Rochas to close

[smartarse]

Proctor and Gamble will close Rochas in Autumn

at least P&G recognizes Olivier's talent.

correction: P&G will close Rocha in Autumn



http://today.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?view=CN&symbol=PG&storyID=189593+19-Jul-2006+RTRS;

PARIS, July 19 (Reuters) - Global consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble Co. aims to close French fashion house Rochas in the autumn, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday, confirming media reports.

"The aim is to close it down," the spokeswoman said, adding the exact timing depended on the outcome of negotiations with the company's works council. P&G inherited Rochas when it bought German consumer goods group Wella in 2003. It will retain Rochas's perfume business.
Rochas's fashion business, headed by Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens, employs around 30 people.
"We have skills in fine fragrances but not in the fashion business," the P&G spokeswoman added. "Olivier Theyskens is an incredible designer. He has really created a big name for himself, but P&G is not a fashion house."


Rochas was founded as a couture house by Marcel Rochas in 1925. He launched its first perfume, Femme, in 1944. He shut the fashion business in 1953 to focus on producing fragrances, but Wella revived it after acquiring Parfums Rochas SA in 1987.

 

[Mafiosa]

This is so sad... Rochas is/was always a little different... something a bit more special... tragique

 

[em 692]

if "P&G is not a fashion house" then why did they buy Rochas in the first place?
...plus they still own Yohji Yamamoto, Hugo Boss, and Lacoste. and sure, Hugo Boss and Lacoste are more mainstream and have fragrances, but i'm not sure if Yamamoto does? and the average person hasn't heard of Yohji Yamamoto any more than they have Rochas...

 

[smartarse]

P&G inherited it when they bought Wella who revived Rocha's fashion label.

Apparently, Rocha was a huge expense for PG. Actually this whole phasing out makes sense in a business aspect. The fashion line is more suitable to a company that's more fashion oriented. Look at the bright side, Olivier can retain Rocha's name and line under his tenure with a different investor and/or company who is more in line with the industry.

if "P&G is not a fashion house" then why did they buy Rochas in the first place?

 

[faust]

if "P&G is not a fashion house" then why did they buy Rochas in the first place?
...plus they still own Yohji Yamamoto, Hugo Boss, and Lacoste. and sure, Hugo Boss and Lacoste are more mainstream and have fragrances, but i'm not sure if Yamamoto does? and the average person hasn't heard of Yohji Yamamoto any more than they have Rochas...

Please don't mislead people. They don't own Yohji, and they don't own Hugo Boss brand, they only do the fragrances.

 

[Meg]

well I'm sure Yohji pulls in more money than Rochas. Lots of diffusion lines there and lots of lower price points. It is weird. I mean, why aquire Wella if not for the brands? And if you don't want the brand, why not sell it off? I mean there are just so many questions here because no investors aren't that easy to find but Rochas was on the up, not the down. hmmm.

edit: Faust, I'm sure smartarse was just misinformed, not purposely trying to mislead people. Makes more sense now though. Thanks

 

[faust]

edit: Faust, I'm sure smartarse was just misinformed, not purposely trying to mislead people. Makes more sense now though. Thanks

I am sure of that too

 

[smartarse]

I was not misinformed nor misleading people. It was a typo. Pardon moi.

well I'm sure Yohji pulls in more money than Rochas. Lots of diffusion lines there and lots of lower price points. It is weird. I mean, why aquire Wella if not for the brands? And if you don't want the brand, why not sell it off? I mean there are just so many questions here because no investors aren't that easy to find but Rochas was on the up, not the down. hmmm.

edit: Faust, I'm sure smartarse was just misinformed, not purposely trying to mislead people. Makes more sense now though. Thanks

 

[ilaughead]

Olivier was obviously great at Rochas. I've always liked the idea of only having the "big" houses without many smaller designers. Like for Dior or Chanel or Lanvin, even when the namesake dies, the shops don't have to close or anything, they can just get a new designer to carry on. I'd rather see that then have his own label be brought back.

 

[smartarse]

PG aquired Wella for diversity in its business- makes sense to me. Fragrances less expense and more suitable for the products PG has in its core businesses. The fashion line is just too expensive for its financial statements. And I'm sure the investors made that notation, as well.

well I'm sure Yohji pulls in more money than Rochas. Lots of diffusion lines there and lots of lower price points. It is weird. I mean, why aquire Wella if not for the brands? And if you don't want the brand, why not sell it off? I mean there are just so many questions here because no investors aren't that easy to find but Rochas was on the up, not the down. hmmm.

edit: Faust, I'm sure smartarse was just misinformed, not purposely trying to mislead people. Makes more sense now though. Thanks

 

[Meg]

sorry smartarse, I meant em692. So my typo made it into something it wasn't! The heat is getting to me!

Still, even if acquiring Wella makes sense why not sell the brand off?! Surely with all this french red tape it would be more fiscally beneficial? also Olivier will NOT be able to carry the name anywhere as he doesn't own it. They would need to sell the company to investors or backers for this to be possible which they are not doing.

 

[smartarse]

quite alright...

If P&G sells it off the fragrances go with it. As noted it is the fragrance they will retain.

Rocha is only the name. Olivier is the talent behind the name. He will do fine. I'm sure Anna has his back and so are the others. Like P&G said, Olivier has made a great name for himself... kind of a foresight that he will do fine... perhaps on his own.

sorry smartarse, I meant em692. So my typo made it into something it wasn't! The heat is getting to me!

Still, even if acquiring Wella makes sense why not sell the brand off?! Surely with all this french red tape it would be more fiscally beneficial? also Olivier will NOT be able to carry the name anywhere as he doesn't own it. They would need to sell the company to investors or backers for this to be possible which they are not doing.

 

[Scott]

Am I the only one seeing the great positive out of this? Granted,I loved what he was doing and it's horrible what they're doing(mostly the unexpected way they are doing it!) but,really,we are talking about the same people that make one's shampoo and soaps they get from their local chemist or whatever. Hopefully,like Mullet said,this will allow Olivier to revive his signature which I miss wholeheartedly.

 

[Meg]

ah right, smartarse, I forgot about that. Maybe investors know they can't make money out of it without the fragrance. The thing is, fragrance really will not do well without the fashionhouse putting the name out there and making it attractive.

Scott, very true. His own line was actually in many ways similar to Rochas. But I find his clothing very intimidating, though many have talked of the great fit, I can't imagine trying it on and making it look good. It looks like it's cut for a very specific sihlouette which may not be true.

someone mentioned randomly madame gres, and while I don't think they are looking for anyone, I think Theskens would be brilliant there Can you imagine him reviving them?!

 

[Scott]

But he could take alot of experience from Rochas and incorprate it into it. I actually saw this major shift in the last collection he did and it wasn't as strict as the previous.

Madame Gres....that could be nice,indeed! I don't know though....I would really love to see Olivier's reaction to all of this to see how his feelings are.

 

[liberty33r1b]

omg, and i first thought the topic was a hoax!! how can this be???
P&G should have sticked to its core business, and they should simply sell Rochas now, like Prada did with Helmut Lang (to Link Theory) and Jil Sander (to Change Capital in London). there are surely some investors/venture capitalists around somewhere who would acquire the label.......no?

 

[smartarse]

i dont think P&G did this in a vindictive way. theyre gearing up for the next quarter (3rd quarter i believe) anyhoo... and they have to please their investors too (i'm sure ) . but you're right PG is soley shampoo , soap and fragrance comes in line with it. Isn't Rocha soley a fragrance company before its founder sold it to Wella?

it's horrible what they're doing(mostly the unexpected way they are doing it!) but,really,we are talking about the same people that make one's shampoo and soaps they get from their local chemist or whatever. Hopefully,like Mullet said,this will allow Olivier to revive his signature which I miss wholeheartedly.

 

[liberty33r1b]

P&G inherited it when they bought Wella who revived Rocha's fashion label.

Apparently, Rocha was a huge expense for PG. Actually this whole phasing out makes sense in a business aspect. The fashion line is more suitable to a company that's more fashion oriented. Look at the bright side, Olivier can retain Rocha's name and line under his tenure with a different investor and/or company who is more in line with the industry.

yes, it truly makes sense from a business perspective! Rochas was never a right fit for their portfolio, fashion is just NOT one of P&G's core operations.....BUT: they should have sorted things out long before, right after buying Wella, now it's too late and they have to shut it down.

 

[liberty33r1b]

here's the nytimes article on this matter:

July 19, 2006

Procter & Gamble Plans to Close Its Rochas Fashion Label

By ERIC WILSON
Procter & Gamble, the consumer goods company, said yesterday that it would close Rochas, the critically acclaimed fashion label, after its fall season.
The Rochas ready-to-wear line was part of a small fashion division of the German cosmetics company Wella, which Procter & Gamble acquired in 2003. Rochas’s $4,000 suits and dresses, designed by the young Belgian Olivier Theyskens, were an odd fit with Procter’s core products, like Duracell batteries and Tide detergent.
A Procter spokeswoman, Francine Gingras, confirmed that the fashion house would close after a report on the Women’s Wear Daily Web site yesterday afternoon. The company will continue making the lucrative Rochas fragrances. Mr. Theyskens could not be reached.
The sudden end to one of the fashion industry’s most talked-about revivals is the latest rebuke to the industry’s longtime practice of throwing unlimited resources at fashion shows with the expectation that the publicity will help promote more high-margin fragrance and accessories businesses.
Rochas, the Paris couture house founded by Marcel Rochas in 1924, had existed only as a fragrance from the time that Mr. Rochas died in 1955 until Wella, which made its classic Femme scent, brought back a clothing line in 1990 with the designer Peter O’Brien. Mr. Theyskens was hired in 2003.
Although Rochas’s expenses were high, Mr. Theyskens’s work had been well received, setting the somber color tone of the fall season and almost single-handedly bringing back the pantsuit.
“It’s an enormous shame,” Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor, said. “Olivier is one of our brightest young talents on an international platform. He has taken enormous care to build that brand in a slow and methodical way so that the fashion customer totally understands what the Rochas signature looks are.”
Ms. Wintour said she was perplexed by Procter & Gamble’s decision to close the brand, citing the examples of the Gucci Group and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, which have remade once-dusty labels like Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton into vibrant businesses with profitable clothing lines. No United States retailer had carried the Rochas collection before Mr. Theyskens’s arrival; after his debut, it became extremely popular at Barneys.
“It was one of the hottest businesses on the floor,” said Julie Gilhart, the Barneys fashion director. “Olivier took an unknown brand and made it one of the most desirable ones in fashion in a short amount of time.”
Rochas was a comparatively small business because of the typically high prices and small production.
Ms. Gingras of Procter said that Rochas was the only fashion business in the company and that it did not have the resources or skills required to continue producing ready-to-wear.

 

[fashionista-ta]

P&G inherited it when they bought Wella who revived Rocha's fashion label.

Apparently, Rocha was a huge expense for PG. Actually this whole phasing out makes sense in a business aspect. The fashion line is more suitable to a company that's more fashion oriented. Look at the bright side, Olivier can retain Rocha's name and line under his tenure with a different investor and/or company who is more in line with the industry.

He can?? Can you point me to the report that says P&G have given Olivier rights to the Rochas name for fashion purposes?