Nicolas Ghesquière

Hot on the heels of his silence-breaking interview about leaving Balenciaga in System magazine, Nicolas Ghesquière has spoken with 032c magazine about his plans now that he no longer works at the fashion house.

Ghesquière and his muse Charlotte Gainsbourg appear on the cover of 032c's Summer 2013 issue, which is due out next Tuesday. Inside the issue, 38 pages are dedicated to his final collection for Balenciaga, and there's a coordinating 14,000-word article on the designer written by Pierre Alexandre de Looz that goes along with it.

While Ghesquière doesn't specify exactly what his next steps will be, he does admit that "some interesting projects are on the horizon." Whether those project involve launching his own line or working with LVMH — both rumored possibilities for the designer — remains to be seen. But whatever he does next, Ghesquière says he has two clear choices to make.

"Now is my time to question interseasonality — it's always the opposite season somewhere in the world — and fashion's need to be global while respecting the environment and local cultures and of course the usual six-month cycle for collections," he says. "I may decide to fulfill that mission again, and I'll enjoy it as I always have."

"Another part of me absolutely wants to break these rules," Ghesquière continues. "I may be putting myself in danger, but that's what I want these days. I enjoyed years of extreme comfort at Balenciaga. It's fantastic to harvest that status to explore in new ways, rather than sticking to a routine, even if it was the most comfortable and incredible, I couldn't be in a better position."

If you thought Nicolas Ghesquière would have more time to tend to his new Twitter account now that he's not creative director of a major brand anymore, think again. Word has it the former Balenciaga designer isn't resting on his laurels, and has had offers to finance his own brand from a number of investors.

Alexa, the fashion arm of The New York Post, reports that firms including Li & Fung and Only the Brave (which owns Diesel) have joined LVMH in offering to back a Ghesquière label, despite some analysts commenting that starting a new luxury brand from scratch is a risky proposition.

"Everyone is trying to get him," one source told the magazine. But not everyone has been willing or able to meet Ghesquière's terms, which reportedly include an equity stake in the new venture.

Whenever and however Ghesquière makes his return, he'll likely be welcomed back to the design world with open arms. Karl Lagerfeld said Ghesquière starting his own label "is not a bad idea," and the designer's personal friend Grace Coddington seemed confident he would find his way back into the industry at some point.

"He will bide his time and come back," she said in an interview with The Huffington Post. "He's too brilliant to just disappear. He's very passionate about what he does."

Alexander Wang's first show for Balenciaga won't be a full-scale runway spectacle. Instead, the designer's debut at the house will take the form of an "intimate" and "salon-style format," a spokesperson for the brand told Vogue UK.

That means the show will have fewer attendees than Balenciaga's last few outings, which have been staged at the Crillon Hotel in Paris or at its offices on the Rue Cassette. The show is scheduled for 9:15 on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 28. Other details, like what the clothes will look like or who is — or isn't — invited, are being closely guarded.

A smaller, more intimate affair in some ways echoes Tom Ford's return to designing women's ready-to-wear for Spring 2011. But instead of wanting to preserve a sense of mystery about the clothing, the brand's spokesperson said it decided to scale back because this is Wang's "introductory season." The American designer took over for Nicolas Ghesquière, who'd been Balenciaga's creative director for 15 years, last November.

While there's been no official announcement on whether PPR will invest in Christopher Kane's eponymous label, the latest reports suggest the firm is getting closer to making a deal.

Unnamed sources have told WWD that Alexis Babeau, managing director of PPR's luxury division, has interviewed candidates to be the brand's new CEO once it becomes part of PPR's portfolio. Kane currently runs the business with his sister Tammy.

Rumors that PPR would add Kane's label to its stable of brands — which includes Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, and Gucci, among others — started going around when Kane left his position as the creative director of Versace's secondary line Versus. At the time, it was rumored that Kane would come to PPR to replace Nicolas Ghesquière as the creative director of Balenciaga, a job that eventually went to Alexander Wang. Kane has reportedly been in talks with PPR since November, but so far nothing concrete has come from the meetings.

Alexander Wang is rumored to have asked Carine Roitfeld to join Balenciaga as his in-house stylist, but so far there's been no confirmation of the news.

In fact, Grazia, the first news outlet to report on the pairing, has since taken its post down, but that hasn't stopped other sites from picking up the story. If the rumors hold water, Roitfeld would replace Balenciaga's longtime stylist Marie-Amélie Sauvé, who worked with Nicolas Ghesquière during his tenure at the brand.

Wang and Roitfeld are friends, too, and have worked together in the past (Wang was photographed for Karl Lagerfeld's book The Little Black Jacket, which Roitfeld helped style), but this partnership would be their biggest collaboration yet. In her new position, Roitfeld would help Wang style his runway collections and ad campaigns, giving her an undeniable influence at the brand.

Wang took over for Ghesquière at the end of December and will present his first collection for the house in February. Whether Roitfeld will have anything to do with the show remains to be seen.

PPR's executive team is having discussions about backing a new brand, but it's not known yet who the lucky designer to join the fashion conglomerate will be.

"We have been talking about investing in a new luxury name," said PPR CEO Francois-Henri Pinault in an interview with the Financial Times. "We have no more young brands since Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney have all passed the €100 million mark (just over $132 million at current exchange)."

When PPR makes an acquisition, Pinault said, it usually tries to break into an area where it's underrepresented. For example, the firm recently purchased Qeelin, a Hong Kong jewelry operation. Before that, Boucheron was the only jewelry unit in PPR's luxury portfolio. Pinault also made it clear that PPR "will not buy a promising brand and try to move it into another sector."

And though there has been speculation that PPR has been in talks with Christopher Kane, the firm's method of buying new brands would suggest that his label might not be the right fit. Kane's product is certainly different from other PPR brands. But as far as his business model is concerned, Kane's brand is a smaller, younger version of what PPR already has in its stable. Christopher Kane, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen all offer high-end women's clothing — even around the same price point — and all three brands speak to a modern British design sensibility. If PPR did invest in Kane, it would be at odds with how Pinault has described his brand-buying methods.

Still, this hasn't stopped industry observers from honing in on Kane as a possible contender for PPR's investment. He's been a free agent since he left his position as the creative director of Versace's Versus line to focus on his own brand last month. Kane was even mentioned as a possible replacement for Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga.

Grace Coddington isn't keeping quiet about what she thinks of Alexander Wang replacing her friend Nicolas Ghesquière as creative director of Balenciaga.

Coddington, who said last month that she hoped Ghesquière wouldn't "just give up and walk away" from fashion, has added her voice to the chorus of people commenting on Wang's new job. She told The Huffington Post that she's optimistic about the future of the house. She also shared her thoughts on Ghesquière's possible future plans, and on whether John Galliano will ever make a comeback.

On Wang designing for Balenciaga: "I'm sure Alexander Wang will do really well. He's very well-liked. It's an incredibly difficult thing to take over for Nicolas because there are all the old fuddy-duddy people like me digging their heels in. But you've got to embrace it — it's happened. I'm sure the Gucci people thought long and carefully, they didn't just pull him out of a hat. And he fit all their criteria."

On whether Wang can really replace Ghesquière: "Don't think of it as the same house as it was when Nicolas was the creative director; that's everybody's mistake. Don't think of it as a replacement for Nicolas, because it isn't. Alexander has a whole different agenda. He's a very confident young man, he's cute-looking, girls love him, he's an 'It' person and he makes very affordable clothes. I haven't spoken to him, but he can only do what he can do. He can't be somebody else, and he certainly can't be Nicolas."

On Nicolas Ghesquière's next steps: "He will bide his time and come back. He's too brilliant to just disappear. He's very passionate about what he does. He's not caught up in fashion and celebrity at all. I don't think he's going to go off and become a sculptor like Helmut Lang, either."

On whether Galliano can come back to the industry: "I hope he will return, but I don't know. That's a tough one to get over. That's tougher than the Gucci people thinking they want a change of face. I love John; I think he's brilliant. He certainly intends to come back — when he's ready."

Francois-Henri Pinault — CEO of the company that owns Balenciaga — says his newest employee Alexander Wang is exactly what the fashion house needed in a new creative director.

In a Q-and-A with CBS reporter Rebecca Jarvis, Pinault said a combination of Wang's youth, worldview, and talent for design made him the perfect candidate to replace Nicolas Ghesquière.

"Alexander Wang is young and he has a very universal culture," Pinault said. "He has a very strong talent not only when it comes to accessible product, but his talent could also be adapted for couture at Balenciaga. It will be a big challenge for him. I like that he's young and based in New York, so we will have more exposure of the brand worldwide. Alexander has this wonderful contemporary brand under his own name and this has nothing to do with Balenciaga. We will not change anything in the positioning. We have spent a lot of time determining where the brand is and where we want to stay in terms of being very modern and avant-garde, but still being influenced by the street. Nicolas was one of the best at this."

Wang will no doubt have big shoes to fill, but Pinault said his Asian heritage "was not a criteria for recruitment at all. It was really [a matter of] let's find the right talent, the right skills, the right profile for the reality of the brand. . . We plan to continue to build on what has been built by Nicolas. We needed someone who was capable of coping with that."

If you'd been waiting with bated breath to hear what Karl Lagerfeld thinks about Alexander Wang taking over Balenciaga, you may now exhale.

"Considering how hard it is to replace a man such as Nicolas Ghesquière, the best solution is to choose someone completely different," the Chanel designer wrote in an email to Modmods, the fashion arm of the global daily newspaper Metro. "As the impression we have had so far is that Mr. Pinault very much wants to 'expand' this area of the business, I believe that Alexander Wang is the best man for the job. His fashion is easier, his personality is more open to the world and he has very good contacts. People 'adore' Alexander, I too like him very much and I think he is a good choice in light of the fashion house's future projects. Furthermore, his origins will prove to be very helpful in parts of the world where fashion is most important as well as the luxury industry."

As Fashionista noted in its post about the subject, Lagerfeld guest edited Metro earlier this year. His voice joins a chorus of congratulations for Wang that came from all corners of the fashion industry. Wang himself hasn't said much about his new job but is already hard at work on his debut women's Fall 2013 collection.