schiaparelli

Word has it Rochas creative Marco Zanini is the latest designer name to be linked with Schiaparelli, the long-dormant brand that is expected to be relaunched this year.

WWD reported on Tuesday that Zanini is rumored to head to the brand after four years in his position as creative director of Rochas, but it's not certain what his role would be at the house.

Zanini held a variety of positions at houses like Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, and Halston before coming to Rochas in 2009. He's the latest in a string of designers whose names have been mentioned as possible frontrunners for Schiaparelli, including Nicolas Ghesquière and Erdem Moralioglu.

Tod's owner Diego Della Valle announced that he would revive Schiaparelli — which he owns in addition to Tod's, Roger Vivier, Fay, and Hogan — last May, just before the work of Elsa Schiaparelli was put on display in the Costume Institute's Impossible Conversations exhibit.

There's a rumor going around that Erdem Moralioglu might be the designer who will guide Schiaparelli back into the market next year.

On Monday, Grazia speculated that Moralioglu's talent and romantic vision would make him the perfect person to design for the house.

But earlier this year when his name was being tossed around as a contender to replace John Galliano at Dior, the designer told Vogue UK he wasn't interested in taking on another fashion label.

"Anything like that is a compliment, but you just have to concentrate on your job and what you're doing," he said.

Tod's Group chairman Diego Della Valle, who owns Schiaparelli, had planned to announce the brand's new creative director this Fall and relaunch the brand for Spring 2013. But last week, the brand's spokeswoman Farida Khelfa said the first new designs for Schiaparelli likely won't debut until "June or July" of next year. Whether Moralioglu will be the man who creates them remains to be seen.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• The relaunch of Schiaparelli has been delayed until "June or July" of 2013, according to the brand's spokeswoman Farida Khelfa. The reason? Diego Della Valle, who owns the brand, is still looking for a creative director. [Fashionista]
  

• What's next for Tamara Mellon's life after Jimmy Choo? She's writing what she calls an "entrepreneur story" that will be published next year. "It's not strictly a business book and it's not strictly a memoir," she says. "It's a hybrid." [The New York Times]
  

• Publishers of some of the nation's biggest fashion and lifestyle magazines, including Condé Nast and Hearst, were forced to close their New York offices during Hurricane Sandy. [WWD]
  

• Actor Robert Pattinson will take on a new role as the face of Dior's men's fragrances. His contract with the brand is estimated to be worth $12 million over three years. [E! Online]
  

• Twelv magazine hired ice sculptor Takeo Okamoto to create a dress out of ice inspired by Tilda Swinton's portrayal of the Ice Queen in the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Photographers only had 30 minutes to shoot the dress before it melted. [Huff Post Style]
  

• Just in time for Halloween, Coco Rocha stars in a decidedly spooky fashion film called Full Moon that Ellen von Unwerth directed for Vs. Magazine. [Styleite]
  

Despite its glamorous and well-attended welcome party, the Metropolitan Museum's Impossible Conversations: Schiaparelli and Prada exhibit pulled in 339,838 total visitors — just over half the number of people who came to see Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty last year.

While the McQueen exhibit — which set a Costume Institute record for attendance with 661,509 visitors — would have been a tough act to follow for any museum show, Impossible Conversations still didn't do as well as some past shows. The New York Times notes, for example, that the Met's 2001 show about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis drew 559,902 visitors, and the 2005 Chanel exhibit drew 463,600.

It may not have the numbers on its side, the Schiaparelli and Prada exhibit does have one edge on other Costume Institute shows of the past: it inspired the comeback of an entire fashion brand. Schiaparelli is expected to relaunch with accessories, fragrances, cosmetics, and some clothing in February 2013.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

• Gisele Bundchen was spotted in her native Brazil sporting a slightly bigger stomach than usual. The photos follow rumors that Bundchen is pregnant with her second child, though she hasn't spoken publicly about whether or not the rumors are true. [PopSugar]
  

• Hermès helped French police bring an end to an international ring of counterfeiters. A dozen people were arrested in the bust, and two Hermès employees have been fired in connection with the ring, but the company believes that more of its staff may have been involved with the counterfeits. [WWD]
  

• Jil Sander says she's "working less on decoration, more on form — pattern-making and materials, with a lot of dresses in the collection — in a good modern way" for her return to the namesake label she founded in 1968. [The New York Times]
  

• Just what does it take to be Karl Lagerfeld's creative muse? Alan Grieve — father of Lagerfeld's current muse, Amanda Harlech — describes his daughter's life like this: "She works all day, eats dinner at 3 a.m., when I'm sure she'd like to be in bed, and in between, there are emails and texts and phone calls because he never stops." [The Daily Telegraph]
  

• Emma Stone covers the July issue of Vogue. "This is what fashion does for people," Stone, who was photographed wearing Dries Van Noten and Nina Ricci, told the magazine. "It makes them feel like it's an extension of themselves." [FabSugar]
  

• Queen Elizabeth II will name Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, or OBE, later this year. Emma Hill, creative director of Mulberry, will be made a Commander of the British Empire, or CBE. [WWD]
  

• Florence Huntington-Whiteley, sister to model and actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, has made her own modeling debut for British line Jack Wills. [The Daily Telegraph]
  

• Schiaparelli has a new CEO in former L'Oréal executive Camilla Schiavone. The long-dormant brand's owner, Diego Della Valle of the Tod's group, plans to relaunch Schiaparelli in February 2013. [Material World]
  

• Marc Jacobs partnered with the creators of South Park to bring a doll in his own likeness to stores. Muscle Man Marc, a shirtless cloth version of Jacobs that features his tattoos, first appeared on the cartoon as a toy that belonged to the character Cartman. [Refinery29]

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.

>> In the Jan. 18, 2010 edition of the New Yorker, Amanda Fortini profiles Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte and their quest to go against your typical "high gloss, high fashion, glamour, put-together, shiny, perfect — everything too exact" label, in the words of Laura.  The Fall 2009 thigh-high wraparound boots Nicholas Kirkwood created for Rodarte, for example, were meant to evoke "hands wrapped in plastic in a morgue."

Kate told the magazine, "The most unhappy Laura or I have ever been was when we heard we made 'a pretty dress.' We want to make people think, and, once you decide to do that, you will have people that don't like what you're doing."  She later added, "The other day, we were laughing that if we could take our clothes and bury them, and in ten years take them out, we would actually be satisfied [with how they look]."

Anna Wintour gives her two cents »

>> INSIDER WIRE —It sounds like Olivier Theyskens won't be heading to Schiaparelli after all: the label's owner, Diego Della Valle, now says he doesn't plan to revive the house before 2011; originally he was aiming for 2010.  It's doubtful that Theyskens would want to wait two years before his next runway show, and Della Valle verifies that no designer has been chosen to head up Schiaparelli. “This is not the right time . . . I hope that markets will have stabilized when we are ready for Schiaparelli." [WWD]