WHILE downsizing is the key word in the rest of the world, high-fashion is hurtling into overdrive. And Tom Ford, the man behind the Gucci epidemic, is said to be shooting skyward with the possible launch of a label of his own. Finance has been offered by backers from Asia, and Ford is seriously tempted.
But whatever happens, he won't abandon Gucci. A shareholder in the Italian company that sold goods worth US$500 million ($38.65 million) last year, Ford is also bound by a long-term contract.
And neither will his decision affect the plans of Gucci owners, Bahrain-based Investcorp, to sell its remaing 52 per cent stake in the company. Having paid $246 million to buy Gucci outright, Investcorp looks set to scoop over $1 billion by selling the shares it has left.
shop talk BRAND-NEW boutiques and newly launched lines are burgeoning too. London's leading light, Tomasz Starzewski, has set up shop at a Sloane Square site once occupied by Armani. The futuristic flagship store of Thierry Mugler has thrown open its doors on Paris' Rue du Bac. And reports say that Hong Kong's home-grown Flora Cheong-Leen is about to bring her designs to London's upmarket Beauchamp Place.
Back across the English Channel in Paris, Yves Saint Laurent has just announced the launch of a lower-priced line for winter 1997, aimed at a generation of young, urban, professional women. Europeans will be the first to see the cheap (well, cheaper!) and cheerful YSL range, before it hits the international fashion market.
pride before a fall THE lofty ambitions of Christian Lacroix took a tumble at his recent fashion show in Paris. A proud announcement in his March newsletter revealed that he was abandoning his usual venue - the Carrousel du Louvre, the choice location for many French designers. Instead, Lacroix said, his autumn/winter collection would be revealed at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in a bid to 'restore the fashion show's soul'. He continued: 'We want to go back to a more intimate contact between the guests and the clothes, so that people can better appreciate the craft, the details, the association of materials.' An admirable ambition. But at the morning show, the first of three that day, instead of a slick procession of new creations, a catalogue of hitches began. The music system failed. The lights went out mid-show, plunging guests and models into darkness and confusion. And when an irate photographer climbed onto the catwalk, incredulous at the chaos and determined to see what was going on, he was berated by Lacroix's partner and communications director, Jean-Jacques Picart. 'Intimate contact' of a less desirable kind.