Alexandre Vauthier Enters Administration *Update June 2024* Revolve Aquires Majority Stake

[JohannesL]

It really depends on the contract you’re signing though. Crazy that no one learned from Halston.

Tell me more about Halston since I know little about his business.

 

[blueorchid]

There’s not enough time to summarize it. Just read his Wikipedia page. It sums it all up.

 

[FashionPower]

Can he go back to Balmain so we can get rid of Rousteing's Acne x The Attico flop version of Balmain and get the Decarning rock&roll glitzy one?

 

[Salvatore]

Someone mentioned him being good for Alaïa and I cannot unsee it. Balmain would also be good.

 

[Phuel]

LOL As if being installed at Alaia/Mugler/Balmain will suddenly secure his highest of standards and make bank, when his highest of standards is frankly what has been the ruin of him— to the point of having lost his name.

He is superior in talent than Pieter Mulier and Olivier Rousteing combined on their strongest day, no doubt. But it’s very telling that Alexandre can’t even wrangle in enough of a niche clientele to sustain his standards (of which at this point in the fashion game, is the very best any genuine talent can hope for). And that’s the reality of the superior talents trying to survive in this, the most untalented fashion era. If he is by some divine intervention, headed to Alaia, then he better have a commercial diffusion line ready for retail. One that TFSers may frown upon, but he needs SKIMS-ish separates to feed the mob, not just his standards to quench TFSers’ tastes. Because Pieter Mulier may be on the verge of insufferable with how he’s rebranded Alaia, but looking at his very accessible separates to stockists that’s the equivalent of an Alaia junior diffusion line while his artsy/“intellectual" runway showpieces go to the celebs, it’s easy to understand why the rebrand is successful in this era. The same customer that is hyped to buy SKIMS and Jacquemus, and likely whatever basics Cardi is sure to be offering for Revolve, is also namedropping and coveting current-era Alaia in all its generic design.

 

[tourbillions]

Hi gucci or saint laurent... this is your chance or even balenciaga.

 

[Lola701]

I wonder why designers stopped running their business with business partners because I think managing brands like YSL with PB, Valentino with Giancarlo, TF with Buckley or some designers with their family members who have business background is a more substainable way to run their business than giving in the hands of conglomerates who care profits more than everything else. Once you sold your brand, you lose your name. It is the norm of designer label in the past decades. Maybe it is time for designers and private investors to find new business model to counter the wave of corporate fashion.

It’s not such an easy combination. Regarding Tom Ford, it was Domenico De Sole. Richard Buckley was useful as a fashion journalist but I don’t think that much in terms of pure strategy on the day to day business.

Having your partner as the business entity is not the guarantee of a great business. What is the guarantee of a successful business is having trust worthy partnership that will give their all to develop the brand.

Today OK, people can look at YSL and Valentino as viable businesses but it took years of sacrifices and compromises to make those business work. And today, we only look at those businesses proudly because the conglomerates found a business model that helped the brands flourish.

YSL was still selling cigarettes and cheap licences products in the early 00’s to support the Couture activities of Yves. Valentino had at some point a secondary line named after his dog to support the mainline. The brands that were lucky to have a lucrative beauty entity were the ones that flourished! Then it became a bag thing.

Someone like John Galliano never made money with his brand. What kept the brand alive was the licences of underwear or others. His beauty line never sold.

Conglomerate are not the issue. It’s just very difficult to maintain a business with the highest standards without a cash cow. If the cash cow is RTW, you needs to have a great distribution. Balmain’s success was on those jeans and blazers. Then at some point, they had to sell tshirts and hoodies to support the embroidered dresses. The distribution then was important to maintain the brand image. To this day, Balmain doesn’t have an it bag or an it shoe lol.

Vauthier had fantastic investors at the beginning. I don’t know what happened. At some point, the brand was hot and the moves that could have been made didn’t happened. I remember that at some point you couldn’t dissociate Alexandre Vauthier with Bella Hadid. But no real contract ever tied the brand with her.

Conglomerates also do wonderful things. Schiaparelli is the perfect example. The brand with the success it has today couldn’t exist without the power of Tod’s. Because the critical success is now turning into a commercial success. But the commercial success has yet to be profitable and you can’t rush that because it could hurt the position of the brand. The moment the brand will break even, investments will be made, maybe in beauty or expansion of accessories to milk the affair and have it be sustainable on it own.

 

[vogue22]

Ugh, and he has the perfect name. Such a shame, I wish him the best. In an ideal world he would have taken over at Mugler.

In an ideal world he should've taken over either Versace, Tom Ford or Yves Saint Laurent.

 

[brandon J pierre]

Tell me more about Halston since I know little about his business.

Is absolutely the worst fashion story

 

[brandon J pierre]

In an ideal world he should've taken over either Versace, Tom Ford or Yves Saint Laurent.

In an ideal world he would have kept his small couture business.

 

[LadyJunon]

Ooh, this is going to get messy!

Alexandre Vauthier Has Been Ousted From Namesake Brand
The designer has lodged a complaint with French labor courts to contest his dismissal and remains a minority shareholder of the Revolve-owned label.

By Lily Templeton
April 11, 2025, 11:20am

PARIS — Alexandre Vauthier is no longer the creative force behind his namesake brand.

Confirming a previous WWD report on Tuesday, the designer said Friday he’d been ousted as artistic director of the 16-year-old label, acquired out of administration by U.S.-based retailer Revolve last year.

“L.A. Rive Droite, the acquisition vehicle of Alexandre Vauthier SARL mainly held by Revolve Group Inc., has dismissed Mr. Alexandre Vauthier from his position as artistic director of the couture house,” said the statement first shared with WWD.

He “remains a minority shareholder of L.A. Rive Droite but has no longer any operational or artistic role” and has initiated a procedure to contest his dismissal with French labor courts.

Revolve and the Alexandre Vauthier brand did not immediately return requests for comment.

The French fashion brand, which offered couture and ready-to-wear, defaulted in November 2023 after being hit by slow payments from retailers, political and economic uncertainty, and lingering effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.

It subsequently filed for court protection with the Paris commercial court in February 2024, subsequently going into receivership that month, seeking buyers.

Revolve purchased the company in June through L.A. Rive Droite, a French joint stock company. Vauthier transferred all intellectual properties and rights relating to the business in return for a 20 percent stake and voting rights in that company.

In its annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February, Revolve indicated that the total acquisition cost of the purchase was $500,000 “and primarily related to legal fees.”

The brand sat out the spring and fall couture seasons in 2024 before returning off-schedule during Paris Couture Week in January.

A revamped e-commerce site under the moniker “Vauthier Paris” with a new logo offers spring 2025 ready-to-wear, with oblique references to a namesake designer.

WWD

 

[Salvatore]

Messy ! Glad he is not going out without a fight.

 

[Kanzai]

Here in China, there were a lot of Vauthier customers back in the 2010s. I mean a lot of oligarch wives here and my former country Russia were into his clothes in like...8 yrs ago and b4 that. Tho I've been out of touch with today’s luxury circus, but from what I see, his relationship with fashion’s key factors is… frostier than a North Asia winter. No editors give a sh*t abt him, no big stylists/photographers friends, no advertorial or even editorial that people wear Vauthier clothes etc etc.

Let’s be honest, Vauthier will never get the keys to a major fashion house. His Area 51 circle of industry relationships makes him the ultimate outsider ( imagine only that WWD post about this news, and 1.2k likes lol ). Then he’ll just become another Belgian-style fashion hermits—achingly missed by devotees like us, but hey… it's just fashion, right?

 

[LadyJunon]

Let’s be honest, Vauthier will never get the keys to a major fashion house. His Area 51 circle of industry relationships makes him the ultimate outsider ( imagine only that WWD post about this news, and 1.2k likes lol ). Then he’ll just become another Belgian-style fashion hermits—achingly missed by devotees like us, but hey… it's just fashion, right?

You saying that made me realise how lucky Dries Van Noten and Margiela are. Ann D in quite niche and Walter van B even more so, the other three members of the Antwerp 6 have pretty much been forgotten and Theyskens is the definition of a burnt-out prodigy.

 

[jeanclaude]

A revamped e-commerce site under the moniker “Vauthier Paris” with a new logo offers spring 2025 ready-to-wear, with oblique references to a namesake designer.

Second L.A. Rive Droite mistake: Vauthier Paris sounds too similar to Gaultier Paris.