It’s Pink Slips and Red Ink at Lanvin
The proverbial pink slip was shown at Lanvin this week during presentations of the French couture spring collections. Claude Montana has been stripped of his design duties at the venerable fashion house. His collection, shown on Tuesday, received glowing reviews, but reportedly he was felled for refusing to design Lanvin’s future ready-to-wear collections and because sales of his couture have not met expectations. “I don’t wish to discuss our figures for the last year, but they make pessimistic reading,” Michel Pietrini, Lanvin’s president, told the International Herald Tribune. The losses are reported to be at least $25 million since Montana took over the couture operations in 1990. Pietrini has chosen Dominique Morlotti, former menswear designer at Dior, to succeed Montana.
BELT TIGHTENING TILL IT HURTS: Even though Bullock’s and I. Magnin, both owned by R.H. Macy, are in bankruptcy protection from their creditors, shoppers aren’t likely to notice any difference for a long while. Shipments of spring merchandise, which had been delayed while Macy’s tried to avoid Monday’s bankruptcy filing, should start rolling in next week, now that Macy has new financing. However, it may be another story next fall, apparel industry insiders say. Buyers for the three stores may be on a tighter budget and forced to keep inventory to a minimum. Result: Shoppers might not find the same range of choices that they are used to.
PAYING LIP SERVICE: L.A. designer Drew Bernstein, tailor to the heavy metal crowd, outfitted the lower half of rocker Mick Jagger for February’s Vanity Fair cover. Marina Schiano, the mag’s famed stylist, requested a slew of stuff from Bernstein’s Lip Service label. A pair of black stretch denim jeans made the cut. Another aging sex object seen wearing the brand is Axl Rose, of Guns N’ Roses. He sports a short-sleeved black fishnet shirt by Lip Service on the cover of his new video jacket featuring the tune “You Could Be Mine.”
TRENDY TUNE-IN: No time to check out the latest, sure-to-be-knocked-off accessories at the Chanel boutique? Didn’t make it to Toronto’s International T-shirt Festival? Armchair fashion fans--at least those who have cable--can see this and more Saturday when FT--Fashion Television premieres on VH-1. The half-hour show, which is produced in Toronto by City-TV, airs weekly on Saturdays at 10 a.m. (with repeats on Sundays at 4 p.m., Thursdays at 3 p.m. and Fridays at 9 a.m.).
EXPANSION BY THE FOOT: From now through early April the Ferragamo family, Italian shoe dynasty, will be empire-building out West. This week Massimo, U.S. president of the company, was guest of honor at a dinner held by the museum’s Costume Council, first step toward a shoe exhibit to open there April 12. Next month, he will be back to open a shoe store in San Diego, and in March a new men’s store on Rodeo Drive. The whole clan--six brothers and sisters plus Signora Wanda--is due in town for the museum show.
WESTWARD HAUTE: Now that Perry Ellis designer Marc Jacobs and other New Yorkers have lassoed Western chic in their spring ’92 collections, everything from fringed jackets to steer-head brooches are headed our way. So it isn’t surprising that the folks at the Giorgio boutiques have gone hog wild over Western wear too. Country-style Grammy nominee Reba McEntire, from Gallatin, Tenn., went roaming in Giorgio’s South Coast Plaza outpost. According to a store spokesperson, she purchased new takes on country classics including sterling silver cowboy hat-and-boot earrings, a lizard belt with a sterling buckle and a rugged tapestry vest.
