Farida Khelfa

Tod's owner Diego Della Valle is taking advantage of the new attention directed at Schiaparelli by bringing the long-dormant brand back to the market early next year.

Della Valle plans to hire a designer by September and aims to have accessories, fragrances, cosmetics, and some clothes in stores by next February. He's hired actress Farida Khelfa to be the face of the brand — her first assignment is attending this evening's Met Gala in vintage Schiaparelli — and will set up shop at 21 Place Vendôme in Paris, the same address at which Elsa Schiaparelli opened her first boutique.

"The idea with Schiaparelli is to propose the brand with all its modernity, and represent dreams, art and all the most sophisticated things we can do," Della Valle told WWD.

Della Valle has reopened old fashion brands before: in 2002, he brought the shoe label Roger Vivier back to life.

Schiaparelli is one half of the focus of this year's Costume Institute exhibit, Impossible Conversations: Schiaparelli and Prada. The exhibit will be open to the public from May 10 to Aug. 19.

>> Farida Khelfa, who first walked for Jean Paul Gaultier in the '80s and later was his couture director for a time (she's also known as Azzedine Alaia's muse), has directed a 52-minute documentary on the designer, Jean Paul Gaultier ou les codes bouleversés (Jean Paul Gaultier or the shattered codes), which premieres on television tonight in France. The film spans Gaultier's 30-year career, and Khelfa invited her best friend Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, also a friend of the designer, to interview him. They discussed his commitment to the fight against AIDS, which began after he lost his lover and business partner Francis Menuge in 1990 to the disease. “My favorite piece of clothing is the condom, because it protects from the virus,” he tells Bruni-Sarkozy. Khelfa says she wants to do another designer documentary soon. [WWD]