emanuel ungaro

>> INSIDER WIRE —The situation at Ungaro with Esteban Cortazar is still unclear — though they are still expected to part ways and the designer has served the house with a lawsuit, Esteban appeared at the CFDA Awards on Monday, escorting Arlenis Sosa Pena in an Ungaro dress.  When questioned about his situation, he replied: “I am still there. We are trying to work things out. We have had some differences but hopefully things will work out for the best, whether I am there or not.” [WWD]

To keep up with handbag demands, Hermès is now breeding crocodiles in Australia. ..

Esteban Cortazar is suing Emanuel Ungaro and the house is expected to settle. 

A documentary is touring the festival circuit on the harsh reality of the modeling industry.

Comme des Garçons is celebrating forty years and planning a few new pop-up stores to celebrate. 

>> INSIDER WIRE —After rumors over creative differences between Esteban Cortazar and Ungaro hit last week, it has been confirmed that house and designer are parting ways.  The split doesn't seem amicable, however — word is that Cortazar served the label with a lawsuit, and the house expects to settle. [WWD]

>> Ungaro has had a checkered past as far as designer retention goes, and it sounds like the tradition is carrying on.  Just a few days after rumors hit that creative director Esteban Cortazar was threatening to leave the company, several sources confirm to WWD that the house and designer have reached an impasse over marketing and advertising strategy and plan to part ways.

CEO Mounir Moufarrige is keen to restart the label's provocative ad campaigns, which haven't been done for Ungaro womenswear for years, and is apparently pushing for a celebrity to "help wake up the house," WWD reports.  Ungaro has been talking with six or so candidates, including Lindsay Lohan — hence Tuesday's rumors that she was being considered as a creative consultant to the house.  However, those specific rumors have been disbanded: none of the celebrity candidates would have anything to do with design.

No potential successors to Cortazar have been mentioned, but Moufarrige is known for making unexpected choices; he replaced Karl Lagerfeld with Stella McCartney at Chloe in 1997, when she was 25.

>> Since he joined Emanuel Ungaro in 2007 at 23, all has seemed well between the troubled house and Esteban Cortazar — no rifts or tiffs to be reported.  Not so any longer — and Lindsay Lohan may be to blame.

According to several of Page Six's sources, Lohan is currently in Paris, talking to the house about signing on as a creative consultant, and Esteban is not happy: "Esteban is threatening to leave the company if they bring Lindsay on as a consultant. It has been a revolving door of designers there and if he leaves, his team will go with him."  Management, on the other hand, "thinks Lindsay is going to bring the company new energy and new buzz."

It's not that Cortazar isn't open to the creative influence of young blood — his Fall 2009 inspiration board was full of pictures of Rumi Neely of Fashion Toast, who he invited to his studio and Fall 2009 show — it's just that, as Page Six's "fashion insider" said: "[Lindsay] is going to be the nail in the coffin. Nobody will take them seriously ever again."

To shake things up a bit, this year's CFDA Journal will feature nominees wearing their own designs. 

Kayne West is not on Stella McCartney's good side, the celebrity made a fool of himself at her Fall 2009 show.

Lindsay Lohan could be talking to the House of Ungaro about consulting for the brand, and Esteban Cortazar is not happy.

The famed New York DVF sample sale started yesterday with the usual heavyweights in line for first dibs.