American designers who came up in the 2000s aspired to a certain way of life. This was a time of rapid industry consolidation and globalization, fueled by the success of Tom Ford at Gucci, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, and John Galliano at Dior, with Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel as a guiding light. For the young designers following in their footsteps, the goals were simple: find a good investor, land a creative director gig at your heritage brand of choice, and become rich and famous. But they were nearly impossible to achieve. If the American fashion industry was one giant Y Combinator, I swear the success rate would be even lower than it is in the tech world.