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Emanuel Ungaro Spring 2012

fashionologie — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:18:35 PDT

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Emanuel Ungaro Is Moving Ahead Without a Head Designer, Instead Relying on a Team

fashionologie — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:41:25 PDT

>> After cutting ties with Giles Deacon earlier this month - Deacon signed a four-year contract last year, but produced a black, dominatrix-inspired collection (left) when management wanted a more heritage-driven line - Ungaro is moving ahead, deliberately without a head designer.

Emanuel Ungaro chief executive Jeffry Aronsson, who joined the company in June, says he will instead rely on the label's team of 35 employees, including some who worked under Ungaro himself. "I'm not looking for a big name from the outside, because I don't want the development of the brand to be dependent on a big ego." He hasn't yet figured out who will take the runway bow, and adds: "I don't believe in overnight sensations. My goal is to revitalize the company in a sustainable way, not a flash in the pan."

Ungaro is no longer carried in any major American department store, and even several of the shelves in the Ungaro store downstairs from the label's offices in Paris are bare. Aronsson says he plans to woo retailers back; however, even if it takes a few seasons, by focusing on tops, loungewear like caftans, and capitalizing on silks and prints. "I want the retailers to see this, that it's a whole new page," he says of the upcoming Ungaro show.

Giles Deacon, Emanuel Ungaro Part Ways

fashionologie — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:34:16 PDT

>> Emanuel Ungaro and Giles Deacon have "mutually decided" to end their collaboration, they announced. Deacon joined Ungaro in May 2010 and produced two collections for the house; it is understood that the upcoming Spring 2012 collection, meanwhile, will reflect the work of the design team.

"Emanuel Ungaro embodies a very rich and distinct DNA which the company will deliver with a modern spirit," Ungaro CEO Jeffry Aronsson said in a statement. "The creative process for executing our strategy is largely in place and I will comment on this further at the appropriate time."

Aronsson was in attendance at Prabal Gurung's show last week; although he said at the time he was checking out talent for his consulting business, not Ungaro, that statement doesn't seem as convincing in light of Deacon's departure.

The Big 3-0 - Our Favorite Fall 2011 Paris Fashion Week Shoes!

fashionologie — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 12:57:29 PST

>> At last, the denouement: Fall 2011 Fashion Month is over and out. But before you get back to your regularly scheduled program, may we introduce our favorite shoes from Paris Fashion Week: there's lots of snakeskin, lots of black and white . . . and we couldn't forget those intricately laced Louis Vuitton boots - Kate Moss's pair apparently took four people an hour to lace up!

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37 of Our Favorite Oscar Dresses of All Time

fashionologie — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 13:35:30 PST

>> It comes but once a year - Sunday we get our Oscars red carpet fix. Will any of host Anne Hathaway's wardrobe changes hit the sweet spot? Will Natalie Portman nail it, pregnancy and all? Lauren Bacall, who was four months pregnant when she attended the Oscars back in 1952, did, coincidentally wearing a Christian Dior dress (Portman is a current Dior face). We gathered our favorite Oscar looks over the decades - including one pantsuit - to get you ready. And here's to hoping that come Sunday, we'll have at least one more dress to add to this list.

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Veruschka Didn't Like Modeling in Giles's Spring 2011 Show

fashionologie — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:11:20 PDT

>> 71-year-old Veruschka modeled for Giles Deacon's Spring 2011 show last month, but it sounds like she didn't much enjoy it: "I didn’t like the makeup in the show, and didn’t think much of the dress." She says she felt like a gimmick, and added that designers no longer have the skills to dress women who are not children with bodies that look like ironing boards. When it was pointed out that her star turn in Blow-Up perpetuated the super-thin model look, she replied, "I was in my 20s when I made the movie and found success. We were women, not children. [Yes,] I was tall and I was thin. But just before shooting started I had been on a fashion assignment in Mexico and became terribly sick from drinking the water. I lost so much weight and was really ill and weak when I made the movie." [Daily Mail]

Giles Deacon's First Emanuel Ungaro Collection - for Spring 2011- Involved Anna Dello Russo Modeling a Sheep Purse

fashionologie — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:55:55 PDT

>> Giles Deacon is the sixth designer to try his hand at Emanuel Ungaro since the founder retired in 2004, and, as Suzy Menkes noted, he "was brought in to stabilize the brand, rather than rev it up with a grand show in his first season."

Hence, a presentation on an indoor patch of grass, the clothes modeled by “women with character and personality” in a range of ages, including Anna Dello Russo - who held a sheep handbag she named "Funbongo," French actress Joana Preiss, Querelle Jansen - who was coaxed out of modeling retirement - plus several models from the '90s: 37-year-old Claudia Mason, 35-year-old French model Caroline de Maigret, 33-year-old Brazilian model Shirley Mallmann, and 35-year-old South African model Georgina Grenville.

"I went through all the archives, from the '60s all the way through, in order to understand the feeling, the subtlety, the softness of the Ungaro heritage," Deacon explained of his collection. "I wanted the collection to be super-sophisticated, gorgeous, vivacious, sensual - really, just beautiful clothes." WWD noted that the pieces, many crafted by couture methods, "will be expensive to produce and buy," but signified what "looked like a real investment in the label."

Critics in general seemed encouraged by the collection, but not entirely sold. Style.com's Tim Blanks wrote: "You could picture the professional party girls in [the dresses] already, and on that level, the collection was a TKO. But where other women fit into the new Ungaro equation will be the challenge Deacon has to deal with in the months to come." And Cathy Horyn added: "If you consider how much time Phoebe Philo had to rethink Celine before she showed anything, Mr. Deacon needed more time to develop his ideas. Maybe Ungaro can’t wait, though . . . On the whole, the clothes looked French, the Ungaro ruching and draping was kept to a cautious minimum, and the skirts needed more design attention. The collection was certainly pitched to a young woman. Mr. Deacon’s next step is to remove himself a little more from the archive and develop his own fabrics and ideas."

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After Veruschka at Giles, What Does Katie Grand Have in Store Casting-Wise at Louis Vuitton and Emanuel Ungaro?

fashionologie — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 15:28:12 PDT

>> Katie Grand is known for cultivating unique model casts - last season at Giles and Louis Vuitton, both of which she styles, there was a proliferation of Victoria's Secret models on the runway. And while she brought back some of those "curvier" girls for Giles again this season - Alessandra Ambrosio, Ana Beatriz Barros, Anne Vyalitsyna, Noemie Lenoir, plus Sports Illustrated models Jessica Hart, Abbey Clancy (who is pregnant), and Julie Ordon - also peppered in were Agyness Deyn, who shaved her hair into a mohawk for the show, Amber Le Bon, British model and TV presenter Kelly Brook, and 71-year-old Veruschka, who closed the show.

Grand is working with Giles Deacon on his debut collection for Emanuel Ungaro this season - so surely the cast will be special for that occasion - although the only hint that came is not model-related: Deacon is working with edgy London label Sibling on knits for the show. And as for Vuitton, all Grand would say was: “[Marc Jacobs] said, ‘I’ve got all these beautiful clothes for Vuitton - what on earth are we going to do with them?’”

Will Giles Deacon Be Able to Singlehandedly Pull Ungaro Out of Its Funk?

fashionologie — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:04:02 PDT

>> Cathy Horyn traces the faltering house of Ungaro and the resignation of former Ungaro CEO Mounir Moufarrige (the man responsible for hiring Lindsay Lohan), in the latest T magazine.

Three designers left under Moufarrige's reign, starting with Peter Dundas; tension reportedly built between the two when Moufarrige interfered with the creative side, Horyn reports: "The stylist George Cortina, who worked at Ungaro with Dundas, said, 'It was the worst experience I can remember,' recalling a 2 am scene when he warned Moufarrige, whom he found rearranging Dundas’s show lineup, that he would be thrown out a window if he continued meddling."

Moufarrige also said that Anna Wintour approved of appointing Lindsay Lohan »

fashionologie — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:25:52 PDT

>> Giles Deacon Returning to London Fashion Week? -Giles Deacon, who moved his signature collection show from London to Paris for the past two seasons after winning the ANDAM Award, may be returning to London Fashion Week for Spring 2011. Hilary Alexander Tweets: "Giles Deacon may return to show his own collection at London fashion week in September as he shows his 1st collection for Ungaro in Paris." Deacon was named the new creative director for Emanuel Ungaro last month. [@HilaryAlexander]