Emanuel Ungaro (Q3020)
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fashion house
- Emanuel Ungaro
- Emanuel Ungaro SAS
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Emanuel Ungaro |
fashion house |
|
Statements
2004
ready-to-wear designer
2007
Artistic Director
2009
Chief Designer
creative director
1997
assistant
designer
1965
founder
hat designer
1972
Assistant
A season ago, Ungaro hit pause. Having searched its soul and cast an eye toward an archive 2,000-plus couture dresses deep, the house quietly came back in January as an “easy pieces” knitwear brand.The idea was to flip the script, turning knit, historically a bit player for the house, into the star and letting other fabrics play supporting roles. The studio mined the brand’s DNA for heritage cues and came up with a lineup of pieces like fit-and-flare and bodycon dresses and sequined separates with or without matching faux furs; these styles might find a sweet spot among women who are always traveling from one place to the next but are disinclined to consider sticking to basics. Making an entrance, even at the office, is more their style.For summer, the florals for which Ungaro was known are back, in a mix of jacquard, fil coupé, cotton, and printed vegan leather. Lurex and sequins also play a major role on a light-as-air slate blue and gray dress with a crochet detail at the waist or a gold shell top. Some of the shapes were classic Ungaro—the long halter-neck choker dress, for example—while others owed a debt to rivals (the fit-and-flare knits come to mind), but you can see where the Ungaro base may just ferret out some seasonal workhorses here.
25 June 2019
The mood board in the Ungaro showroom was collaged with images from the brand’s golden years, including fabulous cocktail frocks covered in polka dots and the designer surrounded by a bevy of diverse beauties. This latest collection, realized by the Paris studio, attempted to reincarnate such joie de vivre as bodycon knit dresses à la Alaïa, cozy faux-fur hoodies, and sporty printed-silk ensembles. Translation: a deliberate pivot towards low-risk criteria—wearable and price sensitive—while maintaining a superficial connection to the archive. You could imagine this type of offering coming from an outside consultant, not a creative director with something to say.In the lookbook, Cindy Bruna happens to carry off the collection with aplomb, whether wearing an ivory angora sweater dress, a jewel-embellished LBD, or a slinky red number. Chances are, wherever the line sells, women will appreciate the flattering fits, travel-friendly fabrics, and toned-down ’80s panache. But for anyone with even a cursory sense of the brand’s original vision and heritage, it will be hard to accept yet another Ungaro iteration that falls short of its potential.
6 February 2019
Another creative regime change—and an at least partial change in ownership—at Emanuel Ungaro. After being appointed as “global CEO” and acquiring a stake in the house last year, Roy Luwolt (who, in 2014, cofounded and is now sole chief at Malone Souliers, the shoe brand) chose to dispense with creative director Marco Colagrossi shortly after last season’s actually quite hopeful presentation. Colagrossi has since bagged a new gig at a house whose fortunes currently lie at the precise opposite spot on the scale—Ungaro’s have, in recent years, plummeted. So that’s one happy ending, at least. Back at Ungaro, Luwolt now leads the line: He said he controls both the womenswear and footwear output of the brand, while the rest is entangled in a mesh of licenses he plans to wait out.Luwolt said, “Since I took over the business . . . we decided the first thing we were going to look at was: What has happened over the last 10 years versus the first 40? And the last 10 years, of course, has been where it became a little bit sullied and spoiled.” Oh, Lindsay. The new man at Ungaro made all the right noises about the heritage of the founder and said his first products bearing the Ungaro stamp—a shoe line on sale since last December—broke the Malone Souliers sales. He also discussed his new white shirt line, Absence of Paper, which he described as “oddly enough, the world’s only luxury shirt brand for women.” Anne Fontaine might disagree with that, but it’s true that her brand now sells much more than the white shirts that first made it famous in the 1990s.It felt like there was at least as much left unsaid as was said in the conversation, but Luwolt seemed driven and dedicated and set on building a portfolio of brands of which Ungaro is (for now) the chief jewel—if not in revenue then in reputation. He showed a small Ungaro collection of mostly wanly colored but interestingly fabricated pieces that complemented the shoes on prominent display. Most notable included aTimemagazine Trump “Welcome to America”–stitched trenchcoat and some attractive tailoring. This collection seemed not the real story here today, however, but more a symptom of it.
30 September 2018
You’d think at a moment where the retro dialect du jour is very ’80s-centric, this could be a promising opportunity for Emanuel Ungaro. But, as laid out in last season’s review, the wider world has developed a strong case of Ungaro intolerance.To his credit, Marco Colagrossi has decided on drastic action. With the support of Ungaro’s board, he’s initiated promising new shoe and bag licenses. More radically, he’s decided to work with new, much more cost-effective manufacturing partners to bring down the price point of the collection. He accepts that this might well alienate some of Ungaro’s few remaining heritage customers (in fact, it already has). However, his logic is that what this brand needs to come alive again isn’t a barely there intravenous drip, drip, drip, but instead, a high-voltage, heart-starting defibrillation in the form of new, young Ungaro-philes.“Let’s pretend we’re young, pretend we start from now, and let’s see what happens,” said Colagrossi. This starting point contained only 20 pieces. They ranged from a T-shirt in house-print silk viscose via a series of machine-pleated stretch skirts and minidresses and a nice puff-shoulder denim dress through to a suede trench. Pretty much everything was around 60 percent less expensive than Ungaro’s former first line. Colagrossi observed, “So a girl can go out clubbing and if some guy spills his Negroni on it, well, it’s sad, but she won’t be crying.”The backdrop to this lookbook really doesn’t service the clothes, huh? On the rail and the showroom model, however, they looked young and fun. They evoked a decade Ungaro once owned without overstating it. The collection will slowly broaden as Ungaro’s new partnerships take shape. Colagrossi said: “Not all of our clients might like it, but at one point you just to have the guts to say, ‘This is it, enough. Let’s have a reset.’ Ungaro needs a better reason to exist than just carrying on existing.”
2 March 2018
Will the curse of Lindsay Lohan ever be lifted? Ever since 2010’s disastrously hilarious but tragic meeting between this house and “the actress turned self-bronzer entrepreneur,” as Nicole Phelps finely phrased it in her review, a noxious cloud of disdain has hung over Emanuel Ungaro. Fausto Puglisi’s recently ended tenure there was neither complete catastrophe nor total triumph, although it met a sticky end because of production issues. There have been other failures in the interim between the year of Lohan and the now too tiresomely meh to mention. Would Marco Colagrossi—the Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana alum who showed his first runway collection as creative director today—be the man to lift the sword from the stone, slay the dragon, and kill the witch? If you listened to the deliciously uncharitable murmurings from some of the showgoers as we left, then no. This did not go down well. However, I say look again. For if Ungaro is ever to be rehabilitated—rescued from the fate toward which Lanvin is plummeting—then the cycle of Lohan-established license to ridicule (so delicious for those editors who have been cowed to never cast aspersions on the houses that keep them) must at least be challenged.After negotiating a stupidly handled entrance (note to the Lohan-esque, red-headed door chief: When you’re representing a house already lamed, why shoot it in the foot afresh by ignoring editors from theFinancial Timesand, ahem, Vogue Runway to wave in your random pals?), Colagrossi talked a good game preshow. He was humble, and he was right to be.Colagrossi said: “This is an homage. If I am part of the audience that comes to Ungaro, I want to see Ungaro. Nobody knows Marco Colagrossi and nobody cares. Maybe next season, if I have the chance to continue this work, you will see more from Marco.”So, great philosophy. But what about the clothes? Colagrossi paid due diligence to the codes of Ungaro (I thought) rather well. He used a superfine menswear cotton in gray to make tailored pieces cut in with violet organza. Of course, he inserted floating-stitched polka dots of corduroy in vibrantly violent color combinations. The punchy floral jacquards in softened ’80s shapes—puff skirts with trains!—were nods to a time that is really not our time, but which needed to be noted if this latest iteration of the house was going to work. Beneath the garishness and the bow-tied neck details was evidence of a keen and seasoned hand.
The white unfinished toile section that preceded the Matisse-inspired color blast of collage at the end was a clear expression of the disarray and incompleteness into which this house has fallen: the pretty acknowledgment of an ugly problem. That’s kind of a breakthrough. There have been worse collections this season that have registered far better in the hive-mind consensus—that’s the insidiously toxic curse of Lohan at work, still poisonous after all these years. Let’s stop beingMean Girls, because there was a glimmer of something that might just work here.
29 September 2017
Backstage atEmanuel Ungarotonight, Fausto Puglisi mentioned Princess Stephanie of Monaco, and a video she made circa 1986 for “Ouragan,” or “Hurricane.” If this reporter’s memory serves, it never entered MTV rotation, but it made a big impression on Puglisi growing up in Italy nonetheless. The video is found easily enough on YouTube now, and though the plotline’s a little hazy and not necessarily politically correct, it’s easy to see why Puglisi was hooked. The Princess was a knockout. Stephanie was the rebel royal, and decades later it looks like Puglisi’s aesthetic was in some part formed by that spirit. Think of his earliest collections at his eponymous label, where Greek mythology mixed with Hollywood glitz, and punks clashed with aristos.We’ve entered the period of peak ruffle. That means it’s a good time to be at Ungaro, a label synonymous with the high-flying ’80s, which is the last time the world saw frills and flounces on the scale we’re witnessing now. Cleverly, Puglisi put plenty of ruffles in his new lineup. After three full years at the house of Ungaro, this qualifies as his truest reflection of the founder’s legacy, but it wasn’t a line-for-line homage, thanks to the rebellious Stephanie. The gazar and crinoline that inched up past the models’ chins on the show-opening black leather dress and subsequent sleeveless silk blouses tucked into high-waisted minis were flamboyant, and assertively so. Same goes for the extra-wide belts buckling those looks and the heart-shaped buckles made from handfuls of giant crystals.Puglisi lifted a floral print from Ungaro’s archives and reproduced it in a slightly shrunken format on a nice one-shoulder jumpsuit. He did some color-blocking familiar from his eponymous line. Of the two flower jacquards, the purple and yellow combination was better than the blue and red. But the looks that really registered were the ones with those epic ruffles.
30 September 2016
A few days after his men’s presentation at Pitti Uomo,Fausto Puglisiwas still in quite a hype, clearly elated by the brouhaha stirred up by his use of the muscle-bound “detenuti,” or detainees, and heavily tattooed soccer players in his Spring capsule collection. The scene inside a quiet Milanese studio where he was shootingUngaro’s Resort lookbook was different entirely. From ex-cons and sexy centurions to a French maison is quite a stretch. Puglisi is a force of nature, if ever there were one.The designer’s dialogue with Ungaro’s archive is now well established; the storied house’s codes seem to have a natural resonance with Puglisi’s aesthetic. For Resort, he worked on a sculpted silhouette, short and sharply tailored, grounded by the strong shoulders that were an ’80s hallmark, obviously reshuffled with a contemporary cut. “Ungaro was not only masquerade, theatricality, and excess; he was about extraordinary execution,” Puglisi said. He kept shapes neat, toning down the pouf factor; even the signature draping looked pristine, as did volants, flounces, and plissé. Floral prints had a graphic slant, and a techno element infused nylon parkas and blousons worn with high-waisted pants or miniskirts. “I wanted a conversation with modernity,” he enthused, pointing out an ultra-short evening dress in bright cobalt blue gazar with a dramatic sculpted asymmetrical ruffle sprouting out from one shoulder. “You could easily wear it with Havaianas!”
23 June 2016
Emanuel Ungarowill forever be remembered for his ’80s pomp and poufs. With that decade raring back into fashion this season,Fausto Puglisicould’ve safely revisited the era. Instead he did the counterintuitive thing for Fall and explored the 1970s. Backstage he said he was interested in how the work of Ungaro and Yves Saint Laurent overlap. It put him on the same page asHedi Slimane, who was looking back at a similar time frame for the Pre-Fall women’s looks he showed on hisSaint Laurent men’s runway in Los Angeleslast month. The coincidence can only help Puglisi, especially if, as is rumored, it was Slimane’s penultimate collection for Saint Laurent. Synergy aside, this collection qualifies among Puglisi’s most successful for Ungaro. In the past he’s veered too young or overly stiff. Here, the emphasis was on lightness.Puglisi’s silhouette was long and lean, almost rangy, with silk blouses tucked into narrow midi skirts, and a thick belt with a crystal buckle sitting fairly high on the torso. Fabrics ranged to the glam: leopard print, a tropical green jacquard, black touched with gold for evening. Art Nouveau and Klimtian motifs also entered the picture. Ungaro was no minimalist, no matter what the era, and neither is Puglisi. Here and there, the more-is-more approach backfired on him. The large-scale floral embroidery, for instance, was mumsier than what he was going for, and the show’s single fur looked a little old-fashioned in the midst of this season’s innovations with that fabric, both real and faux. Now in his seventh runway season at Ungaro, Puglisi has spent longer at the house than any of his creative director predecessors. On the positive side, he showed a great-looking long-sleeved black lace macramé dress.
4 March 2016
Emanuel Ungaro had not been at the helm of his fashion house for some 15 years, but following his death at the end of December came a swell of archive photos and personal anecdotes that secured his legacy as a couturier who was audacious in vision and benevolent in spirit.Given all the creative misfires that have transpired since 2005, it’s not unreasonable to wonder why the brand continues to exist. Yet to the extent that those who oversee the executive and creative direction no longer aim for Monsieur Ungaro’s mastery, one supposes they carry on because there is value in a name that will forever signal beauty and femininity.In the absence of a lead designer, the collections have more or less dropped off the radar. But that’s not to say they are worth writing off. More and more, knitwear has become the label’s primary focus, and with expert knit technicians divided between studios in Paris and Milan, the collections have found a niche. With florals and polka dots as mainstay motifs, the newness came from textural and dimensional elements—flower outlines like watermarks within a jacquard or a single bloom bursting from a shoulder. Patchwork prints in satin offered pleasing fluidity in lieu of body-contoured silhouettes and reappeared as the vibrant lining of faux fur coats in a saturated teal tone. Going-out options were plenty, including several midnight blue sequin numbers and an LBD with a neckline of silver beading that was comparably restrained.Cindy Bruna, the knockout model that she is, dials up the sexiness of the collection here; when in fact, many of the designs are more akin to power suit alternatives (and certainly easier to pack). While Emanuel Ungaro is not the only Paris maison proposing sophisticated knitwear, and while this isn’t really where the rest of fashion is at right now, there will always be women who appreciate the resolutely feminine image that these dresses project.
17 January 2020
Emanuel Ungaro has a new creative lead after Fausto Puglisi’s exit earlier this year: Marco Colagrossi, formerly of Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana. His debut, Resort, looked to be on a more sophisticated track than his predecessor’s, while still remaining cognizant of Monsieur Ungaro’s tendencies for pomp and fanfare.“It’s about happiness and positivity,” said Colagrossi. “I was thinking about giving a modern edge to a collection that is usually very ‘Madame,’ but I want to keep the ‘Madame,’ too.” He held up a pouf skirt with flower prints. It was fun and light, in fact made of the silk used to cut Ungaro’s foulards. He pointed out a white denim bolero with shoulder pads (ladies of the ’80s, check this one out). Yet, like he said, there were also contemporary editions. See a jade-flower deep-V dress, also vaporously light, with pleasing ruffles on its arcing hem; a standout pajama trench in candy stripes of pink and white; and a blood red sheer caftan with puffed sleeves thanks to insets of tulle. “It could be Paris, it could be Doha,” said Colagrossi. That broadness will serve him well: He thought of a lot of different girls and women in a lot of different places, even adding a sharply tailored all-black suit “for New York.” It was scattershot at times, but Resort collections need the legs to last and to sell. He says his first runway show in September will be much different. We’ll see. As for his premiere: While Paris is being crushed by a heatwave, Colagrossi is just warming up.
21 June 2017
MonsieurEmanuel Ungarocould have played the main character in Truffaut’s ’70s movieL’Homme Qui Aimait les Femmes: His love of beautiful women was well known, and all his work was an unabashed homage to glamour, drama, and sensuality. It was a distinctive style defined by the excesses and flamboyance of the ’80s—exorbitant leg-of-mutton sleeves, clashing mixed prints of polka dots, florals and animal patterns, loud colors, draping galore, a love of lace and lingerie. It was haute couture at its boldest and sexiest. Yet there was also a classy side to Ungaro that delved into more subdued territory—after all, he did work for Cristóbal Balenciaga and Courrèges before opening hismaisonin Paris. It was the ambiguous, slightly masculine side of femininity that enthralled him; he explored it blending a dose of androgyny into his hypercharged, alpha-female style.Fausto Puglisi, Ungaro’s creative director, tapped into Monsieur Emanuel’s more modern vision to revive the house and try to make it contemporary and marketable. He has worked on the heritage codes, reducing the bombastic Grace Jones–y proportions, slimming down with no mercy the customary balloon-ish shapes. Yet he has kept most of the signature elements intact—the hourglass silhouette, the strong shoulders, the asymmetries. Mostly, Puglisi has underlined the brand’s masculine flair, which is relevant for today. He doesn’t shy away from flamboyance, and he’s not afraid to use a dash of good bad taste: His fervor for the ’80s redundant excesses borders on the religious, but he didn’t fall into the trap of replicating them in an obvious way—“It’s just the question of making the right mistakes,” he said philosophically.Hence a Pre-Fall lineup where the house codes, albeit archive-friendly, were given a lighter, younger spin. Jackets were nipped at the waist and worn with pleated printed miniskirts with asymmetrical hems or with fluid high-waisted palazzo pants; masculine tweed coats were paired with long feminine dresses in see-through black lace for a sexy vibe. Tuxedo-inspired dusters looked impeccable; they complemented slim, long printed numbers in dark colors, linear and elongated. Overall the collection had a dressy feel, but it wasn’t overdone.
18 January 2016
Great designers’ greatness is stamped on our memory by the signature codes they leave behind them. Hence, when other designers succeed the house’s founder, they face a challenge: a delicate wrestle between the codes they have signed up to inherit and the urge to express their own point of view. Their own codes, in fact. TodayFausto Puglisicleverly sucked the tension out of that dialectic by focusing onEmanuel Ungaro’s joyfully frothy output of the late ’60s and early ’70s. It was a neat little maneuver; by sidestepping Ungaro-in-his-’80s-pomp for Ungaro juvenilia, Puglisi had something new to play with.As the mood board demonstrated, Ungaro in the ’60s was a man of his time—and a designer whose years working atBalenciagaand most powerfully atCourrégescould be seen in his work. Puglisi chose to focus on a set of sweetly provocative floral macramé looks, all froth and of-that-era liberation touched with a softened Space Age futurism.Impressively, Puglisi re-established a connection with the Swiss factory that made Ungaro’s ’60s pieces to create a wonderfully psychedelic lace macramé of ochre flowers and paisley petals used in his last capelet—teamed with matching thigh-highs—and a long loose skirt. The netted-check that ran throughout the collection, even down to the weave of the pressed-foam ruffles that edged many of these looks, appeared to be lifted from a pair of pants one of the mood board images showed Ungaro fitting onTwiggy. A harder, more Puglisi-ish preoccupation—Faustian?—expressed itself in the ringlet bonding on black vinyl and hot pink skirts, and as suspension on floral-scattered bustiers. “A little bit bondage, maybe, but also . . . romantic?” Puglisi ventured backstage; we had a laugh at that. This is not a collection for wallflowers or delicate petals—but for a woman in search of punchy, in-your-face prettiness, it will have allure.
4 October 2015
Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.
22 June 2015
This was as strongly crafted a version of sophisticated, '80s-touched Gallic glamour—what the collection's stylist, Arianne Phillips, delightfully termed "Frenchy Frenchness"—as "Uptown Funk" is a pastiche of the best of Quincy Jones. Pleasingly, a trilby was central to this outing's identity, just as it is to Bruno Mars' pink-jacketed hustler in that song's video. Designer Fausto Puglisi's first look featured a Stephen Jones version of the archetypal masculine hat, punched with circular cutouts just above the brim and pulled moodily low over the face. It topped a monochrome variation of Le Smoking tuxedo, with a thick, ridged belt of treated silk; high wool pants; and contra-colored lapels.The hat holes and belt ridges pointed to the ornamental pillars of this collection—plissé and polka dots. Puglisi played with both as he swung back and forth between ultrafeminine and ultramasculine, in black, white, and gold. Looks with particular vim included a minidress of bias-cut plissé silk; a symmetrically pleated shirt above a full, pleated skirt dappled withsanpietrini-patterned polka dots; and a ruched-at-the-arm, triple-skirted minidress studded with circular eyelets. Gradually, the masculine touches were fazed out in favor of a closing barrage of what you can only call cocktail dresses—little, mostly black, and intricate.This was Phillips' second season styling Puglisi's Ungaro, and she seems to be having a blast. She recalled first meeting the designer in the '90s, after he somehow procured her fax number from Sicily and started sending her messages—"Remember how faxes were curly? I would wake up and it would be like Christmas." Then he began sending her impressively sophisticated clothes, too. She said: "He is iconically Italian. His enthusiasm is infectious. And I've watched him grow." With Puglisi's increasingly assured stewardship of Ungaro, there was more evolution to savor here today.
8 March 2015
Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.
20 January 2015
A certain grandeur comes to mind when one thinks of Ungaro: Monsieur Emanuel and his posse of fabulous glamour-pusses draped to the hilt, moving like felines through gilded Parisian settings. "This is the temple of flamboyancy," said the house's current creative director, Fausto Puglisi, before yesterday's show. The distance between Emanuel Ungaro's Ungaro and Puglisi's interpretation is great. What was amaison de couturehas become a full brand. In the meantime, the culture of fashion has radically morphed, going from dream-making machine to finance-driven cash cow. (Being nostalgic, however, is pointless.) Trying to replicate a label's past in the present can be dangerous: More often than not, the name of the founder is just a frame. According to Puglisi, Ungaro stands for assertive femininity, prints, and color. "The archives are amazing," he enthused, adding that this season he had paid closer attention than in the past.This was Puglisi's fourth collection since taking over at Ungaro and certainly, with the bold shapes, garish prints, and disco-tinged swagger of sophisticated excess, it was his bravest. To get the message across as loud as possible, Puglisi even enlisted stylist extraordinaire Arianne Phillips (of both Madonna andHedwig and the Angry Inchfame) and mad hatter Stephen Jones, who created the extravagant Plexiglas hats. There was a cinematic quality to the parade, which opened and closed with a series of draped jersey numbers in bold primary hues with strong '40s shoulders. Sandwiched between them were masculine pajama tailoring, humongous tent dresses, and somewhat more mundane jumper-and-skirt or shirt-and-jupon combos. Phillips' touch was apparent in the turquoise makeup and general vaudeville air.Overall the idea worked, but something was missing, and it didn't seem to be Puglisi's fault. Despite the apparent grandness of the fabrics and the preciousness of the embroideries, the clothes did not look as well produced as they need to be. Ungaro's own grandeur was missing. Puglisi deserves the tools to turn his Ungaro fantasy into reality.
29 September 2014
A year and a half into his tenure at Emanuel Ungaro, Fausto Puglisi is picking up on the challenges of brand revivals. "The risk of looking too closely at the archives," he said today, "is that the clothes don't look down-to-earth enough for a real girl." The trick, he knows, is hitting a woman where she lives, and Puglisi has an increasingly good handle on that, as evinced by pieces like short A-line cocktail dresses and flowing maxi dresses in zebra stripes and micro-florals, respectively. Also spot-on: loose-fit jeans worn with an embellished bra top and a printed blazer slightly eighties-ish in its proportions. A sweatshirt printed with the likeness of Madame du Barry (Marie Antoinette's arch rival) and the wordWyoming, on the other hand, was a bit of a stretch, not to mention a little tired, even if we appreciated Puglisi's reasoning: "It represents freedom." It was the exception to the rule here. Other things we liked: a versatile and sexy jersey dress that draped a multitude of ways from an elastic band on the inner waist, and a long printed dress gathered and draped at the hip with a small ruffle that Ungaro himself would recognize. Maybe the archives aren't the enemy after all.
9 June 2014
At its height in the eighties, the house of Emanuel Ungaro was synonymous with exuberant prints and ultra-feminine silhouettes. Today the label's new designer, Fausto Puglisi, opted to explore one of the less-remembered parts of Ungaro's oeuvre: androgyny. "What I used to like most were his masculine suits in all those prints," Puglisi said backstage. There's nothing wrong with going against the grain. Brand revivals don't have to pay obeisance to the founder's legacy to be successful these days: See the upward trajectory of Hedi Slimane's Saint Laurent.In any case, with their easy attitude, the suits Puglisi opened with were two of the show's strongest pieces—one herringbone, the other in royal blue with "broken" black roses. Other highlights included a black-and-white jacquard sweater tucked into slightly oversize printed black trousers, and a couple of neatly constructed short-sleeve dresses with a fifties flare to the skirts. But the collection did have some problems. At times, Puglisi's innate tendency toward excess resulted in heavy-handed fabric combinations. On other looks, there was a preponderance of embellishments. If Puglisi can find ways to continue to simplify, he'll have better luck next time.
2 March 2014
Last season, the collection that Fausto Puglisi sent down the Emanuel Ungaro runway was a coquettish, frou-filled affair. This time out, the buzzy Puglisi opted for a grown-up tone and much more urbane silhouettes. Hemlines erred long, baggy trousers had a masculine toughness, and elsewhere the emphasis was on sharp, kimono-inspired shapes. But all those elements really just served to underline Puglisi's graphic theme, which did link this collection back to Spring's. Puglisi continued to show off his knack for juxtaposing patterns—his way of mixing zebra stripe, herringbone, and chevron was particularly playful and compelling—and for elaborating them in interesting ways. Many of his animal prints, for instance, were developed to look like they'd been inked in the style of antique Chinese illustrations. That was a nice touch—it introduced a suggestion of softness that was missing from this largely astringent outing, what with its focus on a black-and-white palette cut with bright orange and lime green. The textural variety helped, as well; the squishy knit wool used in a long, fitted T-shirt dress and the mink chevron-stripe on a coat and along the front of a wool herringbone skirt looked good. Not everything here worked—a lot of the asymmetric pieces came off rather mannered—but in general Puglisi's choice to pare back served him well.
7 January 2014
Exuberance is paying off for Fausto Puglisi at home in Milan. His first runway show for his signature label was a moment we might remember as a turning point for young designers there. He's having a harder time getting the Emanuel Ungaro relaunch off the ground in Paris, though. There are a number of factors at work: too many similarities to his own line, a borderline garish color palette—but, most of all, it's that exuberance. Puglisi gets the house codes almost too well. More often than not, there was just far too much going on in a single look: patch pockets, stripes, polka dots, and ruffles? Enough already. Puglisi was better today when he was thinking along simpler lines, as in a densely knit yellow and black striped tank worn with leather pants that had a single sculpted ruffle down one leg. "For me," he said, "it's important to be not just a couture celebration but a real-life celebration." That's the right attitude: Design clothes not just for special occasions but for women's daily lives. We'll swipe the credit card for that. Unfortunately, a reliance on chiffon—an Ungaro essential that Puglisi hadn't explored until now—meant there weren't enough of the deluxe basics he was preaching about. Next time, he needs to find a middle ground between all the excess and those plain white T-shirts with "Paris" splayed across the back.
29 September 2013
We're fairly certain that Emanuel Ungaro never emblazoned varsity jackets with giant U's, but it's a new day for brand rehabs. The youth vote counts for more than nostalgia, and Fausto Puglisi, who inherited this Paris brand two seasons ago, is aiming for the former. The Italian designer, who also showed his first Resort collection for his own brand this week, indicated that he wanted to break with the house's heritage. The sporty sensibility of those varsity jackets was the clearest sign of that, but in the end, there were still faint connections. Shades of the eighties in the strong shoulders on the jackets, for example, and draped and pleated cocktail numbers in the manner of Monsieur Ungaro. The label's founder was also known for color, and there was no shortage of that either.One of Puglisi's best ideas was hissalopettes(French for overalls), in a black-and-white silk duchesse daisy pattern. On the right starlet, the long version (with a slit up to there) could make a strong statement on the red carpet. The short version will find party-girl fans; it'd be a ton of fun for a night out at the clubs. The salopettes also came in color-blocked crepe de chine, and black leather.
10 June 2013
Jeanne Labib-Lamour. Giles Deacon. Esteban Cortazar. Peter Dundas. Vincent Darré. Giambattista Valli. And not forgetting Estrella Archs and Lindsay Lohan. All have passed through the Emanuel Ungaro atelier since the designer's retirement about eleven years ago. Some fared better than others, but nothing stuck for very long. With all the different names that have cycled through the house, the heritage has become a bit muddled; for those in need of a crash course, Ungaro in his eighties heyday was known for flamboyantly feminine designs, often incorporating flowers. Today it was the Italian up-and-comer Fausto Puglisi's turn to try his hand at the house's legacy. Puglisi's daring party dresses, covered in geometric prints and baroque embroideries, make him a reasonably logical choice for this gig."I wanted it to be very Ungaro, but with a graphic approach," Puglisi said backstage. "It's not romantic, it's more graphic." Instead of flowers, he used other Ungaro signatures, like polka dots and leopard prints and a bright palette of yellow, light blue, and royal blue mixed with black and ivory. The crisp angularity of one-sleeve tops and brief miniskirts looked a bit close to his own work; we associate Ungaro more with drape. Other pieces got closer to brand DNA, including wrap skirts with thigh-high slits and silk blouses with batwing sleeves. In our view, those skirts and the cropped blouson jackets they were paired with were the best things in the collection. Some of the proportions of the rest felt too retro; on other pieces, like pants with each leg in a different pattern, the graphics were too glaring. Puglisi will need more than a few separates to get this latest revamp off the ground, but we're rooting for him.
3 March 2013
After the last model finished her final walk at Emanuel Ungaro, there were a few beats of confusion as showgoers stayed in their seats. Would someone be taking a bow? There was the briefest glimpse of a figure who turned out to be the house's newly named designer, Jeanne Labib-Lamour.After officially parting ways with Giles Deacon just weeks ago, the house of Ungaro is clearly attempting a new tack, going the route of Balmain and, for a couple of seasons, Dior, by appointing an unknown designer from within in place of a star. Still, today's collection, at least going by its awkwardly worded show notes, was "the result of conscientious teamwork." And in its very commercially slanted pragmatism, it had the feel of design by committee—though certainly not an untalented one. The collection ably touched on all the house's codes of sexy, cowled, and ruched jersey dresses, and soft tapered silk pants and jumpsuits in splashy prints, these inspired by NASA aerial images that looked like abstract florals. There were ruffles on peplumed jackets and tiered skirts.Certainly, for a house that has in recent seasons seen the extremes of star-shaped pasties and a stuffed sheep, it was markedly restrained. Many looks, including unembellished jersey dresses, were cinched with a simple, slim gold belt, and aside from a few sequined evening pieces and the plissé appliqué snaking around necklines, a light hand was taken with excess flourishes. What happens next at Ungaro remains to be seen, as does the question of whether Labib-Lamour will be another designer exiting the house's rather active revolving door.
2 October 2011
Giles Deacon bid adieu to Fall's sexpot with a cheery Resort collection that played not only to his strengths (the fluorescent Stabilo shades, as in Stabilo markers; the slightly kookyFinding Nemo-meets-LeRoy Grannis print), but also to the Emanuel Ungaro brand. Color and print, of course, were two of Monsieur Ungaro's signatures. Drape was the other big one, so you'll find plenty of fluid dresses here. A long blue number in modal jersey bisected by a fuchsia belt felt as gorgeous as it looked.It takes more than heritage, though, to push a brand forward today, so Deacon spent equal effort trying to expand the house's vocabulary. A day dress in a yellow jacquard had an efficient, modern sensibility, and pants in the same bright fabric looked cool worn with a marinière-stripe tunic trimmed in highlighter pink. Balancing out all that color were hits of army green, but let's face it, this is a designer who does irrepressible best. If it's daywear you're after from the new Emanuel Ungaro label, a pair of not-your-standard-issue trenches in that jacquard and a pink and blue mini-bubble print are your best bet.
14 June 2011
Emanuel Ungaro famously said, "I dress mistresses, not wives." The proverbial other woman seemed to be Giles Deacon's target audience with his second collection for the legendary but beleaguered house. The flirt of last season's debut , with her pastels, feather headdresses, and Volkswagens tricked out with daisies for props has been edged out by someone with an all-around more aggressive look. Yes, there were still a few sweet spots (a rich green tweed; pink and blue fox chubbies), but the new Ungaro woman is a tough broad. <bt>To prove it, the one extra she never parted with day or night was a metal-accented leather collar. It accessorized the opening strapless black jumpsuit and its long-sleeve lace underlay, the sculpted domino sequin embroidered gown that closed the show, and many of the corseted or molded leather cocktail dresses in between. Driving home the idea that she was on the prowl were the wolf and the bird of prey picked out in Lesage embroidery on shrunken black sweatshirts (the Ungaro and Givenchy gals are part of the same fashion pack, this season at least).Sharing the runway with those dense Lesage embroideries was yard after yard of exquisite Solstiss lace, pieced together like a geometric jigsaw puzzle on a narrow, zip-front dress, and, more salaciously, on leave-nothing-to-the-imagination thigh-scraping minidresses. The draping and lush colors that Ungaro was known for were mostly absent today, save for a few blown-up wing-print unstructured silk dresses. Reinventing a founder's work isn't the only way to move a heritage brand into the future, but Deacon's sexpot doesn't necessarily look like the way forward either.</bt>
6 March 2011
Giles Deacon's enthusiasm for the days when haute couture truly dressed a woman from morning till night was fully exercised in his pre-fall collection forEmanuel Ungaro. In fact, there was a strong emphasis on the kind of daywear that Ungaro himself specialized in: the draped, ruched dresses, the fitted tailleur, all with a hint of the forties in the silhouette and the exuberant sexiness of the eighties in the attitude. Deacon insisted the collection was stricter than his Spring debut for the house. Yes, it felt more linear, and he'd toned down the color palette, so that the emblematic florals had a darker, more autumnal feel, but there was still a subtle extravagance in a suit tailored from sugary Lesage tweed, or an orange coat trimmed in equally electric fox, or a dress in an abstract animal print that turned to reveal a deep scoop of lace at the back. In Deacon's dreams, there was a time when such clothes defined the essential Parisienne. He's doing his darnedest to bring her back to life.
17 January 2011
In the chaos and confusion of Giles Deacon's debut presentation for Emanuel Ungaro today, the harried fashion flock might have missed the point of the centerpiece, which was a marvelous manifesto for the label's new regime. It featured a pileup of VW's buried under Ungaro's signature daisies, and twisted minds construed it as a sly comment on Lindsay "Herbie Fully Loaded" Lohan's tenure at the house, which has most commonly been written off as a car crash. Out with the new-old, in with the old-new: That was the signal being sent.One of Deacon's most winning characteristics is his ardent fandom. As a fashion babe in arms, he was drawn to Emanuel's aesthetic, so there was instinct at work in his repurposing of Ungaro codes like the lace, the color, and, most of all, the drape. "Vivaciousness, flirtatiousness, Frenchness," he said, reeling off his aims, while models moved around him. Models? Claudia Mason, Georgina Grenville, Shirley Mallmann, and, most of all, Kirsten Owen in a huge feathered headdress were a few of the fabulous faces he'd rounded up from his fanboy memory, and they, in turn, could all remember walking in shows when Emanuel himself was still at work. "Too classic," one said when asked for her recollections of the clothes back then, but now Deacon's version felt just about right for her.Maybe all it took was the passage of time. Ungaro's clothes were heavily favored by socialites in the original Age of Excess, and Deacon accurately snared the glitter in a jacket-and-hot-pants set woven by Lesage, or a lace jacket and skirt encrusted with appliquéd flowers. When it came to a more modern girl, he offered Lurex-striped knits, or a dress made up of a flapper fringe of daisy cutouts. Mason sported a tiny black lace sheath dotted with navy blue daisies; Owen's dress was also a sheath, op arty. You could picture the professional party girls in them already, and on that level, the collection was a TKO. But where other women fit into the new Ungaro equation will be the challenge Deacon has to deal with in the months to come.
3 October 2010
All week, the Twitterverse has been asking, what's Lindsay Lohan doing at Dior? At Viktor & Rolf? At John Galliano? Shouldn't she be putting the final touches on her second Emanuel Ungaro outing? Today, before the show, the house gave us all an answer: Sorry, paparazzi, but the omnipresent starlet actually had nothing to do with the Fall collection.Estrella Archs took her bow solo, but just because Lohan and the heart-shaped spangled pasties that got so much attention last season are out of the picture doesn't mean that the pressure is off. On the whole, the collection of draped and ruched party dresses, scattered here and there with tailored jackets in menswear fabrics, was an improvement, if not necessarily made with the same joie de vivre or finesse as Ungaro's originals. But with the eighties moment fast disappearing in fashion's rearview mirror, Archs has new challenges ahead of her should she remain at the label. Now that everyone's talking about minimalism again, the first order of business will be finding a way to make the house codes relevant again. As difficult as it's no doubt been for Archs at Ungaro, it's not yet clear that she has skills adequate to the task.
7 March 2010
The wall of cameras at the end of the runway was double the size it was last season, and there was an impressive turnout of industry professionals and curious onlookers at Ungaro today. In a bid for easy headlines, CEO Mounir Moufarrige recently replaced Esteban Cortazar with an unusual team: the little-known Spanish designer Estrella Archs and, as "artistic adviser," the actress turned self-bronzer entrepreneur Lindsay Lohan. Would the move turn out to be a bit of counterintuitive brilliance—the Olsens, after all, have had a bona fide hit with The Row—or would the results be as embarrassing as a streaky orange fake tan?In separate interviews a couple of days before the show, Archs discussed reviving the DNA and Lohan mentioned injecting a bit of youth into the brand—not necessarily mutually exclusive notions for a label that was beloved by eighties party girls. The show opened on an up note, with a strapless fuchsia plissé minidress—two Ungaro signatures rolled into one—and Archs turned the house's polka dots into a charming enough heart print on colorful sequined jackets. So far, not so bad…but it wasn't destined to last.This quickly devolved into a bad joke of a fashion show, one with questionable color combinations, "bad eighties" draped silk jackets and drop-crotch pants, old-fashioned and ill-judged fur stoles, and, yes, tasteless sequin pasties. To top it off, the fabrics and the construction lacked the finesse you expect from a famous Avenue Montaigne brand.To be fair, Archs had just about a month to design the collection. But both she and Lohan (if she sticks around long enough) will have to work a lot harder next time to impress the editors and buyers who witnessed this disappointing debut.
3 October 2009
There's been much gossip over whether Esteban Cortazar is still designing at Emanuel Ungaro. After rumors spread about the possible hiring of Lindsay Lohan, the designer was said to have walked out, though this week a press representative shrugged that off. Cortazar, she said, designed the 2010 pre-spring collection, so it seems to be business as usual. The line certainly has Cortazar's young styling about it, using a combination of his own take on what's current and Emanuel Ungaro's taste for pinstripes and florals. The print—stripes and roses—read as a touch insipid, but stronger pieces like a patchworked pinstripe, body-conscious zip-front dress or draped pants worn with sequin-embellished tanks hit the sexy Ungaro mark.
7 July 2009
Third time was the charm. After struggling to connect with the Emanuel Ungaro legacy, Esteban Cortazar has come up with a Fall collection that not only stayed true to the house founder's go-go eighties joie de vivre, but at the same time proved he's keyed in to what the nightclub set likes to wear now. That would be a fits-like-a-glove draped-and-wrapped strapless dress with bold tights and sky-high heels. His little party frocks came every which way: color-blocked in shades of royal blue, orange, and fuchsia; in multicolored polka dots; and beruffled in Ungaro pink and black. Sometimes Cortazar tossed on a stamped black leather motorcycle jacket and a very French silk scarf around the model's neck; other times it was a cropped and cutaway blazer in a menswear plaid.On the tailored side, a blue leather jacket and high-waisted satin pants with fanlike pockets on the hips could be contenders for party types who've aged out of microminis. Only the knits—bulky and not nearly as expensive-looking as the price tags will demand—fell flat. Overall, too, the show could've used a tighter edit, but that's something that Cortazar can get the hang of now that he's figured out his raison d'être.
7 March 2009
"I was looking at Kate Moss wearing vintage Ungaro and it looked so modern," said Esteban Cortazar as he walked Style.com through his pre-fall collection. According to the designer, this is the first season that he's dived into the house's vast archives. The result? A neat negotiation between slouchiness (louche knits) and shapeliness (fluid tailoring) and looks that are right-on retro, like a mini with curvy 3-D insets, or one-armed cocktail dresses in an acid palette of purple, pink, and royal blue. "Nothing is aggressive," added Cortazar, "but at the same time it's strong."
11 January 2009
Esteban Cortazar looked to his roots for his second Emanuel Ungaro collection. He dedicated the show to his father, Valentino Cortazar, and printed his dad's love letters to girlfriends on the runway. Then there were the leggy and bright clothes (not to mention the floppy Panama hats) that looked very much as if they were made for life in a hot climate—like southern Florida, from which he hails.Cortazar opened with a ruched and ruffled one-shoulder party dress straight out of the Ungaro archives; the splashy florals he used for other little cocktail dresses also looked heritage. But elsewhere—somewhere among the tapered cargo pants, peasant blouses, and a knit poncho with fringe—he strayed a bit too far from Ungaro's sophisticated path. (On the positive side, he did prove he has a nose for trends: He showed his own vivid versions of the short-in-front, long-in-back dresses that have popped up elsewhere this week.)Going forward in this troubled global economy, it's going to be all about big brands, or at least recognizable ones. Everyone is rooting for Cortazar—partly, no doubt, because he's so young to have been given such a big responsibility. He should retrench and come back with a collection that's less South Beach and more Paris.
30 September 2008
In his first Resort collection for Emanuel Ungaro, Esteban Cortazar took inspiration from Cartagena, in his native Colombia, and particularly from the sherbet-hued coterie of bridesmaids at Lauren Santo Domingo's wedding in the seaside city. Thankfully, there was nothing remotely bridal or froufrou about Cortazar's forward-thinking collection. Khaki jackets and romantic camisoles would work in an office, and tops printed with parrots and bougainvillea were breezy and beach-ready. Evening options, such as a printed and draped T-shirt gown and a V-necked ivory jacquard, were also frippery-free. The result: an enviable ease.
15 June 2008
Esteban Cortazar is the fourth heir to take the throne since Emanuel Ungaro retired from ready-to-wear in 2001. After a season in which the troubled house didn't mount a show, the 23-year-old replaces Peter Dundas, a designer who has at least 15 years' experience, as well as stints at Cavalli, Gaultier, and Lacroix to his credit. By comparison, Cortazar is relatively untested. He touts himself as the youngest designer ever to have shown at New York fashion week, but in the five-plus years since his debut he hasn't attracted the same level of attention that other up-and-comers of his generation have. To say that the young man has his work cut out for him is an understatement. The fact that he knows it—he sent a save-the-date card bearing the words "Pressure, What Pressure!!"—is, unfortunately for him, no guarantee of success.That's the backstory. As for Cortazar's first go at Ungaro, it had an altogether softer feel than what the label was famous for in the go-go eighties. In a nod to Mr. Ungaro's legendary love of color, there were, among the neutrals and pale pastels, a couple of hot-pink pieces, including a fitted sweater dress with an oversize ropey neckline that became one of the collection's motifs. Cortazar wove in a few prints, too. A rose-and-thorns pattern was more true to the house than the beach-rock photo print, but neither was as pretty as a grayish wood-grain silk chiffon that he draped and swagged into a standout gown.Soft draping was the focus, be it a one-shoulder silk blouse and jersey skirt, a goddess gown, or a slouchy hoodie worn over a ruffle-neck dress. It was all done more quietly than in the founder's day, but, to Cortazar's credit, the hushed mood was in keeping with the season. Is he the right man for the job? His audience, as well as Ungaro's owners, has been notoriously impatient. But when he ran out for a bow and swiped his brow in mock relief, you couldn't help but root for him.
26 February 2008
Someone's press team just earned their New Year's bonus. The turnout for Franck Boclet's debut show as menswear director for Emanuel Ungaro included both Clovis Cornillac (the French Russell Crowe) and M. Pokora (the French J.T.), which was enough to drive the local paps into overdrive. Such a shame that the stars weren't treated to a wardrobe-changing revelation.In a presentation that might best be described as Gaultier-lite, Boclet, late of Francesco Smalto, offered up a raffish array of gypsy rovers (the music was actually the soundtrack ofTime of the Gypsies) in neat little jackets and baggy, pleated trousers, or, by way of contrast, cutaway ensembles that were toreador-tight. Echoes of Gaultier'shomme fatalwere evident in the models' dark-rimmed eyes and their cosmetic goatees. (This latter touch was slightly misjudged when it appeared as a fake beard stuck on young Frenchman Vincent Lacrocq's chin.) Such obvious artifice was the flaw at the heart of the entire collection, as evident in the multi-buckled waistband on a pair of trousers, and in rope-tied pinstripe pants paired with a poet shirt. And it seemed a trifle optimistic to be promoting an astrakhan carryall, among other accessory items, when Ungaro's menswear has yet to ring a guy's bell.
18 January 2008
Peter Dundas is getting more up-front about his direction for Ungaro: ¿I have always loved nightclubbing,¿ he says. Just a short hop away on the Paris-Waterloo Eurostar, London has an erupting Nu Rave club scene that he is clearly co-opting as a rationale for shaking off the rather suffocating ¿Jolie Madame¿ image that has been attached to Ungaro over the years.At one remove, Dundas has plugged into all the trends that have been fueling the young London designers: the extreme shapes of Thierry Mugler¿s vast, rounded shoulders and funnel necks, the body-conscious early-nineties dressing, the exaggerated puffers, and sporty, plastic-clip fastened belts. Ungaro is a Parisian luxury house, though, so the designer¿s translation has a glossed-up French accent for a woman who is less likely to find her way to an East End club than to fly to the moon. Dundas' coiled, padded "neo-puffers," spangled-sequin starburst microdresses, lip prints, and furs are ultimately more akin to the things young French girls might have seen their mothers wearing to Régine's in the seventies or the Bains Douches in the eighties than what impresses the Boombox crowd on a Friday night in Hoxton. Whether or not this will actually succeed in attracting today¿s wealthy international clubgoers remains to be seen, but, at the least, Dundas should be credited for understanding that Ungaro is in need of a thorough revamp if it¿s going to mean anything to a new generation.
28 February 2007
With six months to prepare after his first rushed season at Ungaro, Peter Dundas took the opportunity to lay out his whole proposition for spring. He arrived here from Roberto Cavalli, with a reputation for hot and sexy, and that's where he fits into the high-color, multiprinted, take-no-prisoners legacy left by Emanuel Ungaro.He went at it with all goddess drapes, spots and stripes, animal print, and neons blazing. Minute swathed chiffon body-dresses in electric blue, fuchsia, and violet were followed by skirt suits, in which tight-waisted, scrolled peplum jackets mixed polka dots, flowers, and horizontally ruched stripes. After that eye-socking intro, there were—amongst many other things—lashings of highly worked chain mail with leopard, metallic leather, or exotic-insect mosaic sequin patterned jackets, and a finale of gowns in fluorescent lime or pink georgette.Whether you get the point of this depends where you're coming from. From a London perspective—where the Paris-based Dundas has spent time sourcing broken-mirror dragonfly and hot-lips jewelry from Andrew Logan—the pushed-to-the-limit high-eighties styling has legs, at least for the inner clique of indie-mag clubsters who get off on Christopher Kane. Stylists with an eye for the futuristic power-woman vibe will also lock onto the laced-back pants and suck-in, jut-out jacket silhouette of his safari suits.From other perspectives, though, what can be said? Horrible, said the tasteful. To cut Dundas some slack, though, Ungaro himself in his raging glory years was always a love-or-loathe designer. Now that the first generation of devotees is (hopefully) too old to turn back to this flaunt-it aesthetic, the question hanging over this house is whether there are paying customers ready to step up to Dundas' smorgasbord of neo-eighties Parisian excess. If there's a chance, it's in the emerging markets of the newly rich, the rising global population who couldn't care less about critics who left this show with a blinding headache.
4 October 2006
After several seasons on the fashion critical-list, the sexy, drapey, polka-dotted legacy of Emanuel Ungaro is at last showing signs of a heartbeat, having been jump-started by new ownership, and fresh design leadership from the Norwegian-American Peter Dundas. The show held out hope that somebody young and hot might finally want to wrap herself in Ungaro, thanks to the collection of Parisian glam-rock chic that came down the red-lacquered runway.Apparently, what was on display was the result of some emergency surgery: The 40-year-old Dundas only recently resigned from Roberto Cavalli. Still, his extensive experience—which includes postings at Gaultier and Lacroix—equipped him to create something new but recognizably Ungaro-ish out of the old house standards. He did a good job of referencing the leg-of-mutton-sleeve, tight-waist silhouette from the jacket-and-coat archive, and he even managed to blow the aura of staleness off the signature drapery, which last looked good in the eighties. Old-school onlookers might find fault, since some of this was achieved with wrapping and knotting, rather than fairy-fingered couture techniques. Yet it was precisely those draped dresses—some of which contrasted Ungaro's chiffon leopard prints and bold dots in scarflike hip-ties against plain covered-up tops—that made the look suddenly jump to modernity. However, the sexiest numbers by far were those realized entirely in slinky cashmere jersey, over turtlenecks—one a short silver-gray one-shouldered affair, and the other a stunning slim full-length lipstick-red gown with an erotically bound waist. It was quite enough to mark Dundas as a name to watch.
1 March 2006
Like a broadcast from an alternate universe, José Lévy's collection for Emanuel Ungaro offered a vision of menswear so outré it was impossible to place in any kind of contemporary context. Show notes informed us that the Ungaro man was a tiger, a quality underlined by the big-cat growls that punctuated the soundtrack. But this kitty seemed both lost and curiously clawless.Tiger prints appeared throughout the presentation as a design in black on the back of a white turtleneck, or picked out in caviar beading on an evening jacket. Another favored motif was an orchid, which adorned a white sweater in a black patent appliqué or constituted a print on a jacket. Then, just as we appeared to have settled into a uniform black-and-white palette (with black patent shoes and black leather gloves as accessories), there arrived a blouson in searing-hot pink, with matching jeans, then the same in purple, and a shirt that exploded into strawberry pink ruffles. Somewhere, a cruise ship band needed its costumes back.A cummerbund clasped with a star-shaped chunk of quartz left a last lingering impression. Back to those show notes for the final comment. "Scary Chic," they promised. Well, half-right, at least.
30 January 2006
Vincent Darré's second go-around at Emanuel Ungaro was, in at least a couple of ways, more successful than his first. He settled on the house's opulent eighties phase as a source of inspiration, rather than knocking about its deep and varied archive. And once set on that trajectory, he thankfully forwent some of the decade's most garish moments—goodbye, last season's jarring prints and kimono detailing.That's not to say things were subdued. Quiet, after all, was never Ungaro's style. Ruffles, bustiers, and poufy shapes abounded. And though Darré's palette included soft, silvery pastels, it was teal, saffron, and fuchsia that predominated, sometimes in abstract florals and geometric prints. He opened with bare halter shapes and finished with even-sparer bras and girdles, interspersed with brief cuffed shorts. It's not clear where the majority of these clothes would be appropriate, beyond the beaches and nightclubs of St. Bart's.The real trouble is that the eighties are simply not where fashion's at. The audience would have welcomed a more personal statement from Darré, who has had successes at both Moschino and Fendi. But it's not clear that he's the man to make Ungaro's aesthetic relevant for today.
4 October 2005
Vincent Darré, making his ill-judged debut chez Ungaro, promised to evoke the early glory years of the house, established in 1965 by Emanuel Ungaro after he left an apprenticeship at Balenciaga and was collaborating with the brilliant textile designer Sonia Knapp. The most cursory delve into Ungaro's archives would reveal a master colorist who embraced the space-age sixties, turned to Ballets Russes-inspired hippies deluxe in the seventies, reflected the overdecorated opulence of the eighties, and rediscovered an ethereal lightness of touch in the nineties. Instead of modernizing this great legacy, Darré clung to a palette of crude primaries and eye-popping brights. He opened with funnel-collar jackets and ballooning kimono coats fastened with an evening gown's obi drape that certainly nodded to Ungaro's work as Balenciaga's tailor, although clam-digger pants were an unsuccessful accompaniment. A baby-doll dress in black bubble lace with appliqués of white mink daisies provided another faint echo. From there, the show careened downhill, however, and further experiments with the season's poufy volumes sunk like overcooked soufflés. Even Darré's Diva draperies—a signature of the house for decades—looked clumsily cobbled together and would have shamed any self-respecting couture workroom.The delightful Darré, who over the years has proved a witty and spirited stylist at houses like Moschino and Fendi, unwisely accessorized every look with his clumpy and over-scale take on Roger Vivier's iconic sixtiesBelle de Jourpump (the chic original was created for Yves Saint Laurent), which looked especially ungainly with the long evening gowns. Not that there is much salvation for a Diva-draped gown reinterpreted in dirty white leather. As his clownish models lined up, in dusty old-school fashion, across the back of a set evoking Ungaro's Avenue Montaigne flagship, the audience's stupefaction was palpable. Clearly, Darré, who has proved his credentials elsewhere, has a long way to go to inject fashion credibility into this line.
1 March 2005
You would think, what with next Spring shaping up to be all about tiered gypsy skirts, ethnic handcrafted jewels, and prints, prints, prints galore, that this would be Emanuel Ungaro's season. As I say: You would think. Alas, it is not to be.Ungaro designer Giambattista Valli may have conceived his Spring collection as an odyssey to the Greek Isles, but it quickly became apparent that we were all at (the Aegean) sea. Valli touched on pretty much every element of Greek culture: the white shirts and full, layered skirts that are part of the country's traditional national dress; huge togalike rope belts knotted around the waist of oversized chiffon ponchos and tourniquet-tight pants; and Grecian-draped dresses—a strong trend in Paris, but not terribly well executed here. Just in case we'd missed the point, all of this was paraded out to the sound of 1,001 balalaikas madly strumming away.The Ungaro look now seems stuck in a rut, and is simply not moving on. Those tight crop pants, for example, have appeared in just about every collection that Valli has designed for the house. … and still there are no takers. Another sticking point: The show was so skewed toward the Young Hollywood set, with its unquenchable thirst for eveningwear, that there was virtually nothing here in the way of day clothes. For the final look, Valli sent model Missy Rayder out in a dress with a billowing underskirt, which she dramatically removed to reveal a shorter, far simpler dress. The house of Ungaro needs a few better tricks up its sleeve than that if it's going to work its magic again.
5 October 2004
There are times when a show is in progress and, suddenly, a question crops up: Just exactly which season are these clothes for? That particular thought crossed the mind while watching Giambattista Valli's latest efforts for the house of Ungaro. Valli, rather guilty in the past of loading his outfits with too many extras (fedoras and fur wraps and feathery fripperies), stripped back to nothing this season but for some fabulous Buccellati earrings and the occasional gem-studded satin bag.But perhaps this stripping process went too far. What Valli showed on the runway flashed enough flesh to make even a spring collection seem skimpy, yet these looks are meant for fall. When the weather turns chilly, is a woman really going to reach for a tiered floral silk mini or a nude beaded chiffon dress? It's hypothermia on a hanger—not to mention out of sync with where fashion is now. As the recent Academy Awards made clear, blatant skin-baring is out, and seduction is turning more subtle. If Valli's efforts to simplify what he shows had included more of those curvy tweed jackets and leopard-print wrap coats that did make it onto the runway, he might have given this collection greater substance—in every sense of the word.
3 March 2004
Get on the gold aviators—it's sizzling out there. Giambattisa Valli has taken Ungaro to some steamy equatorial zone where all a certain girl needs in the way of clothes is a wardrobe of swimsuits and scarves to knot about her hot little bod in various ingeniously-revealing ways. Valli explored that idea by turning every poolside appearance into a dressy occasion. Using hot pink, orange, jade, and absinthe jersey and a cache of exotic printed georgette, he set to with the wrapping, draping, and the trailing ruffles.In Valli's hands, a swimsuit can come with an attachment of a peony-printed chiffon scarf for winding across the body in a fetching way. Others had thick ropes of plaited jersey circling the neck and running between the breasts to anchor strips of clinging fabric. Even the jackets, with their cutaway fronts and slashed lapels, were tethered with crisscrossing scarves.For evening, Latina ruffles, squiggly rose prints, smatterings of sparkle, and crystal strands continued the theme of dressing in as little as possible but for maximum impact. All the slashing, wrapping, draping, and floating asymmetries may end up melting the distinctions between sundress, bathing suit, and evening gown—but in a heated Ungaro climate, why stand on ceremony?
8 October 2003
Some sort of fairy tale on ice unfolded on the circular runway at Emanuel Ungaro. Crunching her way across the crystal-strewn floor, the heroine had a look all her own: pale, drifty layerings of gossamer, worn over sparkly Lurex-shot leggings and high heels.By mixing up the fluttery, ruffle-edged printed chiffon with sporty pieces like jersey tanks, big parkas, hoodies and funked-up fur, Giambattista Valli managed to skate clear of the cloying sweetness that sometimes threatens to drown this collection. Valli also turned down the volume on the vibrant Ungaro palette, using subtle layers of grays, bois de rose and greige, interspersed with sparkles of silver and gold lamé. The tops and dresses, with their rippling transparent frills, poet sleeves and flounces were in step with the casual, falling-off-the-shoulder look, and the leggings added the essential kicker to make it all current. Best in show? The casually decorative, tufty gray rabbit furs implanted with trailing chiffon ribbons and some sexy reworkings of the house's signature smoking jackets, cut with draped sleeves.The 36-year-old Valli is making all the right modernizing moves at Ungaro—with one caveat. Fairy tales that go on too long send people to sleep. Next season he needs to take scissors to the plot.
6 March 2003
Where does a ruffle-loving designer go when tight pants are on the season's screen? España, naturally, with its flamenco frills and matador pants. Emanuel Ungaro designer Giambattista Valli made it his destination for a spring fiesta of femininity, which reveled in lavish color, prints and a sexy, leggy silhouette.The collection included just about everything a woman might need for endless hot summer nights. There were short one-shoulder and strapless dresses, in coral and mixed polka dots and florals, for a youthful cocktail. For serious seduction, there were gowns with deep plunges and high slits, and a lineup of super-beaded sparklers for the big event. It all could have sunk in a veritable Niagara of waterfall ruffles, but Valli's increasing confidence kept it afloat.His knack is adding a few shots of playful cool to the mix. Well-tailored matador pants got a dash of punk with zipped ankles and the odd strap and D-ring, and some of the cropped jackets were slightly urban-biker. Nicely handled color clashes, gutsy scarab bags and a general air of undone spontaneity gave Ungaro's Spanish the right kind of accent for the moment.
3 October 2002
The job of Ungaro designer Giambattista Valli is to translate the richly exotic vision of his mentor, house founder Emanuel Ungaro, onto the ready-to-wear runway. Ungaro himself still designs the house's couture line where he explores his Parisian passion for femininity, luxe and the eclectic riches of the Orient and Africa. Valli's special knack, meanwhile, is for building a bridge between the sensibility of the house's older customer, and a hipper attitude that speaks to today's generation.In his second collection for the company, Valli filtered Ungaro's north African, Chinese and hippie-deluxe romanticism into street-wearable shearlings inspired by djellabas, delicate printed chiffon floor-length caftan dresses and chinoiserie coats without skipping the all-important edge of embellishment. Where he best reached out to a younger audience though was in a treasure-trove of accessories that cried, "Hunt me now!" Stack-heeled, crumple-down suede boots, huge woven leather shoulder bags loaded with swishing fringe, silk rope and tassels, necklaces strung together from chunks of coral, beaten silver hearts slung on raw leather thongs—all are up there on the trophy-hunter's list for fall.
7 March 2002
Antique wooden Buddhas. Bundles of roses, lilies and orchids. The smell of sandalwood. Clearly, Emanuel Ungaro was in a romantic mood.Inspired by the mid-19th century mystical Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin, Ungaro took to the Orient in a collection that floated out with remarkable lightness and ease. Opening with a backless silk charmeuse sheath in a large peony print, the designer followed up with scoop-neck sequin-embroidered silk chiffon sarongs, silk crepe vests worn with wide, airy lace patio pants, and bias-pleated orange and plum gowns. The tinkle of precious stones, cowrie shells and bugle beads sewn to belts and chokers accompanied a series of sequined lace pants teamed with fine wool or nubby linen jackets. For the finale, Ungaro sobered up, sending out pleated plissé, wrinkled black chiffon coaxed into asymmetric single-sleeve sheaths with black peony corsages at the throat. Backless gowns were bias-cut, and column dresses were set off with embroidered black leather bracelets.And after the sobriety, one last, intoxicating draught: a bride in a long spaghetti bodice finished off with a skirt made of bone and ivory feathers, which ended in a froth of chiffon.
20 January 2002
With an acid-splashed black runway and Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" turned up to deafening volume, Ungaro's elegant front-row ladies must have suspected that the classical couturier was having an identity crisis. Suspicions were confirmed as the first Avenue Montaigne-punk amazons pounded down the runway in rockabilly zoot jackets with second-skin red-and-black "stonewash" jeans, teetering on glitter-toed clear-plastic spectator heels and glowering from behind their '70s tequila-sunrise sunglasses.With an electric palette of hot pinks, poison yellows and the season's ubiquitous purples (all combined at one point in a delirious camouflage print), Ungaro indulged in a psychedelic disco parade—complete with beaded chiffon ponchos, asymmetric handkerchief hems, bright jersey mini dresses and '70s-style rock-chick beaded pantsuits. Of course, Ungaro has many of these great references in his own archives, but the fine gold chains swagged like an admiral's decorations across a scarlet pantsuit, or forming a peek-a-boo disco top, looked like they had strayed from last season's Chloé runway.Young-at-heart mothers hitting their mid-life crises might respond to the modern idea of deconstructing their wardrobe pieces and mixing them up again with a hip new attitude, but their fashion-forward young daughters will love the real classics--like the purple-banded black on white pinstripe pantsuit and the superb new take on Rita Hayworth's knock-'em-deadGildagown, made sexy as only Ungaro knows how in black jersey.
29 February 2000