![Fashion](../../images/fash-s.gif) ![Lucire spring-summer 2004](0117fe.gif)
The
departure of Lars Nilsson was a shock last season, but new creative
director Michael Vollbracht has restored
the faith in the Bill Blass label, writes Phillip D. Johnson
PHOTOGRAPHED BY RICHARD SPIEGEL
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It’s pretentious to think that
designers can’t be replaced once they decided to bow out. They can
be replaced but what also must change is the way in which we view
the brand |
ROM
THAT STORMY, rainy day in 1999 when the late, great, iconoclastic
designer Bill Blass took his final bow and retired to his house
in Connecticut, people in the fashion world have been witnesses
to the ongoing drama as his former chief finance officer (who bought
the company the business for a reported $50 million) struggled to
find the right balance between showing respect for the heritage
left behind and moving the company forward into the an increasingly
competitive marketplace. (Not that this is an exceptionally unusual
situation in the business and financial world.)
By the late 1990s, Blasss empire had included
97 licensees, with an annual worldwide turnover exceeding $700 million;
therefore, continued financial success was a major consideration.
The first post-sale designer, Steven Slowik, was hand-picked by
Mr Blass as his successor. However, he lasted for only two seasons
and ultimately proved to be a disappointment. Who can forget his
My Little Pony collection? It drove a stake through the hearts of
the women who has long revered Bill Blass for his class, style and
inherent American design sensibility. And they fled the house in
droves.
Swede Lars Nilsson was hired soon after and sent
forth with one primary mandate: restore the prestige of the design
house and bring all those ladies-who-lunch, as well as their young
society, Junior League daughters, back into the fold.
For a time, it seemed that he has done thatand
so much morebut he, too, was fired last February not long
after showing his fall 2003 collection at the Bryant Park tents.
Apparently, he restored the lost prestige but didnt do too
much to help the financial bottom line. It was an unpleasant surprise
that sent shockwaves throughout the industry. The New York Times fashion critic
Cathy Horyn, one of my personal journalistic heroes, said it best
in her review of the spring 2004 Calvin Klein collection as designed
by his unexpected successor, Francisco Costa: Its pretentious
to think that designers cant be replaced once they decided
to bow out. They can be replaced but what also must
change is the way in which we view the brand.
CONTINUED
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