Fashion 89 : House of Dior Shows Bohan the Door
Christian Dior, the giant, venerable French fashion house, has ousted designer Marc Bohan, replacing him with an Italian in a surprise move that stunned the fashion world Thursday.
“It’s extraordinary that an old-line, traditional couture house should choose an Italian designer, especially someone who is essentially a ready-to-wear designer, with no real couture background,” one fashion journalist said.
Admirers of Bohan’s work were angered by his curt dismissal, and the designer was said to be extremely upset. “He was due to retire soon anyway. Why couldn’t they have waited and done it gracefully?” a fashion insider said.
During his time at Dior, Bohan, the 62-year-old artistic director, won two Golden Thimble awards, the prize allotted by the fashion world for the season’s best haute couture collection. His clothes were distinguished by their classic chic and perfect tailoring rather than innovation; his archetypal client was said to be the somewhat older woman.
The announcement that he was being ousted after 28 years with the prestigious design house was apparently a bid by Dior’s chairman, Bernard Arnault, to inject new life into its traditional image.
“Arnault wants to revitalize Christian Dior as designer Karl Lagerfeld did to Chanel,” securities analyst Josette Lahon said, citing the West German designer whose work has transformed Chanel. “Obviously he prefers to appoint people of his own generation. It’s natural.”
Last summer, Arnault, 40, recruited Dior’s managing director, Beatrice Bongibault, 36, from rival fashion house Chanel.
“When Monsieur Arnault asked me to come in, it was to plan the creative future of the house,” Bongibault said at Dior’s Avenue Montaigne headquarters Wednesday. “We chose Ferre because he is a strong designer with the same kind of rigor and a respect for the tradition of Dior. I believe he has the potential to make Dior modern and international.”
A plump, bearded figure who qualified as an architect before turning to fashion design, Ferre, 44, will take up his appointment immediately and will present Dior’s July couture collection.
He has been a rising star in the Italian fashion world for the last five or six years and will continue to produce his ready-to-wear and lower priced Studio 000.1 lines, whose total turnover is $75 million. But he will give up his fur collection and the couture that he has presented in Rome for three season.
At Dior, Ferre will be the design head of an empire with global sales of $1.15 billion in 1989, and he will be required to set an image for the house, which does 40.3% of its business in North America.
He said he accepted the new position, “because they want me to give life to couture, but they do not want me to change. And couture is the most personal expression of a designer’s creativity.”
Asked whether he felt the French would prefer that another French designer replace Bohan, Ferre said: “I don’t believe that the French are that chauvinist. Fashion today is international at every level.”
He added that he felt “very proud that Dior chose me.”
Dior reportedly offered Ferre $2 million a year, but he denies that figure. “I have a contract for five years, but the figures still have to be worked out, according to how many staff I need to bring with me,” he said.
Reaction Mixed
Reaction from Paris-based couturiers have been mixed.
Karl Lagerfeld, a native of Germany, said: “It is not very nice for Marc Bohan. But I think it shows the way Monsieur Arnault works.”
Christian Lacroix, the French couturier who first woke up the soporific high fashion world--and whose house was set up with backing from Arnault’s Financiere Agache--said: “Now that everyone is talking about a united Europe in 1992, we must accept that an Italian designer is part of the global fashion world. I see a few points in common between Dior and Ferre--especially with the rigorous construction of the tailoring. But from the point of view of fashion history, it seems a little sad for the house of Dior, which is such an emblem of French fashion.”
Ferre’s attention is on the future of Dior. “I will create my own style of woman--active, with a sense of modernity and glamour, someone who is not afraid to show the fine quality of her clothes,” he said.
Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune fashion editor, contributed to this story.
