fashionologie

Linda Evangelista and Francois-Henri Pinault Reach Settlement

Justin Fenner — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:03:26 PDT

A judge has approved a child support settlement between Francois-Henri Pinault and Linda Evangelista for the care of their 5-year-old son, Augustin.

The terms of the deal are undisclosed, but one source close to the proceedings told the New York Post that Pinault had "gone a long way toward meeting those original demands." Evangelista and Pinault made the agreement by phone on Monday morning, the third day of four scheduled days in court. A magistrate in Manhattan approved the deal Tuesday afternoon.

"Everybody's glad for the sake and the benefit of the child that it's done," said Pinault's lawyer, David Aronson.

Evangelista was originally reported to have asked for $46,000 a month in child support for Augustin - which would cover a 24-hour-a-day nanny and armed security guards - but her lawyer William Beslow said during testimony that that figure was overstated.

After making the agreement with Pinault Monday morning, Evangelista donned a Prada gown for Monday night's Met Gala, which celebrated the Costume Institute's 2012 exhibition Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations.

Photo: Linda Evangelista leaving Manhattan Family Court on Tuesday.

Linda Evangelista Testifies in Child Support Hearing

Justin Fenner — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:20:22 PDT

Francois Henri Pinault and Linda Evangelista both took the stand in a child support hearing on Friday, the second of four days in court that will determine whether Pinault will have to pay child support for their 5-year-old son Augustin.

After being asked why he provided financially for his 5-year-old daughter Valentina (whose mother is Pinault's wife, actress Salma Hayek), but did not extend the same courtesy to Augustin, Pinault told the court that he offered to pay Evangelista child support in 2007. Evangelista didn't respond until 2010.

"The way I work is that I make an offer and if someone doesn’t respond, I think the answer is no," he said during the testimony. "That no money was needed for the care of Augie. That was my understanding."

When Evangelista took the stand, her lawyer William Beslow asked her to recount her childhood picking cherries for "50 cents a basket" in Canada, and how little she was paid after she was discovered as a model. He also asked her about the kind of work she does now.

"In 2010 I was asked to walk in Jean-Paul Gaultier's final show for Hermés in Paris," Evangelista said. "It would have paid close to $100,000," she said, adding that she had to turn down the job because she had an early court date concerning the current child support proceedings. The court date was cancelled the evening before Evangelista was set to meet with the judge, and by that time it was too late for her to get back on the Gaultier runway.

"I couldn’t magic myself to Paris," she said.

Evangelista revealed that Pinault was Augustin's father late last year and was rumored to be asking for $46,000 a month in child support. Beslow shot that notion down on Thursday, saying that figure was part of a PR campaign by Pinault's lawyers.

Evangelista's testimony will continue Monday.

Photo: Linda Evangelista leaving Manhattan Family Court on Thursday.

Naomi Campbell's Reality Show, Kate Moss's Charitable Portrait, and Linda Evangelista's Child Support

Justin Fenner — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:47:57 PDT

Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.

Naomi Campbell is set to star in her very own reality modeling show called The Face. The show, which will air on Oxygen starting next year, will see Campbell and two other as-of-yet-undetermined supermodels supervising three teams of models who will compete until one is chosen as the face of a brand in the United States. "With The Face the audience will get a real insider's look at this exciting industry that has been so good to me," Campbell said. [The Huffington Post]
Kate Moss is donating a portrait of herself taken by Solve Sundsbo to a May 17 auction sponsoring Britain's National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The portrait features Moss wearing nothing but a pair of gold pants and crossing her arms to cover her breasts. Its starting price is £3,000, or $4,866 at current exchange. [Vogue UK]
Linda Evangelista will find out this week whether a judge will grant her the $46,000 a month in child support she requested from PPR CEO François-Henri Pinault to help raise their 5-year-old son, Augustin. Evangelista revealed that Pinault was Augustin's father when she filed for child support in late 2011. Pinault is married to actress Salma Hayek; the two have a 4-year-old daughter named Valentina. [The Cut]
Alice Temperley is working with British high street label John Lewis on a capsule collection that will debut in September. Called Somerset by Alice Temperley, the line will range from $50 scarves to a $1,600 sheepskin coat. Day dresses will hit the $160 mark. "I wanted it to be very much a collection of essentials and to design a collection that would provide a feminine and functional wardrobe for women in their everyday life," Temperley said. [The Daily Telegraph]
There's been no formal explanation of why The Gap fired its creative director Patrick Robinson, but former members of the retailer's executive team say "his designs seemed lost on Gap customers." He also didn't want customers to see clothes styled any other way than how he showed them originally. "Merchants were literally told, 'You don’t get to change the product as it's presented,'" one former merchant recalled. [Fashionista]

Frida Giannini, Gucci CEO Patrizio di Marco Publicly Announce Their Romantic Involvement

fashionologie — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:35:20 PDT

>> Frida Giannini and Gucci CEO Patrizio di Marco have publicly announced that they've been a couple for over two years. Although many fashion brands are or have been run by couples - Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge - this marks the first time the couple is not the owners of the brand but rather its employees.

Giannini, 38, who became Gucci creative director in 2006, and di Marco, 49, who joined as CEO in January 2009, became romantically involved on a trip to China; both were divorced at the time. After their relationship changed, di Marco says he went to Rome to speak to François-Henri Pinault, the chief executive of PPR, which owns Gucci; Giannini also spoke to Pinault, separately. Both say they were fully prepared to leave Gucci if required, but Pinault “was very supportive.”

Pinault says that he is not concerned if the relationship were to go south: “If something changed and one left, well, we would deal with that. . . . This is a family business – it was started by my father, and I know how that can feel and seem to the outside world, but I also know how much that makes you be strict with yourself. And I knew them, so I knew if anything this would make them more demanding with themselves.”

Linda Evangelista Demands $46,000 a Month in Child Support from Francois-Henri Pinault

fashionologie — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 07:50:33 PDT

>> As the Manhattan Family Court proceedings - which last month confirmed PPR CEO and chairman Francois-Henri Pinault as the father of Linda Evangelista's son - continue, Evangelista was back in front of a judge yesterday with a $46,000-a-month child support request.

According to Evangelista's lawyer, William Beslow, Pinault has not paid Evangelista anything since the birth of their four-year-old son, Augustin James: "He's just been sitting back, paying zero." On the other hand, Beslow pointed out, Pinault spends $50,000 a month on a $12 million Los Angeles estate - held in a trust in the name of his three-year-old daughter with wife Salma Hayek, Valentina.

The majority of the monthly sum Evangelista is requesting would cover 24-hour nannies and armed drivers, her lawyer noted, arguing that these are privileges due of any son of a single mom and an overseas billionaire.

During a deposition last Tuesday, Pinault's lawyer David Aaronson asked Evangelista why she needed a $175,000-a-year team of armed drivers who are former police detectives and an $80,000-a-year nanny. "She testified that she wants to have a 24-hour nanny because she does not want to be alone with the child," Aaronson told the judge yesterday. "Miss Evangelista, you should understand, has a worth of more than $8 million, and she earned, last year, $1.8 million."

The judge immediately did away with the $7,500 Evangelista was seeking for monthly "vacation" expenses, but seemed sympathetic to the security and nanny costs, noting that these expenditures may be prudent for a high-profile, high risk child. "These are the extraordinary expenses that may be a part of the child's life," the judge added. "And if there is a trial [in the support case] with a lot of publicity, there will probably be a need for two detectives to drive this kid around." He added that it was understandable Evangelista would want another adult - in the form of a nanny - to be on hand, given security concerns and the travel requirements of her occupation.

"How many hours a week do you work?" the judge asked Evangelista at one point.

"On days when I do not work, I am working on my image," Evangelista answered. "I have to hit the gym. I have beauty appointments. I have to work toward my next job and maintaining my image, just like an athlete. When I work, it can be a 16-hour day."

A decision - on what "would probably be the largest support order in the history of the Family Court," according to the judge - is expected next month, when the parties return to Family Court.

Report - Francois-Henri Pinault Is the Father of Linda Evangelista's Son

fashionologie — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:48:30 PDT

>> The mysterious paternity of Linda Evangelista's 4-year-old son, Augustin James, may finally be solved. And it seems the rumors that Francois-Henri Pinault is the father are right, despite denials from both Evangelista's agent back in 2007 and Pinault's rep in 2009.

Evangelista appeared at the Manhattan magistrate's court yesterday, the New York Post reports, in hopes of hashing out a child support agreement with Pinault. This marks her third or fourth trip to Family Court, with no agreement yet reached, making a Fall support trial likely, according to a court source.

Pinault didn't show yesterday, but that was due to a misunderstanding, his lawyer, David Aronson, said: "We had understood that it was to be a brief, telephone conference, to bring Magistrate Troy up to date on what the status was." Evangelista's lawyer, William Beslow, meanwhile, had no comment; neither did Evangelista.

Augustin James was conceived in early 2006, when Pinault was reportedly separated from then-girlfriend, now-wife Salma Hayek Pinault, who he had daughter Valentina with just short of a year after Evangelista's son was born.

Fashion Descends on Venice for the 2011 Biennale

fashionologie — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 14:16:29 PDT

>> Every two years, the fashion flock meets the art world in Venice for a series of parties and power buys. This year, Hogan, Prada, and Missoni have been among the Venice Biennale event hosts, bringing out guests like Anna Wintour (who was spotted yesterday riding around the city's Grand Canal), Dasha Zhukova, and Naomi Campbell. While some have already come and gone - Anna Wintour, Francois-Henri Pinault, and Salma Hayek Pinault were already spotted attending the French Open in Paris today - we've the fleeting moments of the last couple of days' festivities captured in our slideshow at left.

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Karolina Kurkova, Diane Kruger, Alexa Chung and More Hit the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Red Carpet

fashionologie — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:31:41 PDT

>> Curious to see what the House of Dior puts out without a creative director at its head? The Fall 2011 Dior couture collection, which debuts in July, is being produced just that way - by the design studio alone - but a peek at what they're capable of came last night. Melanie Laurent debuted the Dior studio's first foray without a head designer - a couture gown inspired by an archival piece - for the Cannes Film Festival opening festivities. See that dress, plus Diane Kruger's slinky Calvin Klein Collection number, Rachel McAdams's peekaboo sheer Marchesa gown, and more from the first two days of Cannes in the slideshow.

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Si Newhouse on Ousting Anna Wintour From Vogue - "Never. I Hope She's Here 10 Years From Now"

fashionologie — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:27:14 PDT

>> Mario Testino photographed Anna Wintour for the April 2011 cover of WSJ. - likely at her request (he often shoots Vogue's covers). Because if there's one thing about Wintour, it's that she does things on her own terms.

Si Newhouse (chairman of Advance Publications, which owns Vogue) attests with an anecdote about a Fashion's Night Out meeting Wintour held in Paris, which had 30 international Vogue editors and publishers in attendance: "It was the first time anybody had gotten them all together. She didn't need my authority to do it - she has a remarkable ability to impose her will. If I had had reservations, she probably would have gone ahead anyway."

Marc Jacobs, too, confirms: "If I get a request for something I don't want to do, first I get an email, then a phone call from someone at Vogue, and now I don't even bother to say no - I know the next call is from her." And New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who Wintour has worked with on a number of initiatives - including Fashion's Night Out - says: "Behind all Anna's grace and poise is some pretty tough resolve. She's not a person you want to say no to."

Even the Costume Institute has bowed to Wintour's requests (she has raised a grand total of $75 million for the organization, after all). For last year's gala, she had a 30-foot hot-air balloon trucked in from South Dakota to float above the museum's Engelhard Court. "When we first saw it, we go, 'Never! We can't have gas in the museum!' " says Met president Emily Rafferty. "Anna's changed our attitude - she's brought us to new levels of thinking of what we can do, but without ever losing sight that we're working in a museum context here."

Needless to say, Wintour's reach extends much further than fashion. Harvey Weinstein, who has known Wintour for 15 years (and more recently married Marchesa's Georgina Chapman), notes: "I'm a streak player, but Anna's there, good or bad. When I wasn't doing so well, Anna would throw a party and put me next to Bernard Arnault." Although he declined to be specific, Weinstein said that he had several business deals come out of that party. And Baz Luhrmann, who just recently cast Wintour favorite Carey Mulligan to star in his upcoming film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, says: "I always talk to Anna about what I'm up to, and I always listen to what she has to say."

Within fashion, too, Wintour is more than just an editor. As Francois-Henri Pinault, head of PPR, says: "She tackles things that are really much bigger than what any other editors take on." Because of Wintour, Pinault is currently discussing how to financially support young designers with the French government. But Wintour never straight-out asks him to do something: "She's much more subtle than that."

She's also something of a matchmaker - whether it's designer to brand (in the case of placing John Galliano at Christian Dior back in 1996; Bernard Arnault - chairman of LVMH, which owns Dior - says of Wintour: "She pointed us towards unexpected choices. I speak very openly to her, and this was quite audacious - it was not about picking the big names of the moment. It took her to see that there was a stylistic closeness between John and Dior. She was the discoverer.") or brand to financier (in the case of Bottega Veneta and Gucci Group or Michael Kors and Sportswear Holdings). "She does this very discreetly, but she's really a kind of consigliere to the entire fashion and retail industry," one former colleague who worked closely with Wintour says. Another former colleague, who attended several corporate matchmaking meetings with Wintour, adds: "I came to realize that she's really the McKinsey of fashion." As for Wintour's word on the matter? "We can suggest," she says, "but in the end, everybody makes up their own minds."

It sounds like Wintour isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Vogue is Conde Nast's most profitable publication, Si Newhouse confirms, adding that he has no successor in mind: "Never. I hope she's here 10 years from now, 20 years from now." Wintour, for her part, says: "With all the new media outlets out there, with all the noise, a voice of authority and calm like Vogue becomes more important than ever. The more eyes on fashion, the more opinions about fashion, the more exploration of fashion around the world, the better it is for Vogue. Vogue is like Nike or Coca-Cola - this huge global brand. I want to enhance it, I want to protect it, and I want it to be part of the conversation."

A few more quotables from the WSJ. profile:

Marc Jacobs on Wintour's cold reputation: "She gets such a bad rap. She stands by the people she believes in, and if you're not one of those people, perhaps you take a different view."

Wintour's take on her reputation: "I care deeply about my friends and my family and they know it, but work is work."

Wintour on cover choice regrets: "I'm not terribly proud of putting the Spice Girls on the cover."

Wintour on the John Galliano scandal: "This is all so tragic."

Wintour on being criticized for using the same people in Vogue: "I try to remain open to new people, but obviously there's a stronger element of trust with people you've known for a long time. I think we have a Vogue vocabulary, and there are certain people we like to have as the backbone of the magazine - Vogue's signposts. We try very hard to integrate the familiar signatures with people we feel are new and up-and-coming, but I would rather err on the side of being a little more familiar than being too . . . What's the right word? . . . Edgy."

WSJ. on Wintour's morning habits: "When I met Wintour in her big, artfully tidy office at Vogue, she had been up since 5 am - her normal waking hour. On most days she goes off to play tennis at 6, but lately she's been nursing a sore elbow and can't play. Which didn't mean no tennis."

Stefano Pilati Finds All the Yves Saint Laurent Rumors an "Infuriating Distraction"

fashionologie — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 09:44:23 PST

>> Stefano Pilati has numerous times over the years been plagued with reports of his imminent demise at Yves Saint Laurent. But despite the house's denial of the latest round of rumors, he says, “You know, it affects me . . . I am a creative person, so I am very vulnerable by nature. When you have the idea for a collection, you are really happy, and when you don’t have the idea, you are upset and down and grumpy. That is your daily life. And that vulnerability . . . it can also be fragility.”

Pilati adds that he has at times wondered if the rumors might be true, and that they have been "an infuriating distraction because he thought that they were driven by jealous colleagues or those who were seeking to unseat him," the New York Times reports.

“I don’t let it go,” he says. “What is it about? I should be here, thinking about how beautiful my job is, and come to the office every day and work with colors and fabrics. But no, you have something that undermines you.”

Yves Saint Laurent just recently posted its first significant profit - of about $15 million - after almost a decade of stunning losses; PPR chairman Francois-Henri Pinault credited Pilati as having played a key role in the turnaround. Nonetheless, Pilati has questioned his place in fashion and whether the pressures are worth it: “I have worked and worked and worked hard again. I have been a monk here [at Yves Saint Laurent].”

But he's staying in the game for now - his contract with the house runs through March 2012, he says, but he will likely start discussing a new contract this Spring - he wants to stay with the brand.