the curse of lohan

Emanuel Ungaro on the Hunt for a Real Designer

Emanuel Ungaro is said to be looking for a new fashion designer. As in, someone with training and experience designing high fashion, and not a celebrity who slaps her name on self-tanner and leggings. Ungaro reportedly wants to “set its design direction on more solid footing” now that Lindsay Lohan no longer works at the label, and has been secretly looking for someone to take over design. Ungaro owner Asim Abdullah, who was recently rumored to have been considering selling the label, was seen lunching with Giles Deacon at a fancy place in Paris on Friday. Neither Ungaro nor Deacon commented on the meeting. But whoever comes in, current designer Estrella Archs would probably leave.

The whole Lohan fiasco was a bit sad for Archs. Her appointment alongside Lohan was pretty random, although one might assume she got it as one of the few designers willing to design the label with the celebrity, who senselessly cried on the runway when they took their bow together. Archs’s predecessor Esteban Cortazar left because of Lohan’s appointment. But prior to Cortazar, Peter Dundas (now of Pucci) and Giambattista Valli designed the line, so there is a sterling reputation buried in there somewhere to uphold. And Archs’s solo fall-2010 collection, designed without Lohan, wasn’t looking so hot, though the critics seemed to pity her position.

But whoever Ungaro hires — assuming they tap a design professional — their clothes can probably only be viewed as a vast improvement.

Ungaro Said Seeking New Designer [WWD]

Emanuel Ungaro on the Hunt for a Real Designer