The first step in Kotter's change framework is examining competitive and market realities to identify potential crises and significant opportunities. In the context of the fashion industry, customers no longer only want to buy luxury and designer items marked by heritage. While these characteristics remain relevant, as they give brands their long-standing stories and distinctiveness, other issues have also arisen - such as sustainability, transparency, and maintaining uniqueness to stay relevant. The debate about sustainability has mainly become so important because the fashion industry is responsible for a large proportion of existing pollution. Furthermore, the fashion industry has a significant environmental and social impact, making it accountable for a great deal. Additionally, the emergence of a secondhand culture, promoted by secondary marketplaces such as Vestiaire Collective and The RealReal, forces luxury brands to maintain their exclusivity. Vintage shopping has therefore become a rival to the primary market. It offers customers a range of benefits: designer pieces on the secondary market are more affordable and accessible. They are also often unavailable in regular stores, making them highly unique. Lastly, there is the issue of sustainability. Consequently, high-end brands must combine openness to new approaches with their heritage, distinctive stylistic codes, and excellence in craftsmanship to remain relevant in the future.

Next, organizations must assemble a powerful team to spearhead the change effort and encourage all employees to collaborate. Many high-end brands have established internal task forces and innovation labs to drive progress. For instance, Burberry has set up an internal committee that focuses on sustainability and diversity. Additionally, fashion houses are increasingly appointing younger creative directors. Consider Alessandro Michele, who became Gucci's creative director in 2015 and remained in the position for nearly eight years. Michele gave Gucci a new direction by implementing a maximalist, gender-fluid, surreal, vintage-inspired, eclectic, and narrative-driven aesthetic.

The third step is to create a vision that will guide the change process. Additionally, strategies should be developed to achieve this vision. Traditionally, high-end brands followed a product-centric model, emphasizing exclusivity, craftsmanship, prestige, social status, and self-expression. However, in recent years, they have transitioned to a purpose-driven model. While preserving craftsmanship remains essential for luxury and aspirational brands, they no longer attempt to sell status symbols. Instead, these brands now focus on sustainability and social responsibility, continuously working to ensure their products and brand image remain authentic and culturally relevant. They tell stories and create experiences with which customers can emotionally connect. In doing so, they emphasize their rarity and distinctiveness while embracing innovation.

Consequently, organizations must use every available means to communicate their new vision and strategies. In this regard, high-end labels are unbeatable, employing various tools to perfect their fashion communication strategy. Fashion communication allows brands to visually, emotionally, and globally share their personal story. It is a broad field, and each luxury and designer brand incorporates it differently depending on their business approach. Jacquemus, for example, recognized the potential of social media early on as it allows customers to connect with the brand emotionally. Therefore, Jacquemus' social media usage reflects the aspirational label's identity perfectly: it's creative, fun, and authentic. In contrast, Bottega Veneta took the radical step of deleting all of its social media in 2021 and has only published print content since then. Though unusual for a high-end brand, this decision makes sense for Bottega. Consider their slogan, "When your own initials are enough," which highlights the Intrecciato, their signature weaving technique reflecting their commitment to craftsmanship and maintaining a low profile. Additionally, brands such as Louis Vuitton have started opening their own cafés and restaurants, enabling customers to experience the fashion house's distinctive identity holistically.

This step involves eliminating obstacles to change by modifying systems or structures that undermine the vision. Furthermore, risk-taking and nontraditional ideas, activities, and actions are emphasized. In the fashion industry, legacy structures, risk aversion, creative silos, and overdependence on physical retail present many challenges. However, fashion houses such as Gucci and Balenciaga have shown that setting up cross-departmental innovation units that combine technology, sustainability, and design can streamline business operations and enable faster decision-making processes. Additionally, the luxury fashion conglomerate Kering has overhauled its supply chains by examining transparency and traceability in order to fulfill its long-term sustainable responsibilities.

Next, organizations must plan and implement visible performance improvements. A powerful example of this is Virgil Abloh's debut runway show for Louis Vuitton in 2018. As the first black creative director at the longstanding fashion house, Abloh introduced a new spirit by combining streetwear aesthetics with emotion and diversity. Abloh attracted a young, fashionable audience to Louis Vuitton who could purchase the new products soon after the fashion house presented the collection. He also created highly sought-after items, which attracted a great deal of attention on social media and were worn by celebrities, in magazines and music videos. Thus, Virgil Abloh demonstrated that Louis Vuitton is truly progressing in innovative ways that are creative, cultural, and commercial.

The goal of this step is to leverage increased credibility to transform systems, structures, and policies that do not align with the vision. It also recommends hiring, promoting, and developing employees who can implement the vision, as well as reinvigorating the process with new projects, themes, and change agents. High-end brands must fully embrace change by integrating it structurally. It's no longer just about a symbolic moment; it's about the new direction in which the organization is moving. Under the creative direction of Virgil Abloh, Louis Vuitton has continued to combine streetwear aesthetics with luxury. Furthermore, collaborations with artists, inclusive casting, and virtual fashion initiatives have paved the way for the company to innovate further and appeal to a new youth culture that values diversity and distinctive codes. Scaling up initial efforts involves rethinking current operations, reworking KPIs, and investing in new assets.

Lastly, organizations must articulate the links between new behaviors and corporate success, and develop strategies for leadership development and succession planning. Brands' new corporate approaches, such as sustainability, transparency, diversity, and digital fluency, are no longer just initiatives; they have become an integral part of an organization's DNA. Luxury and designer brands must therefore ensure consistency in their operations, provide structural support and assistance, and align their leadership principles. Gucci, for example, successfully shifted its identity under the direction of Alessandro Michele towards a gender-fluid, romantic, and eclectic aesthetic. The company consciously integrated inclusivity and diversity into its hiring and casting processes, store design, and campaigns, all of which now reflect the brand's new aesthetic codes. The launch of the Gucci Equilibrium platform has also promoted sustainability. Even after Michele left the fashion house in 2022, Gucci retained its new identity.