Alessandra Facchinetti Leaves GUCCI

[ultramarine]

Hum ... according to the article McQueen HAS been generating losses .. which definitively matches the theory posted on his latest collection thread about pressure from Gucci Group to commercialize ...
Hum ... I dont like the direction GG is taking ... they're acting as if everyone is dispensable ....

 

[Salvatore]

Facchinetti Leaves Gucci

Taken from The Daily:
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NEW YORK: Tuesday, March 08, 2005


Gucci announced today the departure of women’s ready-to-wear designer Alessandra Facchinetti—who worked under Tom Ford for three years—and the appointment of current accessories head Frida Giannini as overall creative director, where she will oversee both divisions. Facchinetti left, according to a release issued by Gucci Group, due to “a disagreement with management.”



“Alessandra is a talented designer and I would like to thank her for her important contribution to Gucci, particularly this year,” Mark Lee, president and managing director of Gucci Division, said in a statement. “Since joining Gucci more than two years ago, Frida has displayed extraordinary creative talents and leadership qualities.”



This appointment has come at a very crucial time for Gucci. Gianni is credited with the enormous success of the accessories collections, including the cruise Flora pieces, which overall have contributed to accessories accounting for approximately 80 percent of company sales. In addition, rival Fendi—owned by LVMH—is speculated to have helped speed up Gianni’s appointment, having apparently tried wooing her to lead their company makeover.



“I’m thrilled and honored by the opportunity offered to me to expand my creative vision of the Gucci woman,” Gianni said in a statement. “In addition to my ongoing work on Gucci accessories, I am greatly looking forward to moving Gucci forward in women’s ready-to-wear and maintaining the brand at the forefront of fashion.”

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Very interesting. I did not find her that good anyways. Hopefully this new person will be good

 

[Diorling]

If her clothes are anything like her bags and shoes, Frida is gonna blow us away. She had some gorgeous bags for the cruise and spring collection and the boots from fall, gorgeous.

Why did Facchinetti leave? I want more details.

 

[Nader]

whoa!

 

[softgrey]

wow...that was fast...!!


thanks salvatore...

 

[clay]

I was just looking at spring gucci last week and it looks great. Good luck to both women!! I agree SG that was fast though!

 

[arlekindearrabal]

now, that's a shocker, i did not expect it at all, i guess it just was too much pressure for her... i loved the spring 2005 collection, i think she hit a perfect stride there; the fall 05, not so much... as diorling said, if accessories are anything to go by, frida gianni will do very well

 

[brian]

...these are pretty sad times for gucci.

i hope things pick up soon. and i can't wait to see what happens for the s/s 06 show. i'm guessing giannini is going to be designing?

 

[stylegurrl]

It's a shame when a designer isn't given a real chance to prove whether they can do the job. In this case though I feel that she was the wrong person and Gucci needs a new women's wear designer. Someone mentioned in another article that her designs were not really in tune with the direction that fashion is currently taking and that I completely agree with. Let's hope Giannini lives up to their expectations..

 

[softgrey]

merged all threads...
thanks to everyone for all the info...

 

[saturnine]

80% of sales attributed to accessories!

Tom Ford's shoes will be extremely hard to fill for anyone, while Facchinette's designs have been quite nice, I think you also need the charisma and perhaps ego of Ford.

 

[taz]

do u think that STFANO PILATI might be next??? as matter of sales his acceories are yuk: the le parisaine,bohimiane & the safari bags they all look the same and there are no creativity in them. IS ther anyone intrested to buy one of these?
they can't be compared to the mombasa,nadja or st. tropez by ford.

 

[cloud9]

i thought she was doing pretty good.
i mean gucci does need to move on and they need to revamp their image.. i thought she was doing.. (well.. she was on her way..) that...
and what is this acc designer crap?
gucci's accessories... are horrible, and they are just getting worse!

 

[birdofparadise]

So people bought really bought into those flower print accessories? Who bought one? I've never seen anyone carry them. Maybe only rich women? Rich men?

 

[kit]

Accessories chief bags top Gucci job

[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Jess Cartner-Morley, fashion editor
Wednesday March 9, 2005
The Guardian

[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In the world of gladrags, the handbag is king. That is the message from the fashion industry, given Gucci's announcement yesterday that its chief designer, Alessandra Facchinetti, was leaving after two seasons to be replaced by the label's accessories designer, Frida Giannini.



The rise of Giannini, who joined Gucci as a handbag designer in 2002 and took control of all accessories two years later, reflects the fact that the clothes on the catwalk serve to market the bags, shoes, belts and other accessories that generate the lion's share of the house's profits.

An insider commented that accessories had always been the most important part of Gucci's business, as at Louis Vuitton, "so if it came to a power struggle between the handbag designer and the clothing designer" it was not surprising that the handbag designer came out on top.

The announcement came just 10 days after Facchinetti's second collection for Gucci appeared on the catwalk. While Facchinetti's collections had failed to set the fashion world alight, sales at the label are stable.

Gucci would say only that Facchinetti was "leaving the company after a disagreement with management", but it is thought that Giannini was being headhunted by another company, possibly Fendi, and that Gucci sacrificed Facchinetti to meet Giannini's demands for greater power at the label.

Facchinetti gained respectable reviews for her debut show six months ago, which continued in the successful vein of her predecessor, Tom Ford. But second time around, critics expressed frustration with Facchinetti's failure to branch out and put her own stamp on the label, or engage with the softer, fuller, more romantic aesthetic now gaining ground in fashion.

Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune, wrote that under Facchinetti, Gucci was "going nowhere".

By contrast, the accessories which Giannini has already designed for Gucci have put her in a strong position. Tina Lamb, international accessories buyer for Harvey Nichols, described the spring collection as "very strong".

The previous accessories collection, Giannini's first while in charge, had been more difficult, said Ms Lamb, because "Giannini created a lot of bags in exotic skin, like crocodile, which we don't buy as we have an anti-fur policy". But the new Flora range of handbags and shoes, based on a wildflower motif from Gucci's archives which appeared on court shoes worn by Grace Kelly in 1966, is selling extremely well. "It looks fresh, but a little bit retro at the same time. It's getting a lot of editorial coverage, so there's a buzz around it. It's classic Gucci and our customers love it," said Ms Lamb. Giannini, who, at 32 is the same age as Facchinetti, was born in Rome, and splits her time between that city, Milan and Florence. Her company biography describes her as an avid horsewoman - and a vinyl collector, with 7,000 records


More info B)
[/font]

 

[softgrey]

do u think that STFANO PILATI might be next??? as matter of sales his acceories are yuk: the le parisaine,bohimiane & the safari bags they all look the same and there are no creativity in them. IS ther anyone intrested to buy one of these?
they can't be compared to the mombasa,nadja or st. tropez by ford.

i disagree...i think that ysl's accessories are much better than what gucci has been puting out since ford left...
that floral stuff was just plain ugly...

 

[stillhere]

Seems that floral stuff is very popular and gets you somewhere …. in fashion.

 

[Mr-Dale]

Wow, this definetly came as a surprise to me! The f/w collection wasn't that good I think, but I was, like so many other, giving her time to develop at Gucci and as was mentioned above, make it her own. Sadly, that's not gonna happen then. I wonder how this Gianini will do next season....

 

[eugenius]

So lemme get this right? Alessandra is leaving Gucci, but John Ray is still staying? Oh, something is really really f'ed up w/ this this picture!

 

[LibertyRose]

Alessandra is being made an example of. No rave reviews? No sales? Here's your pink slip.

It is no coincidence that Balenciaga, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen have all turned very commercial this season. This makes me think how Tom Ford had been defending his designers when he was still at Gucci.

But back to Alessandra... I don't really think she can be entirely blamed for being Ford's copycat and thus failing to establish a new Gucci. The Gucci Group prob. didn't want to see both YSL and Gucci completely transformed design-wise, b/c it is too much of a risk to take. Since YSL was becoming completely different, Gucci prob. should stay the same.

Tom Ford's accessories have always been one of the highpoints, if not the sole star, of his collections. His heels were particularly swoon-worthy. I've always found a pair or two to love every season. The new designer started out with a disastrous Floral cruise collection that so contradicted the image of Gucci, but she's recovered with a mediocre spring collection. Still, her designs are nothing to write home about. It's not 'wicked' enough; it's not going to be the Shoe of the Season.

Anyway, Tom must be smiling ruefully somewhere now... Gucci without Tom Ford is like a mountain climber without a compass. I didn't believe that he designed four collections a year (womenswear and menswear at Gucci and YSL) and a lot of the work must have been delegated to his team. But it is shocking how the collections stumble without him. Let's hope his Hollywood showbiz thing works out b/c I don't want him to make a fool out of himself.