With New Management, LVMH Plots DKI Revamp · ent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has tapped...

Pulling the Right Strings

WWD

PHOTO BY STÉPHANE FEUGÈRE

By LUISA ZARGANI

MILAN — This fall is shaping up to be a busy one at the courthouse for the Italian fashion industry and ongoing tax investigations.

On Monday, Prada SpA chairman Carlo Mazzi re-vealed the Italian tax authorities are investigating Miuccia Prada and her husband Patrizio Bertelli re-garding “the accuracy of certain past tax fi lings” by the designer and her husband “as individuals in re-spect of foreign-owned companies.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s equivalent of the Supreme Court, the Corte di Cassazione, will rule on Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s alleged tax evasion on Oct. 21 in Rome, and, after two delays, the fi rst hear-ing of Matteo Marzotto’s tax trial is to take place in Milan on Nov. 28.

In the case of Prada and Bertelli, a well-placed legal source told WWD that the investigation is “a standard procedure” in light of the large sum in-volved — which was more than $600 million. Any transaction with Italy’s Agenzia delle Entrate, the country’s revenue service, starting from a sum as low as 100,000 euros, or $137,000, is automatically sent to the public prosecutor’s offi ce.

“The prosecutors have no desire to create any unnecessary alarm. [Prada and Bertelli] have extin-guished their fi scal debt but this does not waive the crime. A trial is not to be ruled out but the prosecu-tors are still in a phase of preliminary investigations,” explained the source, adding that prosecutors “hope to close the investigation by the end of the year.”

By MILES SOCHA

PARIS — Foreshadowing a new strategy and brand architecture at Donna Karan International, par-ent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has tapped Caroline Brown to become chief executive officer of the New York-based fashion house, effective Jan. 15.

This confi rms a report in WWD on Sept. 25, and signals that the French luxury giant is stepping up ef-forts with its American brands.

“We fi nd that the U.S. is a superinteresting mar-ket,” said Pierre-Yves Roussel, chairman and ceo of LVMH Fashion Group, who recently added Donna Karan to the roster of houses under his purview and who is to become its chairman. “It starts from having the right ceo’s and building a team around that so we can be as successful as we’ve been in Europe on a lot of projects.”

Roussel is also chairman of Marc Jacobs International, and recently moved Givenchy’s Sebastian Suhl, a rising star in the French luxury group, to helm that New York-based brand.

The executive noted Suhl and Brown — who is stepping down as president of Carolina Herrera at the end of the year — are American nationals with broad international experience.

He lauded Brown’s “understanding of fashion” and close connections to the young generation of American designers.

Roussel noted that her appointment dovetails with a new shareholding and management confi guration at Marc Jacobs, with the designer now fully devoted to his signature house, setting the stage for that com-pany “to move forward.”

“We’re looking at those two projects as being very important to us. We really want to get to the heart and the depth of what has made those brands successful….Yes, you have to have the right resources, but it’s more about having the time, the clarity and the direction,”

SEE PAGE 9

BROWN TO JOIN KARAN

With New Management,LVMH Plots DKI Revamp

Italian Fashion FiguresFace String of Tax Trials

SEE PAGE 17

Right StringsPARIS — Julie de Libran made an impressive debut Monday at Sonia Rykiel. Her playfully chic and contemporary treatment of the Rykiel signature stripes and knits shows she has the potential to push the venerable 46-year-old Paris house into a dynamic new phase. For more from the runways, see pages 4 to 8.

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TO E-MAIL REPORTERS AND EDITORS AT WWD, THE ADDRESS IS [email protected], USING THE INDIVIDUAL’S NAME. WWD IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT ©2014 FAIRCHILD FASHION MEDIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.VOLUME 208, NO. 67. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014. WWD (ISSN 0149–5380) is published daily (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, with one additional issue in March, April, May, June, August, October, November and December, and two additional issues in February and September) by Fairchild Fashion Media, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Shared Services provided by Condé Nast: S.I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, Chief Executive Officer; Robert A. Sauerberg Jr., President; John W. Bellando, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer; Jill Bright, Chief Administrative Officer. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 886549096-RT0001. Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Cre, Rich-Hill, ON L4B 4R6. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593. FOR SUBSCRIPTION, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to WWD, P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593, call 866-401-7801, or email customer service at [email protected]. Please include both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. For New York Hand Delivery Service address changes or inquiries, please contact Mitchell’s NY at 1-800-662-2275, option 7. Subscribers: If the Post Office alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we have no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. If during your subscription term or up to one year after the magazine becomes undeliverable, you are ever dissatisfied with your subscription, let us know. You will receive a full refund on all unmailed issues. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within four weeks after receipt of order. Address all editorial, business, and production correspondence to WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY, 750 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. For permissions requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax the request to 212-630-5883. For reprints, please e-mail [email protected] or call Wright’s Media 877-652-5295. For reuse permissions, please e-mail [email protected] or call 800-897-8666. Visit us online at www.wwd.com. To subscribe to other Fairchild Fashion Media magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.wwd.com/subscriptions. Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 6356, Harlan, IA 51593 or call 866-401-7801. WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY WOMEN’S WEAR DAILY IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.

Coty CEO Michele Scannavini ExitsBy ARNOLD J. KARR

COTY INC. is seeing another change in top management.

Michele Scannavini, who brought stability to the group as chief executive officer after its failed at-tempt to buy Avon Products Inc. in 2012 and took the beauty firm public a year later, is leaving the company for personal reasons.

Bart Becht, chairman of Coty, will become in-terim ceo and the search for Scannavini’s successor will begin immediately, the company said. Becht will remain chairman after the ceo search is completed.

Scannavini has relinquished his seat on Coty’s board.

The departure of Scannavini, a 12-year veteran of the beauty company, follows the exit of longtime Coty ceo Bernd Beetz in July 2012. Scannavini, who was president of Coty Prestige at the time, took over from Beetz as group ceo. Beetz stepped down only eight months after Becht arrived as Coty’s chairman and became deeply involved in the Avon bid, taking on the role of public face of Coty, one that Beetz had held for years.

Shares of Coty fell 1.1 percent Monday to $16.74 in New York Stock Exchange trading on the news of another change in ceo within 26 months.

Scannavini, a Procter & Gamble alumnus, worked in executive sales and marketing posts with Ferrari and Maserati and later served as ceo of Italy’s Fila Holding SpA before joining Coty.

“It has been a fantastic ride,” Scannavini wrote in a note sent to business contacts. “Over the last 12 years Coty, developed from being a regional chal-lenger in fragrances to be a global leader in beauty, this thanks to great brands and exceptional people. I feel honored of having been part of it and proud of the contribution I gave all those years to grow Coty bigger and stronger.”

He disclosed no details about the factors behind his decision or his future plans. Sources said his departure wasn’t related to his health.

In a brief conference call to discuss the chang-es, Patrice de Talhouët, chief financial officer, em-phasized the move “is not indicative of any kind of unforeseen problem or financial issue at Coty. We are not revisiting our fiscal 2015 earnings outlook

provided in our fourth-quarter earnings release as a result of this event.” He added that no change in strategy is contemplated.

When fourth-quarter results were released on Aug. 28, the company said it was “targeting to return to reve-nue growth in fiscal 2015 through a competitive innova-tion program, continuous expansion of the emerging-market business and the progressive recovery in the nail business in North America.” A global efficiency program is expected to deliver annual savings of more than $200 million within the next three years.

In the year ended June 30, revenues fell 2.1 per-cent, to $4.55 billion from $4.65 billion, with an 11 per-cent decline in the Americas region, to $1.7 billion, offsetting a gain of 5.2 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, to $2.3 billion, and a virtually flat performance in the Asia-Pacific region, where sales totaled $544.9 million. The firm incurred a net loss of $97.4 million, versus net income of $168 million in the prior year. However, excluding asset impairment and other charges, the company posted a non-GAAP profit of $316.2 million, down 2.2 percent from $323.2 million in the prior year.

“Michele has been a material part and key con-tributor to Coty’s success of the past decade,” Becht said. “We would like to thank him in particular for taking Coty public through a listing on the New York Stock Exchange and developing a clear strat-egy for Coty’s future.”

The company derived 55 percent of its sales last year, or $2.5 billion, from fragrances, with color cosmetics accounting for 30 percent and skin and body care for 15 percent. During his tenure, Beetz orchestrated acquisitions, including Philosophy and OPI, which helped lessen the company’s de-pendence on fragrances, which accounted for 60 percent of sales in 2009.

Becht, also a P&G veteran, joined Coty’s board as chairman in 2011. For 12 years prior to that, he was ceo of Reckitt Benckiser plc, a global consumer goods company. JAB Holdings II BV, the investment vehicle of Germany’s billionaire Reimann family, was a lead-ing seller of shares in Coty’s IPO. It retains an inter-est in Reckitt Benckiser and owns Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff. Jimmy Choo is preparing for an October IPO of about a quarter of its shares that would value the British footwear brand at more than 700 million pounds, or $1.14 billion at current exchange.

ON WWD.COM

THE BRIEFING BOXIN TODAY’S WWD

Donna Karan International parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has tapped Caroline Brown to become chief executive officer of the New York-based fashion house. PAGE 1 This fall is shaping up to be a busy one at the courthouse for the Italian fashion industry and ongoing tax investigations. PAGE 1 Increasing civil unrest in Hong Kong is likely to dent retail sales and scare off Chinese tourists, putting further pressure on retailers. PAGE 9 WWD in Person: Didier Grumbach reflects on his diverse career, from manufacturer to retailer, entrepreneur to industry organizer and mentor. PAGE 12 The first Juicy Couture stores in India are expected to be opened in fall 2015 by Reliance Brands Ltd. under a licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group. PAGE 17 With its first men’s-only store, Holt Renfrew says it is targeting modern tailoring, the Toronto man and not necessarily reacting to the intensifying competition across Canada. PAGE 18 The embattled American Apparel Inc. named Alvarez & Marsal executive Scott Brubaker interim chief executive officer Monday. PAGE 18 Tom Ford’s fall 2015 show, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 20, will be a one-off event as the designer plans to return to London Fashion Week next September. PAGE 19 Joanna Coles, the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, has been named editorial director and given responsibility for Seventeen magazine as well. PAGE 19

Alexandra Titarenko is featured in “Model Call.” For more, see WWD.com

MODEL CALL: WWD sat down with 19-year-old Wilhelmina-repped model Alexandra Titarenko, who, in her first year on the runway, walked both Chanel and Marc Jacobs. For more, see WWD.com.

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John Galliano Speculation MountsBy WWD STAFF

PARIS — Could the house found-ed by fashion’s invisible man make way for one of the indus-try’s most flamboyant characters?

Speculation that John Galliano might join the Maison Martin Margiela and take over its couture has been dominating front-row conversation at the Paris shows, despite a denial of that scenario by Margiela owner Renzo Rosso, made to WWD during Milan Fashion Week earlier this month.

The denial came even as a vacancy opened up at a brand known for deconstruction, cleft-toed boots and the Belgian founder’s Greta Garbo ways. Sources indicated that Matthieu Blazy, the designer responsible for Margiela’s couture line, dubbed Artisanal, is leaving the company Wednesday.

The maison declined all com-ment, reiterating its policy that it never communicates on any indi-viduals working at the company.

That might change were it to welcome a towering — and con-troversial — talent like Galliano into the fold.

Rosso does not hide his en-thusiasm for the British fashion maverick, best known for a 15-year stint as couturier at Christian Dior.

“Who wouldn’t like to work with him? If he ever got back his name, I would be the first to pro-duce his collections,” Rosso told WWD — a quote picked up by var-ious other media. Rosso controls Staff International, the Italian

clothing manufacturer, plus Brave Kid Srl, which produces children’s collections for brands including John Galliano.

Galliano was dismissed from Dior in March 2011 following a series of public outbursts during which he uttered racist and anti-Semitic insults in a Paris café. He was also ousted from the fashion house that bears his name.

At his trial on charges of public insult in June 2011, Galliano blamed work-related stress and multiple ad-dictions for his behavior.

Meanwhile, sources said Galliano is laying the groundwork for a possible rapprochement with Dior — seen as a possibility should the designer withdraw his ongoing labor suit against the company.

It is understood Galliano is seeking compensation in the range of 6 million euros, or $7.6 million at current exchange, for wrongful dismissal. A works tri-bunal is slated to begin hearings on the case on Nov. 4.

Galliano recently extended an

olive branch to Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, during a televi-sion interview, saying he hopes to make amends. “I’m hopeful. I hope one day to be able to visit him, explain what happened,” Galliano told television channel Canal Plus’ lunchtime news pro-gram “Le Supplément.”

On the same program, as re-ported, the designer said he was in the midst of a return “back into creativity,” citing his role as creative director for Russian per-fumery chain L’Etoile.

He reiterated that he was not a racist or an anti-Semite and attributed his comments to “a defense mechanism” that he blamed on childhood trauma.

“I can’t convince everyone, and I know some people will never forgive me. I understand that. I have taken physical steps to approach people that I have upset, to apologize. That’s part of my recovery,” he said.

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John Galliano being interviewed on Canal Plus’ news program “Le Supplément.”

WWD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 20144

Saint Laurent: What is fashion? Several seasons into it, that question again swirled around the exiting throng at Hedi Slimane’s fashion show for Saint Laurent.

Moodwise: cute, young, rock ’n’ roll, a little vulgar, with arch, sky-high platforms that felt dated beyond the presentation’s obvious, intended retro. Clotheswise, an unmistakable merch message: jacket; short, flirty dress or skirt; and for those who dare, short shorts — and a girl’s good to go. Good to go in what were, piece-by-piece, some appealing clothes.

Slimane’s item of the season is a short jacket. Based on two classics — the jeans and motorcycle jacket — it came in a multitude of versions: black leather, green leather, patchwork suede, snake, band-leader red. Ditto his saucy, full-skirted dresses. They came printed with cherries, stars and flowers, and in numerous takes on the LBD. Some charmed; some telegraphed, “Hello, Mr. West Side Highway.”

They didn’t telegraph luxury (though the tailoring and embroideries in particular looked well-made), at least not in the traditional sense. These were kids’ clothes luxed up for the designer customer. Nor did they show any sense of Slimane’s perspective as a designer beyond his continuing literal embrace of retro motifs. And, if the returns from his brief tenure at the house run constant, it will all sell like mad.

So back to the question: What is fashion, fashion at the designer level, runway-worthy fashion? Is it the clothes themselves? Should designers at the highest reaches of ready-to-wear do more than retread? Do they have a responsibility to do more? Or is fashion now about the aura surrounding a designer and/or brand, with the clothes beside the point? After the show, the Saint Laurent p.r. office e-mailed show notes to some editors. It covered invitation artwork (Robert Heinecken); music (an irritating original ditty by Aleide); hair and makeup (Didier Malige and Aaron De Mey) and set design and styling (Hedi Slimane). Typically when a brand bothers with show notes, there’s something included about the clothes — the inspiration, the mood, something. Not this time.

Stella McCartney: Stella McCartney is a stalwart fashion realist. She sees herself in the service of, and in sartorial cahoots with, women like herself — women with busy lives in need of fashion that works.

That long-held ethos served both the designer and her clients beautifully for spring, as she developed a number of fresh, appealing motifs. McCartney is big on ease, especially for summer — which is what she calls her runway collection — and sought to capture “the season’s true spirit,” according to her program notes. That meant graceful, unfettered silhouettes that were shapely — but not tight — on tops over pants and skirts cut with volume.

McCartney did her part for the denim craze with crisp looks dressed up just enough with asymmetric and graphic appliqués. Often, she added a touch of tough to the structure with big, demonstrative buckle closures.

Summer ease is nothing without a little flou, delivered here in delightfully floaty dresses and separates in unfussy pastel plaids. And McCartney updated the Sweater Girl to fabulous effect, deftly slashing and knotting dresses, tunics and skirts to reveal glimpses of skin. The result was a confident, relaxed sensuality.

Sonia Rykiel: The installation of a new designer at an old house typically follows one of three classic matchmaker narratives: doomed from Day One; slow stall out; and in the rare case, the spark catches. After Julie de Libran’s first show for Sonia Rykiel, all indications are toward the elusive alchemy that can propel a storied brand in a new,

dynamic direction.Billed as “a housewarming” in the

copies of a hand-written letter from de Libran that accompanied press notes, the show felt personal. It was an intimate seating, staged at Rykiel’s store on the Boulevard Saint-Germain, in a neighborhood synonymous with the happy, French-Bohemian spirit Rykiel has encapsulated since it launched in 1968. In turn, the label is most freely associated with its founding designer’s knitwear and stripes, and de Libran chose the latter as her focal point for spring. She issued them in ways that were contemporary, playful and sophisticated without ever descending to the generic. “We all love stripes, they make us smile,” said the designer after the show. “The collection is feminine.

It’s about dressing beautiful girls, hopefully in a complete wardrobe.”

To model, de Libran cast the personality girls, opening with Georgia May and Lizzy Jagger, Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Edie Campbell, and closing with Miranda Kerr and Joan Smalls. They wore light, nubby ivory tweeds with raw hems and a subtle panel of green, orange and black stripes. More stripes came woven tonally into sporty, cropped sweaters trimmed with ample fringe; on knitted mink jackets; paneled around the midsection of net stretch-crepe jackets with scooped necklines; and on a black-sequin mesh jumpsuit, a most modern proposal for evening.

The silhouettes hit on the blend of artisanal detail, utility and chic sport

that is

current right now, capturing a youthful spirit in a way that felt luxurious and adult — even with an abundance of bra tops, abbreviated shorts and overalls. Asked about the collection’s many jumpsuits, cut straight and cropped, de Libran said, “It was about legs. I like that it looks like a dress and then when she walks, you see legs. She’s an active woman and she has somewhere to go.”

De Libran — after a 10-year stint at Prada and five as Marc Jacobs’ design director at Louis Vuitton — is well on her way at Rykiel.

Giambattista Valli: On his mood board, Giambattista Valli had photographs of 20th-century furniture and buildings alongside words such as “abstract,” “kaleidoscopic” and “hypnotic.”

Saint Laurent Sonia RykielStella McCartney

Paris CollectionsSpring 2015

DESIGNERS PLAYED WITH PATTERN MIXES, STRIPES AND LACE TO UPDATE SIXTIES AND

SEVENTIES SILHOUETTES.

WWD.COM5WWD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

Backstage after the show, he cited an interest in industrial design, and referenced Metabolism, the Japanese movement that merged architectural designs with organic shapes.

To those who know Valli and his penchant for clothes aimed at pretty young (and more mature) things, this was an unexpected turn, but so was the spring collection.

The designer explored the theme through the Sixties lens and a subtle Japanese vibe in the details. The industrial edge was in the precise lines of the silhouettes: clean shifts as well as tunics paired with slim

pants that were only slightly flared — no room for ruffle and flounce here.

Surface work added an organic dimension. The patterns were eclectic, busy and perhaps even a touch psychedelic (which explains the hypnotic part). The most memorable motif looked like a musical note; a vine, meanwhile, recalled the patterns of an Asian silk screen.

There was something arts-and-craftsy about these looks, a notion extending to several frayed numbers that appeared shredded — certainly playful, but not for everyone.

The calmer pieces were

standouts, especially the simple white tunic shown over pants featuring a bold stripe on one leg. The look was industrial by Valli standards, and also chic.

Sacai: “Sacai is about taking familiar pieces and turning them into something very different and new,” said Chitose Abe during a preview of her spring collection. Now that we’re all acquainted with her compound cuts that fuse multiple garments into one, Abe’s challenge is to keep such an acute specialization feeling fresh.

There was a familiarity to the show, but it didn’t taper the momentum Abe has built over

the last several seasons. Rather, she’s acclimated gracefully to the heightened interest in her collection, implicit in which is the pressure to be more inclusive of her growing audience, whose curiosity about Sacai might be countered by the look’s intimidation factor. To that end, Abe tries on every piece personally to ensure wearability.

The lineup somersaulted through ideas of uniform dressing — green army jackets, sailor suits and plaid schoolgirl kilts — tumbling into the artfully feminine via vivid scarf prints, folkloric embroideries and large-scale romantic lace.

Silhouettes felt lighter, leaner than in past seasons as Abe cut closer to the body. A filmy floral blouse featured slim horizontal panels of army-green fabric across the front and a voluminous 3-D gather in the back. One of the best looks was a mariner-striped ribbed-knit trapeze top trimmed with crafty white lace on its exaggerated turtleneck collar and hem, shown over a lace skirt.

While Abe remained true to her inventive approach, she seemed to sense that a little hybrid dressing goes a long way in a wardrobe, thus expanding her range with a note or two of relative simplicity.

Giambattista Valli Sacai

FOR MORE SPRING COVERAGE, SEE

WWD.com/runway.

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Emanuel Ungaro: You can’t fault Fausto Puglisi for lack of optimism. He’s got plenty. “I am a happy person,” the designer said backstage. “I love life, so when I design for spring, I like to think about color and I think, ‘Bang!’”

That “bang” was hard to miss in Emanuel Ungaro’s bold lineup. It was heard in the loud hues, from acid to electric, and the flamboyant silhouettes with which Puglisi nodded to the Eighties heyday of the label’s founder.

The designer took archival floral prints and reworked them digitally into a new mash-up used in tailored coats and flowing dresses. A print dress with a lacelike devoré as contrasting sleeve and hem detail was modest by the collection’s standards; a languid gypsy dress in the same pattern, and a matching tailored jacket, made a case for summer ease. Some patterns were so blended, though, it was hard to make out if they featured actual flowers or were a riff on tie-dye.

Puglisi bookended the show with looks he described as “Roy Halston meets Ungaro,” i.e., slinky goddess dresses with plunging necklines. The final numbers were replete with capes for extra-dramatic effect. Not that this show needed it.

Elie Saab: Elie Saab dunked his glam evening standards in an under-the-sea theme. The runway was awash in tidal colors — sea green, coral, a blue inspired by the waters of the Amalfi Coast — a marine print and dusky hues that gave a warm glow to Saab’s fluid, Seventies gowns with V-necks, gauzy winged sleeves and generously slit skirts. There was sportswear for women who like to approach the day dressed to the nines, but Saab’s specialty has been and remains nighttime attire, the newest of which were gowns with abstract lace and embroideries that mimicked the ebb and flow of water.

Veronique Branquinho: “The beauty of unfinished things,” is how Veronique Branquinho described the superbly executed theme of her spring collection, which she designed with her idol, singer-songwriter Kate Bush, in mind.

The designer conjured long, languid skirts, which were only half-pleated or abruptly changed their composition, alternating shimmering gold shades with matte maroon. The pleats continued on what were essentially white tank tops, but given their origamilike construction — embellished on the front and some with ruffled pieces decorating the models’ arms just below the shoulder — they looked anything but athletic.

The silhouettes telegraphed tenderness and calm, and above all femininity, which was true despite the fact that Branquinho opted for thick cords and carabiners as belts to the dreamy bottoms. And while Bush crooned “This Woman’s Work” — also the soundtrack at Céline earlier this week — onlookers struggled

to catch all the fine details in the clothing’s soft layers, some transparent, some opaque.

Leonard: Denim at Leonard? Once unthinkable, it was just one of Yiqing Yin’s concepts for freshening up the brand this season. The designer was inspired by the technique of printmaking, and delved into the blueprints that go into Leonard’s signature silk motifs.

Chalk drawings were overlaid and scanned to form patterns that she printed on materials ranging from denim to silk gazar.

They appeared in a patchwork of blue shades on dungarees and on cool drape-fronted pants worn with a shirt tied above the waist.

“I’m fascinated by the process. That’s where I find the most beautiful surprises and accidents,” Yin said backstage. “I like to work like that, so I tried to bring this philosophy to the house. It has such a rich research process that it was really a shame not to use it and play around with it.”

The sporty pieces contrasted with knotted and belted robes and dresses in feather-light silk

printed with oversize Oriental floral patterns, some of which were fractured and splintered into geometric motifs.

The freedom with which Yin rummaged through the archives was a breath of fresh air.

Wunderkind: In Wolfgang Joop’s world, uncertain times like these — economically, ecologically, politically and more — call for a celebration of “the beauty of transience and life as an absurd and surrealistic dream.” He did just that for spring with whimsical

charm and commercial appeal. On the more obvious front,

there were amusing prints that would make Dalí proud, including one featuring slices of toast planted with a lipstick smacker, used, for example, on a layered wrap dress. Joop handled the theme with a little more subtlety via looks that mixed a variety of checks, like plaids and windowpanes, in vibrant colors. The way these clashed was quirky, and although they didn’t help solve any world crises, they definitely added a bit of color to the situation.

PARISSPRING 2015

COLLECTIONS

Emanuel Ungaro Elie Saab


Roger Vivier: What people recognize most about a Roger Vivier accessory is the shiny buckle. This motif, part of the label’s rich history, has had an impact on design over the past 11 years under creative director Bruno Frisoni, first as a square version most famous on flats, and now in a rectangular shape.

Yet a certain conundrum arises when a designer wishes to move past a specific motif while, at the same time, preserving its heritage. It looks as if Frisoni has artfully jumped this hurdle for spring. He’s offered a new leather buckle woven into the design of a sandal called the Sexy Pilgrim and updated the Miss Viv bag with a monochromatic leather buckle.

These were the designer’s answer to “looking sexy for day by adding a classic to her wardrobe,” while beating the heat. Other strong elements included a color-blocked design influenced by Matisse’s “Jazz” series on a tote and a pattern called Palazzo on a wedge inspired by Seventies archives.

The archives also influenced a tall, flat gladiator style, featuring a tribal mask not so subtly worked into the design, which also harkened back to jewelry.

For evening, the designer kept to three bag shapes and then added embroidery, sequins and a coral design. Satin-embroidered evening sandals and the new Rendezvous wedge in metallic pink and red shone bright.


WWD.com/runway.

Veronique Branquinho

Leonard Wunderkind

Miss Viv bags and Sexy Pilgrim shoes.

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John Galliano: In a season of baby-doll dresses, Bill Gaytten gave his an exotic spin, rendering them in bamboo prints or dangling colorful leaf-shaped sequins. He applied a jungle theme to a youthful John Galliano collection hinged on vaguely Sixties silhouettes.

The boxy and shrunken shapes — jeans-style jackets, A-line coats and neat polo dresses — looked cute paired with elevated wooden clogs. They, along with origami folds splayed on halter-neck dresses and gowns, had a perfume of Japan, a reference to which Gaytten returns often. These looks suit his design proclivities: more architectural and less romantic than the house founder.

The gowns were loose and airy, and better in white gauze etched with a tribal pattern than in Stabilo green.

Olympia Le-Tan: Olympia Le-Tan, who juggles female stereotypes like an acrobat, took on the naughty schoolgirl for spring. Though the show was set at the prestigious Lycée Henri IV, a high school for future members of the French elite, the soundtrack, Pink Floyd’s refrain of “we don’t need no education,” set the tone.

Sporting Christian Louboutin stilettos and knee socks, the models paraded their flouncy skirts as cheekily as they showed off their Forties pin-up-inspired shorts, which were matched with chaste cardigans or English overcoats. Le-Tan studied fabrics to strong effect this season. To wit: a naïve, graphic print done via delicate sequin embroideries playfully referencing a schoolgirl’s colored-pencil doodles. It appeared on a number of appealing outerwear pieces, including a shirt-jacket with ballooning sleeves.

Elsewhere, pencil skirts with gently ruffled hems featuring strict geometric patterns were still sexy, but more measured. Underneath the saucy styling,

it was a commercial-friendly lineup — perhaps a sign of Le-Tan’s

upcoming retail expansion?

Acne Studios: Known for its gigantic proportions, orthopedic-esque footwear and Swedish design cachet, Acne is a label that impresses your hipster

friends, yet might not be ideal for date night. But it’s

cool to be contrarian, so creative

director Jonny Johansson challenged himself to do a spring collection exploring the ideas of sexy and luxury. “Those are two words I usually try to stay away from, but I was kind of inspired to make our interpretation,” he said backstage.

Johansson approached them conceptually, sending up the clichés of moneyed bourgeois who love a good sweater and khaki combination topped off with a soigné scarf tied around the neck and a vanity watch. The sweaters were cut out around the midriff and back, and the khakis done as short shorts and a neat A-line skirt. The watches were exaggerated chain-link bracelets.

While thumbing his nose at the stereotypes of luxe leisure, Johansson embraced them with enough earnest to yield a collection that had both carnal and intellectual appeal. He sexed-up sharp tailoring, letting the neckline of a neat le smoking plunge to the navel. There were nods to the unbuttoned blouse and flared low-rider pants from the height of Nineties Tom Ford mania, here, in abstract prints by artist Raquel Dias that featured flowers, fruits, boobs and lipstick tubes. The show closed with a terry cloth wrap dress, because nothing says luxury like lounging in a plush towel all day.

Julien David: Julien David’s spring collection was as well executed as a Maria Kochetkova grand jété: San Francisco Ballet’s principal dancer served as inspiration for the spirited creations.

But David’s take on classical ballet was extremely sporty, given that dancers are de facto athletes. “People just fail to notice, because they are so graceful,” the designer remarked backstage.

David worked mostly with jersey, bonding the malleable fabric with polyurethane for more structure. The fabric was carved into sculptural skirts and bustier dresses with controlled swagger, much like the studied movements of a prima ballerina. On sweaters, David blended nylon-film knit (in front) with dense Oxford cotton (in the back) to great effect. The mixed-media theme continued in layered looks, which this season included a fanciful three-piece combo uniting a bonded jersey top, an overprinted lace shirt with neon gingham checks and another one decorated with tiny glass beads. Throughout, the collection telegraphed charm and refinement, yet in an easy, approachable way.

A.F. Vandevorst: For spring, An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx imagined a female pilot who lands and then gets lost in unfamiliar terrain. Cue a sartorially dramatic entrée: an airy bustier dress with an extra-long trail made from a khaki parachute, suggesting perhaps that the pilot had abruptly decided to abandon her plane, as smoke filled the room mimicking a thick cloud formation.

The duo used a crispy cotton fabric to sculpt a trenchcoat and several dresses, which looked as if the wind had blown them into all four cardinal directions. More practical were the pilot jumpsuits as well as some loosely constructed coats and blazers. A series of couture-esque numbers featuring guinea fowl feathers, including a bustier worn on top of an oversize men’s shirt, fed the flight theme.

Ellery: Australian designer Kym Ellery focused on demonstrative tailoring and juxtaposed textures for her collection, which drew inspiration from abstract artist Jean Arp. There were pairings of tweed trousers and a lace shirt, or a silk dress with featherlike fringes along the hem, for instance. Ellery played with proportions, such as billowy silhouettes and oversize bell sleeves. Standout pieces in this well-executed collection featured elegantly draped bodices.

Esteban Cortazar: For his debut on the Paris runway, wunderkind Esteban Cortazar did not disappoint. Dominated by stiffened leather in a sophisticated palette that included bottle green, deep burgundy and burnt orange, the 23 looks he sent out were sexy, and yet the irregular hemlines and asymmetric cutouts were inventive.

The rigidity of many looks was counterbalanced by the sensual motion and transparency of chiffon or organza and jersey fringing, with skirt hems backed in a taut fabric that made them appear to hover around the legs. The riveted green suede jacket that opened the show was exceptional.

Backed by new investors after a two-year exclusive partnership with Net-a-porter, the designer had already presented the range to buyers during resort, with the show timed a month before delivery begins. If the resounding applause at the end of this collection was anything to go by, Cortazar is on something of a roll.


WWD.com/runway.

PARISSPRING 2015

COLLECTIONS

John Galliano

Acne Studios

Julien David

Esteban Cortazar

ElleryA.F. Vandevorst

Olympia Le-Tan

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By VICKI M. YOUNG

FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT Judge James Graham in Columbus, Ohio, has rejected a settlement of a lawsuit between Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and a Florida pension plan that would have required the retailer to beef up its corporate governance policies.

The decision Friday is a preliminary one based on the court’s finding that “plaintiff has not demonstrated that the proposed settle-ment provides fair consideration to absent shareholders in exchange for a broad release of claims.” The pension plan filed a derivative lawsuit on behalf of Abercrombie, the corpora-tion, against its directors and management.

Judge Graham noted that Abercrombie would pay nearly $2.8 million in legal fees for the plaintiff, but that no other payments — such as to shareholders — would be made. In addition, shareholders of the retailer would release all claims against the company, as well as both cur-rent and former board members and executives for any conduct relating to the allegations. Those allegations concern mismanagement issues.

Abercrombie’s board denied any wrongdo-ing in the August settlement, the terms of which call for the appointment of a chief ethics and compliance officer. In addition, executive pay will be more closely tied to performance.

The settlement came shortly after the law-suit was filed on the same day by Florida pen-sion plan City of Plantation Police Officers’ Employees’ Retirement System. The lawsuit sought a closer tie-in between executive com-pensation and performance, as well as limita-tions of access to non-public data by third par-ties. Michael Jeffries, chief executive officer, is alleged to have received more than $140 mil-lion since 2008. The lawsuit also alleged that Jeffries allowed certain privileges to his life partner, who is not an employee of the company.

The court is requiring that a copy of its de-cision be sent to all Abercrombie shareholders so they can be apprised of the matters raised in the lawsuit.

A spokesman for Abercrombie declined comment. Mark Lebovitch, an attorney at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman repre-senting the plaintiff, did not return a call for comment by press time.

he said. “We’re not going to replicate what we’ve been doing in Europe.”

Roussel has been spending about a third of his time in the U.S. recently to better familiar-ize himself with the market.

He said he intends to partner with Brown — and the founding designer — to find the right path to catapult Donna Karan International, including deciding “what we want to keep, and what we want to discontinue.

“We’re probably doing too many things in too many directions, and in my experience, it’s much better to do fewer things, but to do them really well....The brand architecture has to be looked at. I think it has to be clarified,” he said, alluding to the plethora of subbrands and capsules that have sprouted over the years.

He described Donna Karan and DKNY as “powerful” brands, their significant fragrance businesses with the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. a testament to that. He highlighted that DKNY carries a lot of the licensed business, which is unusual, since it’s often the first line that does that at other fash-ion companies.

“We have a wonderful fragrance business from DKNY, a great eyewear business, a great watch business, all with great part-ners,” Roussel said. “So it is a very powerful brand and it captures the essence of New York. I think there are very few brands that can claim that.”

Roussel, who joined LVMH in 2004 from man-agement consultancy McKinsey & Co., has a strong track record of ig-niting fashion excitement, and business traction, at the French group’s so-called second-tier brands, which often operate in the shadow of major names such as Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Fendi.

He was appointed head of the fashion divi-sion in 2007, signaling a commitment to grow LVMH’s smaller brands. Roussel famously recruited Phoebe Philo, who imposed a suc-cessful minimalist makeover at Céline, and Opening Ceremony duo Humberto Leon and Carol Lim to give a young, contemporary spin to Kenzo. He recently placed 30-year-old Jonathan Anderson at the creative helm of Spanish leather goods brand Loewe, and LVMH took a 46 percent stake in his London-based J.W. Anderson fashion house.

Other European fashion houses under Roussel’s purview include Givenchy, Emilio Pucci and Nicholas Kirkwood.

Brown is to succeed Mark Weber, who has been DKI’s chairman and ceo since 2006, with Weber becoming a consultant to LVMH.

While the luxury group intends to rein-force the “strong” and distinct identities of the Donna Karan and DKNY brands, Roussel said it’s too early to talk about any changes in cre-ative leadership.

“We’ll be looking at everything,” he said. “We are challenging ourselves; there is noth-ing taboo, and each time we do projects, we are willing to change what needs to be changed. And we’re doing it openly with Donna, who has built an incredible brand.

“The brand carries her name, so she’s part of it, whatever shape and form it will take, there’s no question,” he continued. “Then in what creative configuration, we’ll see, but I think she can still bring a lot.”

Roussel acknowledged that LVMH has not maximized the expansion potential of DKI, since completing its acquisition in 2001. LVMH

paid $243 million for all out-standing shares in DKI, plus $400 million for Gabrielle Studio Inc., the licensor of the Donna Karan trade-marks.

“We’ve grown the brand nicely, we’ve invested, but we’ve not made a step change,” he said. “We make a step change when we feel we have the equa-tion right, like we did with Céline or with others.”

The decision to close Karan’s Madison Avenue store should not be read as a sign of retrenchment, Roussel contended, noting that store closures have been part of rejuvena-tion efforts for Céline and Givenchy.

“We had to have a fresh start in a way, and sometimes a store that could have been a great store 10 years ago has lost its energy and so on,” he said, explaining that it’s sometimes more effective to embark on a new strategy with a new location.

At Jacobs, Roussel has said immediate projects would likely include ramping up e-commerce, expanding the brand’s retail foot-print in the U.S. and developing the footwear category, recently taken in-house.

Philippe Fortunato, most recently president and ceo of Vuitton’s North Asia region, succeed-ed Suhl at the management helm of Givenchy.

Brown’s successor at Herrera has yet to be named. Before Herrera, Brown was ceo of Akris U.S., and before that, senior vice presi-dent of marketing and communications, U.S., for Giorgio Armani.

LVMH Eyeing New Strategy For Donna Karan International

Judge Rejects A&F Pension Fund Settlement

{Continued from page one}

Pierre-Yves Roussel

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

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HONG KONG — Increasing civil unrest in Hong Kong is likely to dent retail sales and scare off Chinese tourists, heaping further pressure on retailers, which are already grappling with a protract-ed slowdown in sales.

Central Hong Kong descended into chaos on Sunday as pro-de-mocracy protesters converged on barricades as hundreds of police cordoned off streets and walkways and tensions flared amid the arrest of several lawmakers. Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators.

The protests coincide with this week’s National Day holi-days — a key shopping season — which begin Wednesday. Mainland Chinese travelers are likely to avoid the city due to planned pro-tests in the city. Downward pres-sure on retail spending could per-sist in the former British colony despite signs of a modest rebound. Retail sales in August rose 3.4 per-cent from a year earlier, in value terms, reversing six months of de-cline, helped by improved spend-ing on jewelry, watches, gifts and an earlier start to the mid-Autumn Festival this year, the government said Monday. At least three econo-mists had expected a slight fall.

Hong Kong activists are expect-ed to lock down the heart of the fi-nancial center on Wednesday, part of a civil disobedience movement that some fear will hurt the city’s competitiveness and business en-vironment. At the heart of their demands is the right for Hong Kong people to choose the city’s next leader, rather than a leader preselected by Beijing.

“We expect the battleground atmosphere on Hong Kong’s streets to add to the drag on re-tail sales in September,” Tim Condon, head of Asia research at ING Group in Singapore, said in a note Monday morning.

Douglas Young, founder and chief executive of Hong Kong nov-elty and home goods shop Goods of Desire, noticed that traffic was slow in the brand’s Central outlets. If the situation gets worse and spreads, he fears sales will be affected.

“There is an underlying an-ti-Mainland sentiment behind the protest and this will put off mainland visitors. It’s beginning to show,” he said. “Tourists will think Hong Kong is not the peace-ful haven it once was.”

Several jewelry shops in Mong Kok and Lockhart Road in Wan Chai were shut Monday. Some retail-ers in the Central district, such as Joyce and Club Monaco, remained closed for the morning, only open-ing their doors at 1 p.m. While most shops in Pacific Place mall and Lab Concept were open Monday, some were either closed or adjusted their opening hours. For other shops in Central near the outdoor escalator, it was business as usual.

Urban Outfitters Hong Kong, due

to launch at Lane Crawford Joyce Group’s Lab Concept in Admiralty on Monday, postponed its festivities.

“Today’s press events and opening party have been post-poned. The political climate is not right, and the new store location is at Lab Concept in Admiralty. We will officially open the store, and celebrate it, when the time is right,” an Urban Outfitters Hong Kong spokeswoman said.

Companies said they are watch-ing the situation as it evolves.

“Coach has been closely moni-toring the situation, with the safety of our customers and staff of paramount importance. We have already activated our con-tingency plans designed to man-age various scenarios across dif-ferent locations. Two stores were closed in Central and Admiralty today in view of safety consider-ations, while the rest of our stores in Hong Kong remain open. Our team will continue to monitor and assess the situation as it continues to develop, and will act promptly in response to any changes,” a Coach spokeswoman said.

A spokeswoman for Giorgio Armani said the brand’s stores in Central and Pacific Place re-mained open Monday but warned that diversions of public transport could affect traffic.

A spokeswoman for Lane Crawford Joyce Group said the company is doing everything in its “capacity not to compromise the customer experience and qual-ity of service during this time” but will close stores if necessary to ensure the safety of customers and employees. Lane Crawford’s home store in Pacific Place closed Monday morning but opened later in the day.

Other retailers downplayed the impact of the protests on their businesses.

“Sales are the same here. There are more problems in Admiralty and Causeway Bay,” said Paul Tang of Fox Optical Co., a local eyewear retailer with a store near the escalator in Central.

Sun Hung Kai Properties, which manages a portfolio of 20 shopping malls in Hong Kong, including IFC in Central, said it does not yet have feedback from its tenants. “Most of the shopping malls are not located in the regions that the protests are taking place. Also, the protests just started yesterday so at this mo-ment we don’t have any comments from the tenants,” said Shirley Li, Sun Hung Kai’s assistant general manager of leasing. “Most of our shopping malls are in the new ter-ritories, not traditional commercial districts, so they’re not so sensitive to these kinds of happenings.”

Jeweler Chow Tai Fook took a similar view of the protests. “If our shops in Central are affected, we will consider shortening operation hours as a measure to ensure the safety of our staff and customers and to avoid losses to the shops,” a company spokeswoman said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Protests Seen Hitting Hong Kong Retail

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WHILE HE COMES from a po-litical family — his uncle was Pierre Mendès France, prime minister of France from 1954 to 1955 — Didier Grumbach grew up in the fashion business.

His grandfather owned a coat manufacturer in Paris, C. Mendès, and in lieu of sum-mer jobs, Grumbach earned “pocket money” by functioning as the company’s first export agent, selling coats in Benelux countries at a time when “coats and dresses were not the same trade,” he pointed out. “Not the same savoir faire,” the grand-father would explain to his 18-year-old grandson.

Grumbach’s early successes in a nascent industry foreshad-owed a fruitful career at the forefront of the ready-to-wear explosion in France and a sto-ried 16-year tenure as president of French fashion’s top organiz-ing body, a tenure he wound up this fall, having passed the reins to Ralph Toledano, president of Puig’s fashion division.

A walking encyclopedia of the French industry, the 77-year-old Grumbach has poured his knowledge into “History of International Fashion,” an up-dated, English-language version of his original 1993 tome that is being launched this fall in the U.S. and India.

In an interview, Grumbach reflected on a career that saw Paris, long a cradle of fashion creation, become a vital and vi-brant fashion capital with an in-ternational complexion. Along the way, he opened a concept store that was an early precur-sor to Colette, backed incendi-ary fashion designer Thierry Mugler and forged ties with trade bodies around the world, visiting BRIC countries long be-fore the acronym existed.

Grumbach originally intend-ed to go into law but never com-pleted his studies, deciding to join the family business in 1954, after finishing his compulsory military service in France.

Founded in 1902, the Mendès factory was owned jointly by his uncle and his mother, and Grumbach felt he should develop it.

He couldn’t have chosen a better time.

Couture houses such as Dior, Schiaparelli and Carven were branching out into rtw, and they needed manufacturers to supply their boutiques. That’s where French fashion’s governing body — the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode — earned the middle part of its name: ready-to-wear from couturiers.

Grumbach recalled this “ex-traordinary period” between

1961 and 1975 with great affec-tion, describing how apparel made for the boutiques of cou-turiers gradually evolved into a promising export business.

And so the budding fashion executive boarded a plane for New York, purchasing a felt fedora so he would fit in with American dress codes at the time (although he confessed it didn’t fit him well, so he carried it more than wore it).

Revealing a stunning mem-ory for details and names, Grumbach recalls renting

suite 921 of The Plaza hotel to receive buyers from Lord & Taylor, I. Magnin, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Sakowitz, Bloomingdale’s and others. He remembers each of their names and the staggering quantities they bought in com-parison to French boutiques, setting his family enterprise on an expansion path.

“That changed totally our concept of the business,” said Grumbach, who quickly real-ized he had to grow beyond his artisanal production of less

than 30 employees.“And so I opened my first fac-

tory in the west of France, near Angers in Chalonnes-sur-Loire, and it was 100 people, and we taught them everything from scratch, including how to make a buttonhole,” he said. “It was the beginning of decentralization.”

Having been able to achieve good quality standards with his first factory, Grumbach de-cided to buy a bigger facility, La Cotonnière de Saint Quentin, which employed 450 people in Angers. That was in 1966, and

his bet was that he would be able to produce high-quality dresses in large quantities.

“My uncle didn’t expect this company to become what it did,” he said, recalling a board meet-ing at which he told Mendès France that he was planning growth for the year ahead in excess of 50 percent, prompt-ing the politician to remark to the bookkeeper in attendance: “Don’t you think this boy is to-tally uncontrollable?”

Puzzled and stressed by the apparent volatility of the fash-ion business — and deeming his factory ties a liability for his political career — Mendès France told his nephew: “I want you to buy this factory, but if you do, you have three months to buy my share and not one day more!”

Grumbach chuckled at his uncle’s remark, as it echoed the tight deadlines Mendès France imposed when his government negotiated the armistice to end the First Indochina War.

Grumbach ultimately pre-vailed, partnering with a con-sulting firm, CEGOS, which his uncle had hired to evaluate the soundness of the exploding fam-ily fashion business.

The company continued on a roll when Yves Saint Laurent couture boss Pierre Bergé ap-proached Grumbach about pro-ducing YSL Rive Gauche rtw, further cementing the prestige of Mendès as the go-to factory for couture houses. At its peak, it employed about 1,200 staff. Grumbach recalled that his first order for YSL was 500 pieces and the last was 150,000 pieces, reflecting the “astronomical” growth of that fashion house and rtw in general.

Another plum assign-ment came when Cristóbal Balenciaga was tapped to design uniforms for Air France stew-ardesses. Mendès produced all 19,000 pieces, including suits, coats, rainwear and shirts.

Sensing a need to develop new brands alongside storied couture names, Grumbach estab-lished Createurs et Industriels, a prescient, if short-lived, venture that was part fashion incubator, part concept store.

“The idea was to create and promote new brands and to link factory owners with creative de-signers,” he explained,

Emmanuelle Khanh and Ossie Clark were the first to join, and he tapped interiors maven Andrée Putman as ar-tistic director. Group members would ultimately include Jean Muir, Fernando Sanchez, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Issey Miyake and Claude Montana.

Grumbach describes the ven-ture’s retail shop, which opened in 1973 on the Rue de Rennes, as “a little like Colette 20 years earlier, because we were selling clothes, objects, furniture, jew-elry, bicycles, green plants. You could frame your photographs; you could have a drink.”

While the store and the col-lective were ultimately folded — ventures that were perhaps ahead of their time — they under-

WWD IN PERSON

A Rich Life in FashionDidier Grumbach reflects on his diverse career, from manufacturer to retailer, entrepreneur to industry organizer and mentor. By Miles Socha

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It’s essential to have new brands to nurture this industry.— DIDIER GRUMBACH

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Life and Times1937: Born in Paris. 1954: Joins the family busi-ness, C. Mendès, a suit and coat manufacturer in Paris.

1963: Takes over the manage-ment of C. Mendès. 1967: C. Mendès starts manu-facturing ready-to-wear for couture houses, including Lanvin, Jean Patou, Guy Laroche, Emanuel Ungaro and Philippe Venet.■ Establishes Paris Collections

Inc., a U.S. showroom repre-senting French rtw brands in the American market. 1971: Founds Createurs et Industriels, a concept store and fashion incubator, with interi-ors maven Andrée Putman as artistic director. 1978: Sells his stake in C. Mendès and becomes president of Thierry Mugler. 1980: Becomes president of Yves Saint Laurent Inc., the French house’s American sub-sidiary. 1985: Joins the Institut Français de la Mode and be-comes president of the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.

1986: Takes control of the Thierry Mugler brand as part of a management buyout be-side the designer and Michel Douard.

1991: Heads the Dominique Strauss-Kahn commission at Chambre Syndicale that redefines the “haute couture” appellation. 1993: Publishes the book “Histories de la Mode.” 1997: Sells his stake in Thierry Mugler to Groupe Clarins. 1997: Becomes president of the Association Villa Noailles, host of the annual fashion and photogra-phy festival in Hyères, France. 1998: Becomes president of

the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode.

1999: Becomes founding presi-dent of Mode & Finance, which invests in young designers’ businesses.

2014: Steps down as president of the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, where he is succeeded by Puig executive Ralph Toledano. — M.S.

scored Grumbach’s close affinity with fashion designers, especially daring and visionary ones.

Enter Mugler, whose talent stupefied Grumbach. By ced-ing his shares in Mendès and Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, he was able to finance a budding French designer with a pen-chant for theatricality.

“I think he was a genius. In fact, I had no doubt. And he still is,” enthused Grumbach, invari-ably dressed in a Mugler shirt with its metal snap buttons. “When you look at the archives and you look at the videos of his shows — well, he was a director more than a couture designer. Directing fashion shows, he’s absolutely amazing. The influ-ence he had is fabulous.”

Grumbach ultimately struck a deal with Groupe Clarins to help finance Mugler’s expansion into fragrance, selling the beau-ty company 30 percent of the couture house at a time when it was very profitable.

“There was a pact between all of us saying that if the per-fume was a success, they should buy the control, because they wanted to have control of the brand, and if it was the contrary, we should get our shares back,” he recalled.

Given the blockbuster suc-cess of Angel, launched in 1992, Clarins acquired all of Mugler in 1998, freeing Grumbach to take on a bigger role at the federation.

In fact, he had been closely involved with the fashion body for many years.

In 1991, he headed a commis-sion under then-industry min-ister Dominique Strauss-Kahn (who is also a former managing director of the International Monetary Fund) to liberalize the couture appellation, opening up the rare and exacting pursuit to guest members. The first was Mugler in 1992, who paraded rtw alongside high fashions.

Grumbach allows that, when he assumed the helm of the fed-eration, Paris was not the dy-namic fashion capital it is today. In the mid-Nineties, Milan was arguably fashion’s most happen-ing city, with Tom Ford revving up Gucci and Versace roaring ahead. What’s more, the licens-ing model upon which many French houses were built had run out of steam.

Inviting guest members to participate in couture, in-cluding Mugler and Jean Paul Gaultier in 1997, set high fash-ion on a new course, and the rejuvenation of Paris began

to gather steam with new cou-turiers at Dior and Givenchy: John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, respectively. Ford’s arrival at the creative helm of YSL in 2000 further tilted the ex-citement needle in Paris’ favor.

Grumbach insists couture will continue to be a strong at-traction for brands that want to burnish their image, predicting Givenchy and Saint Laurent could one day rejoin the high-fashion crowd.

He noted, for example, that returning to couture has been a plus for Versace and the couture week. Ditto for Giorgio Armani, who attracted a new and differ-ent clientele when he joined the calendar in 2005.

“Couture is a plus. It’s ser-vice. It’s not an industry. It can-not live without ready-to-wear,” he said. “Some brands will al-ways be in couture, and some will be in ready-to-wear.”

One of Grumbach’s key ac-complishments at the federation was to further internationalize Paris, positioning it as fashion’s preeminent stage. Foreigners began moving onto the calendar in his Createurs et Industriels days; he noted that, “up until then, only the French had some internationally famous brands.”

Createurs et Industriels was the precursor to rtw de-signers that were not born out of the couture.

“That’s how we arrived at having Jean Muir, Issey Miyake and Fernando Sanchez on the calendar. That was the begin-ning of internationalization,” Grumbach said.

While there were a hand-ful of non-French participants in Paris Fashion Week when Grumbach took the federation helm, with Dries Van Noten ar-riving from Antwerp in 1997, there were 25 nationalities by the time he bowed out.

Grumbach is insistent that “nationalism in fashion is to-tally irrelevant,” noting that the first grand couturier, Charles Frederick Worth, was English. And, today, Paris remains a mag-net for forward-thinking design from any corner of the globe.

“When the talent is obvious, we are happy to nurture it,” he said, musing what might have happened if Hamburg-born de-signer Jil Sander had chosen to

parade her collections in Paris, rather than Milan.

“To fight to bring English designers back to London is childish. It’s just badly placed nationalism,” he continued, al-luding to the British Fashion Council’s efforts to woo Burberry, Alexander McQueen and others back to its capital. “London will always be essen-tial, like Milan, but we don’t have the same mission.”

Detractors argue that, per-haps, Grumbach opened the door to Paris too wide.

According to Karl Lagerfeld, “He let in too many second-rate people — and then, always, the changes of the dates of the col-lection. That makes the work more and more difficult.”

Grumbach is convinced Paris is the platform for advanced, vi-sionary fashions, ones that canchange the history of costume.

“Rick Owens would not de-sign the same collection if he was still in California,” he said. “When designers are creative and want to express themselves, more than just feeding some cli-entele, they will need Paris.”

“When Yohji Yamamoto came to Paris, it was to show a collection that didn’t exist in Japan. He had Y’s for that,” he said, referring to the Japanese designer’s second line. “Paris is really the research center of fashion. When you see Haider Ackermann, you understand what it means. Paris has high standards that don’t exist in New York or in Tokyo.”

In his estimation, the need for creative, demonstrative fashion is growing: “All over the world, consumers will want to differen-tiate themselves,” he said.

An unabashed fan of fash-ion shows and known to well up during a particularly good one, Grumbach raced around Paris to attend as many as he could in anticipation of what all fash-ion professionals recognize as a fashion moment.

“If we’re lucky enough, we have four or five surprises every season,” he said, stress-ing that such surprises “are worth the trouble.

“You come to Paris for the emotions you have in certain shows,” he said. “There was a recent Issey Miyake show — I forget who the designer was at

the time — but the music, the casting, the lighting, the collec-tion, et cetera — everything was perfection. So, it’s not always something you expect.”

Asked what he likes most about fashion shows, he said the atmosphere and “theatrical ambiance.”

In fact, he predicted that fashion shows will become “more and more spectacular” in the future.

During Grumbach’s tenure, he saw designers vacate the Carrousel du Louvre, a central-ized fashion-show venue intro-duced by his predecessor, Jacques Mouclier, with then-culture minis-ter Jack Lang’s backing.

“It was the only space where you could have an audi-ence of 2,200,” Grumbach said of the Carrousel.

Van Noten was among the first to turn his back on the un-derground network of catwalks, and when Chanel and Dior fol-lowed suit, it was a stampede. The federation ended its con-tract with the venue in 2010, arranging, instead, a series of venues concentrated along the Seine River, which snakes through central Paris.

Big fashion houses such as Chanel, Dior and YSL de-camped to the Grand Palais, with its soaring 11-story glass cupola, or opted for bespoke tented venues.

Like his successor Toledano, Grumbach is of the discreet ilk, preferring to work quietly behind the scenes rather than trumpeting projects that might never achieve the desired effect.

Yet he is proud of his work to burnish Paris and aid promising fashion talents.

During his tenure, he started a fund called Mode et Finance, which takes minority stakes in promising young designers; created an initiative called Designers Apartment, which encourages young designers to take orders before putting their collections on the run-way; and established the Cercle Saint-Roch to strengthen ties between member companies and students at the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.

{Continued on page 14}

Andrée Putman with Grumbach.

C. Mendès, the family business.

Grumbach with Pierre Bergé.

The Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode.

WWD.COM14

He also mentions the Cité de la Mode, a sprawling riverside complex that includes eateries and nightclubs as well as the Institut Française de la Mode, which offers post-graduate stu-dents a variety of programs in man-agement and design.

Grumbach is an associate lecturer there, giving insights into the history and strategy of creative brands.

He said his experience at the IFM “changed my thinking and my person,” confessing that, before embarking on his teaching adventure, “I didn’t even know what marketing was.”

Grumbach remains dean of the IFM, which includes a school of man-agement dedicated to fashion that he asserted “has no equivalent.”

Grumbach said the industry must perpetuate and nurture itself with new brands, mentioning that, when Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain launched their fashion houses, some of the existing federation members were 100 years old.

“It’s essential to have new brands to nurture this industry,” he said. “In the long run, we know that even two new brands can change the ecology-economy.”

Mode et Finance recently made investments in designers Yiqing Yin, Bouchra Jarrar, Nicolas Andreas Taralis and collaborative label Each X Other.

Grumbach noted that designers require financing because they can no longer resort to such easy-money options as licensing, and they must immediately pursue an export busi-ness to succeed or take on additional design roles.

Grumbach laments that many fash-ion designers do double duty, arguing that only the rare talent can juggle a signature brand and a role at a heri-tage firm.

“Nobody can do what Karl does. It’s a miracle,” he said, referring to Lagerfeld.

Grumbach is not one for staying idle, either. He said his departure from the federation does not mean he is retiring, hinting that he’s interested in areas such as training “based on creation and tied with contemporary art. But it’s too soon to speak of it.

“Everything important takes a few years,” he said with a knowing smile.

So, have all these decades in fash-ion turned him into a clotheshorse?

Grumbach smiled again, opening his jacket to show a Yohji Yamamoto label and admitting a penchant for Japanese designers — and for rarely updating his wardrobe.

“Buying clothes at my age,” he chuckled, “is extremely optimistic.”

WWD TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

SYLVIE GRUMBACH, Didier Grumbach’s sister, is the public-relations guru who has helped launch the likes of John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood and Viktor & Rolf and whispered in Kenzo Takada’s ears.

Although the siblings’ careers have been intertwined, especially in the be-ginning, they are very autonomous. Sylvie Grumbach, who was behind the heyday of the Palace nightclub, operates a p.r. agency that specializes in fashion and culture.

Its longevity underscores her shrewd business sense across eras of tough eco-nomic times. Brother and sister share a mutual respect and admiration.

“I asked him for advice like you ask a big brother who is a bit wiser,” said Sylvie.

“She saw fashion and took risks [by representing very young designers]. She is bourgeoise and totally interested in avant-garde creation,” Didier, for his part, noted.

Fashion is in the family’s DNA: Didier and Sylvie’s grandfather found-ed Parisian manufacturing company C. Mendès, and, in 1971, Didier founded Créateurs et Industriels (“Creators and Industrials”) with interiors maven Andrée Putman as a forum for fashion designers to meet manufacturers and sell their designs — the pioneer of con-cept stores.

Sylvie handled its p.r. Although, in the beginning, she was the little sister, Créateurs et Industriels became her playground in which she organized fashion shows.

Shows featured budding designers such as Issey Miyake and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac. They attracted le tout Paris and the crème de la crème of fashion edi-tors, including WWD’s John B. Fairchild.

“At the time, a p.r. would do show pro-duction, would help with the casting, the fittings, et cetera. I have been lucky enough to know this period when [p.r. agents] were close to the designer, to the studio,” Sylvie recalled.

After five years, Créateurs et Industriels folded, and Sylvie started working for Valentino, whose ready-to-wear line was manufactured by C. Mendès. Valentino Garavani was open-ing his first store in Paris, on Avenue Montaigne.

This was the time when Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé and their set lit up Paris. A night owl, Sylvie would dance on the tables at Le Sept.

“There was a DJ from South America named Guy Cuevas — he was the first DJ. His music was fantastic. There was funk,

there was salsa, et cetera. It wasn’t disco yet,” she said.

Didier, meanwhile, was more of a reg-ular at Le Sept restaurant upstairs.

Le Sept owner Fabrice Emaer went on to create Le Palace in 1978, and Sylvie quit her job at Valentino to jump on the bandwagon. Her mother wasn’t particu-larly happy about it.

“Since I was out at night, I thought, Why not make it a job? I hadn’t realized that to succeed in the night scene, you had to work during the day. But I did, and it didn’t prevent me from being out at night,” she recalled.

As one of five cofounders of Le Palace, which became the Parisian counterpart of Studio 54, she drew the fashion world to the club. She threw a birthday bash at the club for her friend Takada, whom she knew since the Créateurs et Industriels days. There was a cartoon theme: Sylvie was Smurfette, Takada was Minnie Mouse.

“We had a lot of great times together,” Takada recalled. “We went on vacation a number of times together — to Egypt, the Grenadines islands and Bali — in the Seventies. She advised me on many fronts. She is very direct.”

At Le Palace one night, Grace Jones was performing and actress Farida Khelfa was at the door. The show was staged by the photographer Jean-Paul Goude.

Goude recognizes the “vital role” Sylvie played in his career, saying, “It was a shift in my life. I was moving back from New York and didn’t have many connections in Paris. She hosted me in her apartment [which] became my studio for a period of time, and she introduced me to many peo-ple, including Azzedine Alaïa.”

Sylvie later became his — as well as Helmut Newton’s and Max Vadukul’s — agent for printed images.

Le Palace dwindled, and, after Emaer’s death in 1983, Sylvie opened her own p.r. agency, named 2e Bureau (Second Office). “I named it 2e Bureau because my idea was to represent for-eign designers in Paris. I wanted it to be their second office,” she explained. She started with a few clients, including Swatch and Vivienne Westwood.

Sylvie’s wardrobe retraces decades of fashion. In 2000, she donated some pieces to the Paris Museum of Fashion and Textiles. The donation included a treasure trove of pieces from designers such as Kenzo, Alaïa, Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana.

These days, she sports pieces by Felipe Oliveira Baptista, Stéphanie Coudert and Boris Bidjan Saberi, the latter two of whom she still represents with 2e Bureau. “I wear designers who surround me,” she offered.

Didier praised his sister’s sense of organization, saying, “She is very orga-nized and never loses her temper.”

Goude highlighted that same para-mount quality, saying, “She is as cool as a cucumber in the most tense situation.

“I don’t know Didier as well as I know Sylvie,” Goude summed up. “But both are discreet and restrained. They are elegant.”

The Mugler Years“DIDIER GRUMBACH was al-ways a visionary,” said Christian Courtin-Clarins, president of Groupe Clarins’ supervisory board. “He had the vision to see Thierry Mugler’s potential.”

Courtin-Clarins first met Grumbach in the mid-Eighties, prior to the Mugler fashion show extrava-ganza at Paris’ Zenith. By then, Grumbach was running the Thierry Mugler label.

Also around that time, Grumbach, the designer and Michel Douard effected a leveraged management buyout, taking control of the Thierry Mugler brand. In 1989, Groupe Clarins started up a Mugler fragrance

company through which it purchased a 34 percent stake in its fashion. Today, Clarins owns both activities.

“Sometimes people say Didier was difficult to understand, because he was two, three, four, five years [ahead of his time],” said Courtin-Clarins. “I love talking with Didier, because he has a very long-term vision. He was the first one to say it’s totally stupid, you do a fashion show and then the goods arrive [in store] six months later. People will copy [fashion looks], and that’s happened.

“He always promoted putting some pieces that will be spectacular [in a fashion show], but [said] it was more important to have some wear-able pieces,” he added, describing Grumbach as “a very human person, very kind. He is a poet and was look-

ing for the artist, for perfection.“He respected Thierry Mugler’s

creativity,” said Courtin-Clarins, who deems Grumbach to be a champion of French fashion.

“He is one of the rare gentlemen I have met in my life,” continued Vera Strubi, a former president of Thierry Mugler SA and Thierry Mugler Parfums. “He really knows everything about fashion.”

Grumbach gave Strubi insight into the Mugler brand, especially in the run-up to the creation of the label’s blockbuster women’s scent, Angel.

“He knew all the major retailers and of course a lot of the press,” she said. “Didier was really the spokes-person for the company. He has a per-fect eye for fashion.”

— JENNIFER WEIL

Sylvie Grumbach has long played a role in shaping French fashion and culture. By Laure Guilbault

{Continued from page 13}

WWD IN PERSON

Fashion in the FamilyA Rich Life In Fashion

Sylvie and Didier Grumbach in 1999.

Sylvie Grumbach and Issey Miyake at Créateurs et Industriels, 45 Rue de Rennes, 1973.

Thierry Mugler and Didier Grumbach


IN THE EARLY NINETIES, A Harvard doctoral student in musicology needed some material for her dissertation on early 20th-century French composer and pianist Erik Satie. Of course, she turned to Didier Grumbach’s “Histoires de la Mode.”

“I needed to learn more about Paul Poiret,” explained Mary Davis, dean of graduate studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology. “People de-scribed the book to me as the bible of French fashion history — the authorita-tive fashion source.”

Davis has devoted most of her gradu-ate work and career to music, often delv-ing into its connection to fashion. At the time of her thesis, very little information was available on turn-of-the-century de-signers, hence her need for “Histoires.” Grumbach’s tome remains a go-to book for Davis — and scores of others. Now, 21 years after its first edition, the book is being launched in English as “The History of International Fashion” from Interlink Publishing. This comes after several editions in Chinese, Rumanian and Portuguese, among other languages, as well as a few updates.

The book spans the history of fashion from the origins of couture in the 17th century to the emergence of megaluxury

groups and challenges of globalization in the new millennium. Grumbach, as an author, enjoyed the unique position of having personally experienced many of the key events in fashion that happened after World War II. Along the way, he tosses in lots of anecdotes, like the fact that Marcel Boussac, the first owner of Christian Dior, got rich making pajamas, dresses and shirts from huge stocks of airplane cloth he bought for a pittance after World War II.

Grumbach penned “Histoires” while he was dean of studies at the Institut Français de la Mode, which owns the book’s rights. Grumbach wrote in the

mornings before work and during weekends at his country house. The first edition took him two-and-a-half years to write.

“I did it for the students,” he said. “I started my career extremely early and I realize that I had the gift to re-member so many people who changed the history of our industry but who

have since left us. I’ve collected so much information, thanks to conversa-tions with people as diverse as André Courrèges, Andrew Goodman, Andrée Putman, François-Henri Pinault or Yves Carcelle. This is what makes the book such a singular document.”

Since the first edition, Grumbach said the Internet, the growth of luxury brands with the near-extinction of li-censing agreements and the interna-tional scope of Paris Fashion Week have been the most significant phenomena af-fecting the industry.

The question remains: Will Didier Grumbach’s book be required reading at design schools or companies in top mar-kets like the U.S., now that it’s available in English?

“It will be an important book here,” noted FIT’s Davis, stipulating that she does not dictate curricula. “People have

been waiting for it.”Those who have spent the bulk of their

careers in fashion, including Pamela Golbin, chief curator of fashion and tex-tiles at Paris’ Musée des Arts Décoratifs, also consider Grumbach’s book a valu-able resource.

“Grumbach came from a manufactur-ing family. He’s been almost on every

side of the fashion industry, which is pretty incredible and quite rare. He’s lived through a massive paradigm in fashion from couture to ready-to-wear and he was one of the major actors,” Golbin attested. “To have an insider’s point of view and have something so well-researched is incredible. There’s no other book like it.”

WWD IN PERSON

Didier the AuthorA valuable research tome is now to be published in English. By Katie Weisman

’’

’’

To have an insider’s point of view and have something so well-researched

is incredible.— PAMELA GOLBIN, MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS

Didier Grumbach with the original edition.

w30a016a;8.indd 16 9/29/14 5:57 PM09292014175811

REMERCIE DIDIER GRUMBACH POUR SA CONTRIBUTION SIGNIFICATIVE

AU RAYONNEMENT DE LA MODE PARISIENNE

LANVIN.COM


Prada and Bertelli made a “voluntary disclosure” to tax authorities in December 2013, which resulted in an agreement between them and the Italian Tax Authority. “This agreement com-pletely satisfied the claims of the Italian Tax Authority, as declared and confirmed by the author-ity itself,” said the company on Monday. It added that neither the firm nor any of its subsidiaries was or is involved in this matter.

“[Prada and Bertelli] had companies based abroad and they themselves had personal financial resources outside of Italy. Automatically, this [is cause for] an offense,” said the source. The source added that the Prada company, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, on Monday reported the procedure by the Italian Tax Authority because it must have received a notice that the inves-tigations were being extended.

The news sent Prada’s shares down 0.83 percent on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to 47.90 Hong Kong dollars, or $6.17 at current exchange.

The investigations related to Prada are complicated by the fact that Italy’s Parliament is still working on new legislation on voluntary disclosures, which was originally set to be complet-ed by September 2015, and that would allow a de-penalization of the case. “The first version was very complicated, so it’s still

pending,” said a fiscal source, noting that “the initial enthusi-asm is slowly petering out and the government seems to have more pressing issues at stake.”

In January, lawyers for Prada and Bertelli refuted that Italian tax authorities were investigating the pair for unfaithful earnings declarations. A well-placed legal source told WWD at the time that Bertelli and Prada last year paid 470 million euros, or $643.9 mil-lion at current exchange, to the tax office. “It’s an enormous sum, Prada and Bertelli themselves advised on the existing tax anom-alies, brought back the [legal headquarters of the] company to Italy and paid the backed-up taxes,” said the source.

According to another source, the Agenzia delle Entrate had claimed that Prada Holding BV had set up subsidiaries in the Netherlands and Luxembourg to allegedly benefit from a more-favorable tax rate, but that they were not really operative out of that country. In December, Prada revealed “the completion of a voluntary disclosure proce-dure, which follows the compa-ny’s strategic decision to choose Italy as its business hub.”

This, said the company at the time, followed “a collabora-tion program with the Italian tax authorities that started back in 2008, whereby the group’s Italian subsidiary, which is not involved in the procedure, applied for several international rulings.”

Collaborating with the Italian tax authorities allowed for the group to determine all tax obli-gations following the repatria-tion of non-Italian companies, based on the last 10 years.

Prada and Bertelli’s lawyer, Stefano Simontacchi, said: “In relation to the procedure of vol-untary disclosure finalized with the Agenzia delle Entrate in the month of December 2013, since [the sum passed ] the threshold of penal relevance, the acts of accession were automatically transmitted, as required by law, to the Republic’s prosecutor’s office that initiated the investi-gation, whose extension of terms was simply asked. The investiga-tion constitutes the natural prose-cution of the voluntary disclosure procedure already concluded with the Agenzia delle Entrate.

In any case, the new norms which we are waiting [to pass and ] become law in a matter of volun-tary disclosure should be applica-ble to this case, with a consequent depenalization.”

Incidentally, one of two pros-ecutors involved in looking at the Prada paperwork is Gaetano Ruta, who has also been working on the Dolce and Gabbana and Matteo Marzotto tax cases. Ruta is working with prosecutor Adriano Scudieri on the Prada investigations.

While claiming to be in the right, several fashion companies have recently agreed to settle with Italy’s revenue service in order to avoid lengthy and costly litigation and defense proceed-ings over the interpretation of

the law or to avoid going to trial. Often the tax evasion allegations hinge on the establishment of companies outside Italy, general-ly considered fictitious by the tax authorities and set up to avoid paying a higher tax rate in Italy.

In February, Bulgari Group agreed to pay a total of 43 mil-lion euros, or $57.2 million. The Rome-based jeweler said that thanks to “substantial documen-tation” the revenue office “has recognized the actual existence and real operations of the com-panies outside Italy and has declared three of the four noti-fications that followed the fiscal enquiry entirely unfounded.”

The tax authority’s investiga-tions were focused on alleged fraudulent earnings declarations and evasion of tax payments of around 3 billion euros, or $4.08 billion, starting from 2006, through a system of allegedly fictitious companies in the Netherlands and Ireland, set up in order to avoid paying taxes in Italy.

While Matteo Marzotto has in the past declared that he had “always operated in the full respect of the law,” the al-legations in his tax trial involve the Marzotto family’s associa-tion with the sale of Valentino Fashion Group to private equity fund Permira in May 2007 for more than 782 million euros, or $1 billion. According to the in-dictment, taxes on the profit de-rived from the transaction were never paid in Italy. Last year, several members of the Marzotto family opted for plea bargains for

a total amount of 164,000 euros, or $221,316, and International Capital Growth, allegedly creat-ed for the purpose of selling 29.9 percent of the Valentino Group to Permira and allegedly a fictitious entity based in Luxembourg but managed in Milan, paid 57 mil-lion euros, or $75 million, to the Agenzia delle Entrate.

In December 2013, follow-ing the tax audit started that January and concerning the year 2007, Luxottica Group said it was paying 33 million euros, or $45 million, to Italy’s revenue agency. The audit concerned al-leged irregularities in the use of a practice called transfer pric-ing, the methods whereby intra-group prices are determined.

Last year, the Giorgio Armani Group paid 270.9 million euros, or $357.6 million, to the Agenzia delle Entrate following inves-tigations initiated in 2013 and concerning a number of compa-nies controlled by the Armani group in the 2002-to-2009 period. Although the group brought back the tax residency of these compa-nies to Italy in 2009, the revenue office claimed that the fashion company should have paid the in-come taxes in Italy, believing they should have been considered as fiscally resident in the country.

Dolce and Gabbana are ap-pealing a guilty verdict in an ap-peals court in Milan in April, after a tax trial that at the first court level began in December 2012 and wrapped up at the end of June last year. Following investigations that started in 2008, initiated by the Guardia di Finanza, an Italian police force under the authority of the national minister of economy and finance, Dolce and Gabbana were charged with alleged tax eva-sion related to the 2004 sale of the Dolce & Gabbana and D&G brands to the designers’ Luxembourg-based holding company, Gado Srl. The Italian tax police reportedly consider Gado essentially a legal entity used to avoid higher corpo-rate taxes in Italy.

The defendants, who have always denied all charges, were acquitted last June on the sec-ond count with which they were originally charged, regarding the valuation of the company and the tax rate paid.

Prada Latest in String of Italian Tax Cases{Continued from page one}

By VICKI M. YOUNG

THE FIRST JUICY COUTURE stores in India are expected to open in fall 2015.

That’s according to Darshan Mehta, president and chief execu-tive officer of Reliance Brands Ltd.

Reliance, a key distributor in India for the premium-to-luxury fashion categories, will open the stores under a newly inked licens-ing agreement with Authentic Brands Group, which owns the in-tellectual property assets of Juicy.

Under the terms of the agree-ment, 20 Juicy monobrand stores will be opened over the next five years. The stores will feature the full Juicy lifestyle collection for women and girls, ranging from apparel to accesso-ries and fragrance to footwear.

According to Mehta, the agreement is for 20 years. Jamie

Salter, chairman and ceo of ABG, said Reliance has “exceptional operational and market knowl-edge and our partnership with them will allow us to drive a comprehensive, multidimension-al strategy to bring Juicy Couture to new international markets.”

While brands from Michael Kors to Coach to Abercrombie & Fitch have found sales of logo products in the U.S. petering out, that’s not the case in India. “India, like the other Asian mar-kets, are new-money markets. This is first-generation money and the consumers like to an-nounce their arrival. The logo tracksuit or the logo bag tend to work well. People like to pro-claim the brands,” he said.

Mehta’s firm, a part of Reliance Industries Group, was started in October 2007 for the purpose of launching and build-ing international fashion brands

focused in the luxury and pre-mium markets. Other brand partners in its portfolio include Steve Madden, Kenneth Cole and BCBG through licensing agree-ments. Reliance is set to open BCBG stores in India during the spring. Brand partnerships via joint ventures include Brooks Brothers, Iconix Brand Group, Diesel and Ermenegildo Zegna.

“People are optimistic, which bodes well for consumer spend-ing. In discretionary spending, you don’t buy because you run out of a jacket. It’s about the feel-good factor and consumers [in India] are feeling good about the future. We’ve already seen in July, August and September the biggest [selling] season in the past quarter. We normally don’t have a strong summer season because most of the rich travel overseas when the coun-try is hot and warm [and they

come back in the winter]. The Indian New Year in October is when you’ll see people spend on clothes, and on jewelry when they get married,” Mehta said.

He attributed the optimism to India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi, who came to power in mid-May and who is on his first visit to the U.S. since taking office. “The entire econ-omy has dramatically changed. This is the first time [in a long while] in which we have an elect-ed government that won an abso-lute majority, so there’s no need for a coalition partner. The party can now do very strong and great things. Since the election the currency has appreciated and [gross domestic product] growth is at a high. Inflation is under control and the economy is in ex-tremely good shape,” Mehta said.

While consumers might be in the mood to spend — according

to Mehta, there’s an undersup-ply of women’s fashion brands — they might still have to wait for Juicy stores to arrive at their nearby malls. Mehta said real estate is expensive in India due to the country’s infrastructure, and while he’s already scouting for locations, he’s going to open just one or two to start. “It’s more lucrative to build a residential building rather than a shopping mall. The markets in India are far ahead of supply. It’s about how do you reach your customer, rather than about the existence of that customer,” Reliance’s ceo said, adding, “Even in Bombay, there’s not more than two malls in which I would put up Juicy stores.” Indian consumers who don’t have a nearby Juicy store can pur-chase the brand’s products at the Juicy Couture Web site.

Product for the Juicy stores will be bought from Global Brands Group, the Hong Kong-based company that is the whole-sale licensee for the brand.

India to See First Juicy Couture Stores in 2015

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Brubaker Named at American Apparel

Holt Renfrew to Open Men’s-Only Store

Instagram’s Systrom Joins Wal-Mart BoardBy EVAN CLARK and

ARNOLD J. KARR

THE EMBATTLED American Apparel Inc. named Alvarez & Marsal executive Scott Brubaker interim chief executive officer Monday.

Brubaker takes over from former chief financial officer John Luttrell, who stepped up after founder Dov Charney was sidelined amid allega-tions of misconduct.

Charney is currently working as a consultant at the company and his fu-ture employment is being reviewed by a special committee of the company’s new board. It’s decision is expected by mid-October at the latest.

Hassan Natha has been named ex-ecutive vice president, taking over the finance function from Luttrell, who is leaving the company after a three-year

stay. Earlier in his career, he was cfo of Fisher Communications and Jones Soda Co. and spent 10 years with Nike’s Bauer Nike Hockey unit in various fi-nance roles.

Luttrell, who is said to have clashed with Charney, is the former executive vice president and cfo of both The Wet Seal Inc. and Gap Inc.’s Old Navy brand.

American Apparel said Brubaker affirmed his support for the company’s “sweatshop-free, ‘Made in USA’ manu-facturing philosophy and commitment to maintain the company’s manufactur-ing headquarters in Los Angeles.”

Brubaker is a certified turnaround professional whose previous clients have included Eddie Bauer and Spiegel Inc.

American Apparel also elevated two veteran employees, naming Patricia Honda president of wholesale and Nicolle Gabbay president of retail.

By DAVID MOIN

WITH ITS FIRST men’s-only store, Holt Renfrew says it is targeting modern tailoring, the Toronto man and not necessar-ily reacting to the intensifying competition across Canada.

“This is 100 percent about us — our statement looking into the future and about how our customers want to shop,” Mark Derbyshire, president of the Toronto-based Holt Renfrew, told WWD. “We have a unique position in men’s in Canada. Men’s has been a big part of our business. We know it very well.”

Holt Renfrew Men, a 16,500-square-foot, two-level store, opens Wednesday at 100 Bloor Street West in Toronto, on the site of a former Roots store on the corner of Bellair Street, and a block from Holt’s flagship at 50 Bloor Street West.

The men’s store is an im-portant part of the company’s overall growth strategy to in-vest $300 million Canadian, or $270 million U.S. at current exchange, expand its footprint by 40 percent and grow to $1 billion in revenues by 2017 from the current $800 million. Holt, well-financed by its parent company, the Weston family’s the Selfridges Group Ltd., is determined to gain market share amid the rush of U.S. retailers. Last week, Nordstrom opened its first full-line store in Canada, in Calgary, and plans five more in the country. Saks Fifth Avenue sees seven full-line stores and makes its Canada debut in fall 2015 in Toronto.

Harry Rosen, the men’s specialist, is enhancing and en-larging stores to the tune of $80 million over sev-eral years, while J. Crew, Tory Burch, Jimmy Choo, David Yurman and John Varvatos have already opened shops, among other recent entries.

In addition to the men’s

store, Holt is raising its stake on Bloor Street by setting a major renovation and expansion of its 179,000-square-foot flagship. It will continue to sell men’s wear but in a reduced space, though executives said total men’s square footage on Bloor Street, which is considered the Rodeo Drive of Canada, increases about 25 percent with the new store. Men’s wear has grown to 20 per-cent of Holt Renfrew’s total rev-enues, from 15 percent a number of years ago, and should grow further with the men’s launch and with selling trends through-out North America stronger in men’s wear than women’s. “Our men’s has been very strong. We have seen very good growth,” Derbyshire said.

Wednesday’s opening brings Holt’s store count to 11 luxury units and two off-price stores, though two smaller stores, in Ottawa and Quebec City, will close at the end of January. In each city where Holt has a store, Derbyshire said the offerings are customized to the market.

“There are no hard shops” in the new men’s store. “The

store is not laid out by brand. Men don’t dress head-to-toe in one brand. Men are mixing brands. You will see product presented as you would wear it,” so sportswear and accesso-ries, for example, would be in-

tegrated into the suitings area. “It’s really a departure for us,” Derbyshire said. “The merchan-dising has changed. The servic-es have changed. We have added brands.”

He also said the men’s assort-ment evolved from being more skewed to advanced sportswear to “a very deliberate approach to modern tailoring.”

Prices start with accessories (card cases, cuff links, ties) at $170 and dress shirts at $250. Made-to-measure suits start at about $1,195; a Paul Smith suit costs $1,395, and suits at Brunello Cucinelli cost $4,500. Customers can also buy a $25,000 Valextra alligator skin briefcase, and there’s no price ceiling on bespoke suiting.

Also in the mix: furnishings, accessories and apparel from Berluti, Bottega Veneta, Canali, Charvet, Ermenegildo Zegna, Etro, G. Lorenzi, Gucci, Loro Piana, Moncler, Neil Barrett, Prada, Stefano Ricci and others.

A Holt Renfrew Men’s logo; packaging in Holt’s signature gray and a nontransactional, content-only Web site, holtren-

frewmen.com, were created. Holt Renfrew plans to launch e-commerce next year.

There’s a valet, a doorman, a shoe hall, a shoe-shine service and cobbler, monogramming, a personal shopping suite, art-

work, mosaic tile floors, lots of windows and natural light. The store was designed by Janson Goldstein, with modern and vintage furniture, fitting-room walls upholstered in suiting fabric, and rotating installa-tions of art and cultural objects. There’s a bronze sculpture by Canadian artist Dennis Lin and a wall with objects chosen by interior designer Tommy Smythe, from a family collec-tion founded by his late great-grandfather, Conn Smythe.

Walter Beauchamp Tailors will be part of the experience at 100 Bloor Street West, offer-ing bespoke tailoring. Since 1908, Beauchamp offered be-spoke suits and formalwear, but

was winding down his business for an end in October, only to be relocated at Holt Renfrew Men. Terry Beauchamp, grand-son of the founder, said, “Our team will continue to provide the bespoke service we have for generations.”

The men’s store has a tailor-ing room where shoppers can see the tailors at work through glass walls.

Asked if another men’s-only store was on the agenda, Derbyshire replied, “I don’t have any plans to do that. But I do believe a lot of what we do here will be the basis of how we approach men’s right across the country. This is men’s luxu-ry redefined.”

KEVIN SYSTROM, cofounder and chief executive officer of Instagram, has joined the board of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Systrom’s addition raises the number of directors at the retail giant to 15. He will serve on the board’s technology and e-com-merce committee and its compensation, nominating and governance committee.

“Kevin’s entrepreneurial background and his technical and digital expertise will be invaluable as we further connect with customers and deploy new capa-bilities through e-commerce and mobile channels,” said Rob Walton, chairman of the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer. “Wal-Mart is investing in e-commerce capabilities through talent, technology and fulfillment. Kevin’s passion and deep knowledge of social media align with our focus to engage customers through our digital and physical channels.”

“Wal-Mart has had a profound impact as a global leader in retail,” said Systrom. “It’s an

honor to join the Wal-Mart board and have an opportunity to help provide more conve-nient and flexible ways for people to shop.”

Systrom was among those who co-founded Instagram, the photo and video sharing social networking service, in 2010. The company was acquired by Facebook in August 2012. As ceo, he has seen the service grow to more than 200 million monthly active accounts.

Wal-Mart’s board had shrunk to 14 members from 16 following its annual meeting in June when H. Lee Scott Jr. and Christopher Williams didn’t stand for reelection as directors. Scott, a director since 1999, retired as president and ceo of Wal-Mart in January 2009 and served as chairman of its executive committee for an additional two years. Williams, who had chaired Wal-Mart’s audit committee and spent 10 years on the board, is chairman and ceo of The Williams Capital Group, an investment bank. — A.J.K.

Sportswear and outerwear at the men’s store.

Objects curated by interior designer Tommy Smythe, from the family collection of his late great-grandfather, Conn Smythe.

Holt Renfrew Men on Bloor Street in Toronto.


L.A. STATE OF MIND: Tom Ford’s fall 2015 show, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 20, will be a one-off event, and the designer plans to return to London Fashion Week next September. Ford told WWD his decision to show in L.A. was due in part to a scheduling conflict: The Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Feb. 22, smack in the middle of London Fashion Week, which runs from Feb. 20 to 24. Remaining in London would have meant showing the collection on the Monday after the Oscars.

“I love London, and I am not abandoning London Fashion Week,” the designer said. “It’s a onetime thing, it made sense for me, and I plan to be back in September.” Ford said he would also continue to show his men’s collections in London.

As for the change, Ford pointed to the fact that New York and London are each taking place a week later than usual in February, hence the Oscars conflict. He added that he usually arrives in L.A. before the big night, doing red-carpet fittings for male and female stars.

He also said he’d been looking for an event to do in America, so doing a show in L.A. in February made sense.

— SAMANTHA CONTI

LARGER THAN LIFE: The front row at the Saint Laurent show in Paris on Monday looked like one of creative director Hedi Slimane’s photo exhibits come to life. Several of the guests appear in “Sonic,” a selection of his black-and-white portraits on show at the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent until Jan. 11. Carl Barât, in town for the next leg of the Libertines reunion tour, was

unaware he had made the cut. “I’ll have to check it out. I’ve not seen Hedi for, like, six years, so I’m looking forward to seeing him,” he said. His bandmate Peter Doherty was a no-show at Saint Laurent, but Barât said the tour

was going well so far.“I’d never really thought we’d be in

this position again, but it’s a wonderful thing,” he said, referring to the band’s turbulent history. “This will be a really special thing for us to do. The gig that finally split the band up was meant to be in Paris, so it’ll be a nice sort of homecoming.”

Miles Kane, who recently traded his trademark mop top for a buzz cut, had only one comment about the exhibition. “I thought me hair was very long in it,” he said in his northern English twang.

Citizens singer Tom Burke, who has modeled for Saint Laurent and Maison Kitsuné, said he enjoyed spotting a photo of the band’s manager Alan Donohoe, formerly lead singer of The

COLES’ POWER GRAB: Joanna Coles has a bigger role at Hearst Magazines. The editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine has been named editorial director, and given responsibility for Seventeen magazine as well. Current editor in chief Ann Shoket, who has held the top job for seven years, has stepped down. Shoket will remain a consultant for a period of time, as she pursues other media jobs. An editor in chief of Seventeen will be named within the next four weeks.

“Ann started talking to me about what her plans were for the future over the summer,” said David Carey, president of Hearst Magazines. “I started thinking about it, and asked what was the natural evolution for the [Seventeen] brand? The brand can travel in so many places.”

According to Carey, the Cosmo reader and the Seventeen reader overlap, as do the magazines’ advertisers. He said there is a 50 percent advertising overlap between the two magazines.

“I want Seventeen to be the playbook to go to college,” Coles told WWD. “I think it gets you up to going to college and at the end of your first year of college, you start subscribing to Cosmo.”

For her part, Coles hopes to turn up the volume a bit on the Seventeen brand, as she has with Cosmo. “I have all sorts of ideas for brand extensions and brand partnerships. This is clearly an audience that lives on its phone. They were born digital, so that’s a big part of it, and so is video,” Coles said. “We’ve had tremendous success with the Awesomeness TV girls who have become their own brands. I see this entrepreneurial spirit among these girls. They are starting their own businesses financed by Kickstarter, they are crowdsourcing their homework almost at this point. This is a generation that thinks way beyond themselves.”

Already in planning mode, Coles has teamed up with Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg at Cosmo to launch Cosmo Careers. “If you look at what’s happened at Cosmo since she’s taken over, it’s transformational,” Sandberg said. “She’s going to women

and asking who do you want to be professionally, not just what you want to look like or how do you want to behave with men. People think serious doesn’t sell and they are wrong.”

Sandberg hinted she’d be open to partner with Coles on Seventeen, in the moments before she spoke on an Advertising Week panel with the Cosmo editor Monday morning.

In order to bring some of that Cosmo charm to Seventeen, Coles is taking her publisher, senior vice president and publishing director Donna Kalajian Lagani to Seventeen. Lagani will oversee both titles. Former Seventeen publisher Jayne Jamison, who also published Redbook, has been moved to O, The Oprah Magazine, where she will become senior vice president and publisher.

Michael Clinton, president of publishing and marketing, rolled out a host of other restructuring moves on the business side Monday.

Sue Katzen, associate publisher of Cosmo, will become publisher of Redbook, while Jill Seelig, former O publisher, takes a new role as senior vice president of corporate development and publishing.

Carey assured that Seventeen would get a broader investment in its editorial, digital and other brand-expanding endeavors. That’s good because Coles is looking to invest more in the brand — and that includes the print edition, which has maintained a circulation of 2 million over the past five years. Where the magazine has faltered has been in single-copy sales, which fell by nearly 65,000 to 221,035 in 2013.

Ad pages in September slid 9 percent to 103. It follows months of ad-page declines in a sector — teen — that is somewhat squeezed, as most younger readers are consuming content online rather than in print. Competitors like Condé Nast’s Teen Vogue have experienced similar declines, triggering speculation that it may become a digital-only magazine.

When asked if that could happen at Seventeen, Coles said: “Of course we’ll keep the print edition. The print edition is the playbook and it has a 2 million circulation. A lot of moms and a lot of grandmothers take up a subscription for their daughters or granddaughters.”

— ALEXANDRA STEIGRAD

MEMO PAD

FOR MORE SCOOPS, SEE

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FASHION SCOOPS

Rakes, at the opening of the show a couple of weeks earlier. Burke added that he would miss the Libertines gig at the Zenith concert hall on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, we’re making a video tomorrow so we can’t go to the show,” he explained. The clip is for “Lighten Up,” the first single from the next Citizens album, due out in February.

Other guests included Lenny Kravitz, Salma Hayek, Catherine Deneuve, Betty Catroux, Lou Doillon, Irina Lazareanu, Daisy Lowe, Dane DeHaan and Jeremy Irvine — the latter two having posed for Slimane’s “Young Hollywood” photo series. — JOELLE DIDERICH

THE CHERRY THING: “I’m getting goose bumps,” Neneh Cherry said, admiring the opulent interior of the Paris Opera where Stella McCartney showed her spring collection on Monday. The “Buffalo Stance” singer was in town with her youngest daughter,

Mabel McVey, to catch the show and play at the after party. “We just came off the Eurostar and we were a bit late and I was just like, ‘No, don’t worry. It’s going to be starting late.’ I was like, ‘Well, at least they always used to start late.’ I haven’t been for a really long time. I can’t even remember what the last show was I went to, actually,” she said.

Earlier this year, she released “Blank Project,” her first solo album in 18 years. “I’ve been touring all summer playing festivals and being really busy. It’s just starting to slow down a little bit now. I’m playing tonight, and then I’m going to start making a new record,” she added.

Salma Hayek was gearing up for the Women’s Forum in Deauville, France, on Oct. 15, where she will be one of the keynote speakers. “I’ve been working on women’s causes for more than 20

years, so I’m very excited to be a part of it,” said the Mexican actress, who sits on the board of directors of the Kering Foundation.

“It’s a conversation about empowerment — it will be very interesting,” promised Hayek, who was flanked by her husband, François-Henri Pinault, chairman and chief executive officer of Kering, which owns the Stella McCartney brand.

Marie-Josée Croze just finished shooting Finnish movie “2 Nights Til Morning” in Lithuania. “Two people

are stuck in a hotel because there is a cloud of ash from a volcano. The film is about their encounter,” she said. “It was interesting to do because it’s all about the acting, obviously.” — J.D.

Salma Hayek and Lenny Kravitz

Mabel McVey and Neneh Cherry

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WWDCAREERS.COM PRINT & ONLINE PACKAGES AVAILABLEContact Christen Cosmas, WWD Classifi ed/Careers at 212.630.3937 or [email protected]

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