emanuel ungaro

From Chanel's Resort 2013 show to all the romantic editorials that have been staged there, the Palace of Versailles is having a moment. And now, Le Grand Divertissement à Versailles — the 1973 fashion face-off between five American designers and five French couturiers — is the subject of the new film Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution.

The event was staged by Eleanor Lambert, creator of Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed List, who invited Halston, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Anne Klein, and Stephen Burrows to represent America. The French team included Yves Saint Laurent, Dior's Marc Bohan, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, and Emanuel Ungaro.

Director Riley Draper said she created the film, which will premiere during New York Fashion Week in September, to remember an evening that had a profound impact on the American fashion and modeling industries.

Riley's research found that the American designers took their positions as underdogs very seriously. "When you look at the documents, they were like, 'We're going to war,'" she said. That may explain their groundbreaking decision to cast black models for their portion of the show.

"To actually have an exhibition with 12 African-American models at one time, in one show, in a palace in France, representing the United States and representing our fashion industry, is legendary — it's historical," said Riley.

The documentary features interviews with some of those models, including Pat Cleveland and Alva Chinn, as well as former Vogue editor Grace Mirabella and several fashion historians. Cameron Silver of the vintage store Decades narrates the film, which Riley screened at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. She'll also screen the film in Los Angeles and Atlanta before bringing it to New York City. A glimpse of the film in the trailer below.

>> After cutting ties with Giles Deacon earlier this month — Deacon signed a four-year contract last year, but produced a black, dominatrix-inspired collection (left) when management wanted a more heritage-driven line — Ungaro is moving ahead, deliberately without a head designer.

Emanuel Ungaro chief executive Jeffry Aronsson, who joined the company in June, says he will instead rely on the label's team of 35 employees, including some who worked under Ungaro himself. "I'm not looking for a big name from the outside, because I don't want the development of the brand to be dependent on a big ego." He hasn't yet figured out who will take the runway bow, and adds: "I don't believe in overnight sensations. My goal is to revitalize the company in a sustainable way, not a flash in the pan."

Ungaro is no longer carried in any major American department store, and even several of the shelves in the Ungaro store downstairs from the label's offices in Paris are bare. Aronsson says he plans to woo retailers back; however, even if it takes a few seasons, by focusing on tops, loungewear like caftans, and capitalizing on silks and prints. "I want the retailers to see this, that it's a whole new page," he says of the upcoming Ungaro show.

>> Emanuel Ungaro and Giles Deacon have "mutually decided" to end their collaboration, they announced. Deacon joined Ungaro in May 2010 and produced two collections for the house; it is understood that the upcoming Spring 2012 collection, meanwhile, will reflect the work of the design team.

"Emanuel Ungaro embodies a very rich and distinct DNA which the company will deliver with a modern spirit," Ungaro CEO Jeffry Aronsson said in a statement. "The creative process for executing our strategy is largely in place and I will comment on this further at the appropriate time."

Aronsson was in attendance at Prabal Gurung's show last week; although he said at the time he was checking out talent for his consulting business, not Ungaro, that statement doesn't seem as convincing in light of Deacon's departure.

>> 71-year-old Veruschka modeled for Giles Deacon's Spring 2011 show last month, but it sounds like she didn't much enjoy it: "I didn’t like the makeup in the show, and didn’t think much of the dress." She says she felt like a gimmick, and added that designers no longer have the skills to dress women who are not children with bodies that look like ironing boards. When it was pointed out that her star turn in Blow-Up perpetuated the super-thin model look, she replied, "I was in my 20s when I made the movie and found success. We were women, not children. [Yes,] I was tall and I was thin. But just before shooting started I had been on a fashion assignment in Mexico and became terribly sick from drinking the water. I lost so much weight and was really ill and weak when I made the movie." [Daily Mail]

>> Katie Grand is known for cultivating unique model casts — last season at Giles and Louis Vuitton, both of which she styles, there was a proliferation of Victoria's Secret models on the runway. And while she brought back some of those "curvier" girls for Giles again this season — Alessandra Ambrosio, Ana Beatriz Barros, Anne Vyalitsyna, Noemie Lenoir, plus Sports Illustrated models Jessica Hart, Abbey Clancy (who is pregnant), and Julie Ordon — also peppered in were Agyness Deyn, who shaved her hair into a mohawk for the show, Amber Le Bon, British model and TV presenter Kelly Brook, and 71-year-old Veruschka, who closed the show.

Grand is working with Giles Deacon on his debut collection for Emanuel Ungaro this season — so surely the cast will be special for that occasion — although the only hint that came is not model-related: Deacon is working with edgy London label Sibling on knits for the show. And as for Vuitton, all Grand would say was: “[Marc Jacobs] said, ‘I’ve got all these beautiful clothes for Vuitton — what on earth are we going to do with them?’”