*gucci group drama/ mcQueen turns down YSL offer

[leyla m.]

actually she did pretty well for CHLOE... i just remembered

 

[Urban Stylin]

PEOPLE SHE WAS THE ONE THAT BROUGHT CHLOE TO BE KNOWN ONCE MORE I THINK SHE LL DO GREAT SHE SHD GET IT

 

[ebowleg]

I think I am the only one on the board who likes Stella's designs 

I'm willing to give anyone a chance before ruling them out completely. I agree that there has been doubt about her own line's profits and that should be handled first but we shall see.

I don't dislike her designs, I just think that she needs to find herself before taking on another huge project...Besides, like I mentioned earlier, she is anti leather, fur etc., so Stella and Gucci just wouldn't make sense...

actually she did pretty well for CHLOE... i just remembered

I enjoyed her Chloe days more than her Stella days...but we can't forget who helped her in every single Chloe collection, Phoebe Philo!

 

[Lena]

there is already a topic on Stella@Gucci, so i'm merging in the old one

 

[Scott]

Its not really a question of how good her own collections are but if she will even be capable of handling such a powerhouse in Gucci. Her collections are not bad for Stella McCartney but the likes of Gucci in her hands,I don't think so. And Chloé is nothing compared to the power that Gucci has become...at all.

 

[ignitioned32]

If they put Stella in Gucci, it will be a disaster. First because she is anti-leather and, as said earlier, leather products are Gucci's bread and butter. But she did sign into the Gucci-Group with pro-leather Tom Ford, right? So she could ignore that or replace them with other fabrics? Anyways that's one problem already. Secondly, if she can't produce a good collection for her name-label then what more Gucci, right?

 

[kit]

HI ALL

Does this shed any new light , or is it a rehash of old news ?

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...=todaysfeatures

REGARDS KIT B)

 

[ignitioned32]

That was very informative. Thank you, kit!

Now we know... (from the article)

- Contracts of Britain’s Julien Macdonald (for Givenchy) and US designer Michael Kors (for Celine) expire (except for this).

- Marc Jacobs is signed on until 2008 at Louis Vuitton.

- Hedi Slimane will design for Dior Hommes until 2006

- Galliano just renewed his contract at Dior for women.

- Rose Marie Bravo, currently managing director of the British label Burberry, as De Sole’s possible replacement, but she has formally denied being contacted by Gucci.

 

[Lena]

from WWD of today, it seems Gucci might be designed by a group of designers, including Stefano Pilati, Tom's x-righ hand at Yves Saint Laurent and x-Prada girl Alessandra Facchinetti.

Alexander McQueen is still been discussed for YSL, he seems to be negotiating more Gucci Group support for his own line... he still regrets his stint at Givenchy, he feels that his own line suffered at that time and we know he's right.

if i was Alexander McQueen, i'd stay away from the YSL chair.. he doesnt need two collections each season, he's doing great by his own (now that he has time to concentrate on his work).

 

[ignitioned32]

Originally posted by Lena@Jan 12th, 2004 - 4:55 am
if i was Alexander McQueen, i'd stay away from the YSL chair.. he doesnt need two collections each season, he's doing great by his own (now that he has time to concentrate on his work).

I agree! And the couture line is gone, anyways.

 

[Atelier]

Originally posted by Lena@Jan 12th, 2004 - 4:55 am
...it seems Gucci might be designed by a group of designers...

WWD is really scratching its head on this one. Sounds to me like either post could go to someone whose name hasn't even come up yet.

 

[marc jacobs addict]

This is an article in todays WWD.

McQueen Said Still on for YSL, Group Approach Seen for Gucci

PARIS — The rumor mill surrounding Gucci Group is moving into high gear, with intensified speculation that Alexander McQueen is indeed headed for Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

But there’s a new twist in the post-Tom Ford saga. While Narciso Rodriguez’s name was floated last month as the leading candidate for the Gucci saddle, it appears the selection committee is more likely to go with a group effort instead.

Sources said Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, which controls Gucci, wants to maintain Gucci’s powerful creative team and perhaps add another key Ford-trained talent: Stefano Pilati, women’s design director at YSL, who had initially been considered a potential successor to Ford at Paris-based YSL.

Meanwhile, sources said separately Friday that Gucci Group has been quietly shopping around its troubled jewelry and perfume firm Boucheron in order to concentrate on its other fashion businesses, which include Sergio Rossi, Bottega Veneta and Stella McCartney.

However, a Gucci spokesman denied on Friday that Boucheron was on the block.

Meanwhile, on the creative front, speculation reached a fevered pitch on the eve of men’s fashion week in Milan. Ford shows his last men’s collection for Gucci on Wednesday, while McQueen unveiled his new signature line for men on Sunday.

A group design approach at Gucci in the future is said to be particularly appealing to the selection committee because it could build on the label’s success by putting the focus more on products and less on personalities. That, in turn, would represent a strategic turnabout from the so-called “star system” that dominated international fashion in the Nineties.

While long toiling in the background of fashion, Pilati is well-known to fashion insiders as instrumental in the new-era YSL. He joined YSL in March 2000 from Prada Group, where he designed for the Miu Miu brand.

Among notable members of the Gucci design group is Alessandra Facchinetti. Intimates describe her as talented, methodical and organized. She previously worked at Prada.

Serge Weinberg, chief executive officer of PPR and a member of the selection committee, has long praised Pilati and the wealth of creative talent in the luxury group behind the front-man Ford. He has otherwise remained mum on the subject and vowed not to announce successors to Ford and Gucci Group chief executive officer Domenico De Sole until after Ford has shown his final women’s collections for Gucci in late February and YSL in March.

Reached last week after returning from a vacation in Bahia, Brazil, Rodriguez declined all comment. But there were said to be several stumbling blocks to Rodriguez’s candidacy, sources said.

Numerous sources stressed on Friday that no contracts have been signed with Ford’s replacements. A spokeswoman for François-Henri Pinault, chairman of family holding Artemis and a member of the selection committee, declined all comment. The other member of the selection committee is Adrian Bellamy, chairman of Gucci Group’s supervisory board.

In fact, PPR may face an uphill climb in convincing the “enfant terrible” McQueen to take up the reins at YSL — even if it is one of the plum jobs in fashion. Sources said McQueen was a no-show at one of the first meetings organized in London to talk about the YSL design post, but it is believed discussions are now proceeding in a normal manner.

McQueen is also said to be seeking assurances that Gucci Group will step up investment in his signature fashion house. One of McQueen’s frustrations when he was designing Givenchy, owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, was that it took time away from building his own business, which at that time he owned completely. McQueen has repeatedly stated throughout the years that his personal goal is to build the McQueen name into a global brand rivaling Giorgio Armani or Polo Ralph Lauren. Gucci Group currently owns 51 percent of McQueen, with the designer owning the remainder.

As for Boucheron, a sale of the company would not be surprising, given the challenges Gucci Group has faced in getting the brand sparkling.

Earlier this year Gucci Group put on ice an ambitious expansion plan for Boucheron, opening a Bottega Veneta flagship in New York in a Fifth Avenue space originally earmarked for a Boucheron store. Year-old shops in Honolulu and Milan were also shuttered.

“Developing and producing jewelry takes much longer than in fashion,” De Sole told WWD in an interview last fall. Asked in a separate interview if Boucheron was for sale, De Sole responded, “You can never say never.”

ugh. and the saga continues...

 

[PrinceOfCats]

*Sits outside Gucci H.Q. - looking cool and amazingly good at making large profits*

 

[vivadixie]

I think I am the only one on the board who likes Stella's designs

No, we are the only ones who likes Stella's designs.

Stella, at 15 helped Christian Lacroix on his first couture collection and also spent a few years at Saville Row. She also helped Tom Ford with the last couple of Gucci and YSL collections. And she did rake in the big bucks for Chloe.

However, I agree that she should stick to developing her own label instead of taking over another one.

 

[tiffany]

I wonder how it'll turn out

 

[Atelier]

How awesome is WWD? From 13 January 2004:

IN PLAIN SIGHT: Tom Ford knows how to milk a controversial entrance or exit, so the designer had to be aware that he’d be raising eyebrows by showing up at the Four Seasons in Milan on Sunday night to meet up with Valentino and his entourage, including Giancarlo Giammetti, Bruce Hoeksema and Carlos Souza. Ford and Valentino then left the hotel and arrived together at GQ’s designer bash, starting conspiracy theorists, who hadn’t stopped whispering about the possibility of Ford going to Versace, thinking about Ford at Valentino. Souza, reached on Monday, said Ford was simply repaying Valentino for having hosted him for a ski weekend in Gstaad over Christmas.

“It was just a nice cocktail before the GQ party,” Souza said.

And, as rumors persist that Alexander McQueen is heir apparent to Ford at Yves Saint Laurent, the British designer for now appears to be clearly focused on his namesake label, introducing his first men’s collection under Gucci Group this week during the fall 2004 shows. During an intimate chat about the new collection at a presentation in Milan, the designer seemed caught off guard by the YSL question. “I’m surprised that a men’s wear magazine would ask that,” he told WWD’s sister publication DNR. On the record, McQueen, whose brand is controlled by YSL parent company Gucci Group, gave a “no comment” about rumored talks. However, a psychologist would have had a field day interpreting his uncomfortable body language as he dodged a concrete answer.

By the way, can someone educate me on the correct pronounciation of "Gstaad?" Thanks!

 

[Lena]

thanks for the wwd piece atelier, Tom sure knows how to make people talk

ps: Gstaad is pronounced exactly as you write it, with two aa's emphasis on the second a

 

[Atelier]

Originally posted by Lena@Jan 13th, 2004 - 2:35 am
...Tom sure knows how to make people talk

He certainly does. I'm following this closer than Melrose Place. (Did I just type that for the world to see?)

ps: Gstaad is pronounced exactly as you write it, with two aa's emphasis on the second a

Got it. Thanks Lena!

 

[Lena]

Originally posted by Atelier@Jan 13th, 2004 - 5:39 pm
I'm following this closer than Melrose Place. (Did I just type that for the world to see?)

welldone

 

[kit]

Further to this discussion , I hope that this sheds a little more light !!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...1123338,00.html

Any reactions to this ?

Yours KIT