year has passed since the announcement of the Empower Talents program. Do you believe the initiative has progressed as you envisioned? What are the main reasons for renewing the partnership? How do you see the collaboration with Vogue Italia progressing? Are there any specifics you would like to share?
François-Henri Pinault: The Empower Talents program has proven to be very successful, one obvious reason that made us decide to renew the partnership this year. We also love working with Vogue Italy and Franca Sozzani, for their precious commitment to the project. Our collaboration went very well as we share the same objective: Find the new and most promising talents of the fashion industry and offer them training opportunities within our brands.
This year, internships will be concentrated in Italy, where a lot of our brands were born, and Switzerland. Bottega Veneta, Brioni, Dodo, Girard-Perregaux, Gucci, JeanRichard, Kering headquarters, Pomellato and Sergio Rossi will offer internships to the best young talents in some of Kering’s key fields of expertise: marketing, public relations, communications and merchandising.
WWD: As the project has been taking shape, what do you see as the biggest challenges and what are the most promising aspects of the initiative?
F.H.P.: The development and management of talents is key for us at Kering. The luxury fashion industry is not only very attractive for young professionals; it is also a growing one, one that is constantly evolving. This implies very high recruitment needs that we need to address, and in parallel, the necessity to be able to find the best talents, to welcome them within the group and support their professional and creative development. It is a daily challenge to find these professionals, but also an opportunity for us because they are crucial to the group’s success. We need to make sure we identify them and do our best to retain them within the group.
This is why it is important for us to support the development of initiatives such as this partnership with Vogue Italy through Empower Talents. The combination of Vogue’s visibility and the attractiveness of our brands for people who love fashion is ideal to spot the best talents and help them grow.
WWD: What has been the reaction to the project so far?
F.H.P.: Last year, our h.r. department received a very consistent number of applications and the selection process has been very competitive. Within the brands, all managers involved showed remarkable participation and enthusiasm. They embraced the challenge to go further and deeper in the search for talents to sustain the development of key business functions. The project has also been warmly welcome by the candidates. We had several very positive experiences with the students who joined the group and today we are evaluating some of them for long-term positions within our brands.
WWD: Do you think similar collaborations to support students and young talents in their career development could take shape in the future?
F.H.P.: As you know, Kering’s motto is “empowering imagination.” We feel that as a major player of the fashion industry, it is our duty to encourage talent development and help young professionals start their career. We have already developed other collaborations to help students and young talents. But as we wish to accompany them on a long-term basis and really pave their way to success, we are not looking into multiplying such collaborations just for the sake of it. They have to make sense and bring true value to young professionals and to us. For instance, it is the case in the U.S., with the “Empowering Imagination” contest at Parsons The New School for Design, which similarly has been offering prestigious internships within our brands for two years now. [It’s] also [the case] in China, where Kering has formed a strategic partnership with Tsinghua University to establish a long-term commitment to an education and training program to promote new talent in the arts and design.