Paris Fashion Trade Group Selects New Leader
In the fashion industry, the Paris couture shows, which begin this weekend, still reign supreme.
And no single person may wield more power over those shows than the president of the French trade group that determines which designers’ collections are shown, and when.
That is why the changing of the guard announced on Tuesday has created a stir not only in Paris, but throughout the fashion world.
After 16 years, Didier Grumbach has stepped down as president of that influential trade group, the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, and of its couture division, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.
Mr. Grumbach, 77, after presiding over next week’s Paris shows, will be replaced as federation president by Ralph Toledano.
Mr. Toledano is currently president of the fashion division at Puig, a Barcelona-based fashion and beauty house whose brands include Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci, Paco Rabanne and Carolina Herrera.
Mr. Toledano will retain his position while taking on the new responsibilities at the federation.
Assisting him will be Stéphane Wargnier, who was named to the new role of executive president of the federation. Mr. Wargnier, a fashion consultant and former executive at Hermès, will be responsible for the federation’s day-to-day operations, while Mr. Toledano will focus on strategy and vision.
Mr. Grumbach will hold the honorary title of president of the federation. When asked if he had any advice for his successor, he replied, “It is very important not to be weak.”
Although most consumers probably would not know Mr. Grumbach’s name, he was a major behind-the-scenes power player for almost two decades. The Fédération Française controls the designer choices and schedules for the Paris shows, which are biannual events for both ready-to-wear and couture.
The federation also acts as an industry lobby and runs a professional training school for designers and artisans, the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
Mr. Toledano, who was traveling on Wednesday, expressed his ambitions for the federation in an email exchange.
"We aim to keep Paris as the unrivaled capital of fashion, to contributing to the emergence of all the talented young designers based in France and to making the École de la Chambre Syndicale — already a unique school in the world as it produces both designers and couture technicians — the Number 1 fashion school.
“Paris has historically been the place where the biggest international talents gather spontaneously,” he wrote, “and we intend to continue welcoming them.”
During his tenure, Mr. Grumbach oversaw the internationalization of French fashion. There are now 25 nationalities represented on the Paris fashion show calendar. He helped to revitalize couture at a time when brands such as Balmain and Christian Lacroix chose to discontinue their couture operations and focus on ready-to-wear. He also worked with the French government to create a so-called fashion bank to guarantee loans to new designers.
In 2012 he created the federation’s executive board, composed of representatives from what were then the five largest French fashion powers — Hermès, Chanel, Puig, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and PPR, which is now called Kering. The board helped the brands work together in “harmony” during the Paris shows.
That harmony, though, has not always extended to other cities during the women’s ready-to-wear seasons in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Those seasons are the longer, more modern sibling of the couture weeks.
The schedules for the ready-to-wear shows have grown crowded and unwieldy in the past few years, with feuds breaking out among the various cities over dates and durations.
Such squabbling might seem irrelevant to the outside world. But where on the calendar the designer shows take place has a direct bearing on when stores order clothes. That, in turn, affects the brand’s production time and deliveries, which determines when consumers can buy the end result.
In other words, it matters.
In 2011, the tussling over dates for the following year’s spring shows became particularly heated. Fashion houses that show in New York and London were pushing for a later start to the season so that they would not have to produce their runway samples in August, when most factories are closed.
Paris, the last and the longest of the ready-to-wear conclaves — about nine days, compared with New York’s seven — announced it would not push back its shows, arguing that the effect on deliveries would be punitive.
At the time, Diane Von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, was quoted in Women’s Wear Daily as saying: “I don’t understand why Paris completely and totally just ignored what all of us have worked so hard on. I am speechless.”
But the news of the transfer of power in the governing body of French fashion has been welcomed in other fashion capitals, whose leaders were quick to acknowledge Mr. Grumbach’s contributions while looking toward the next stage.
Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, said, “It will be interesting to see what the new regime brings. Any opportunity to work more closely together is welcome.”
Steven Kolb, chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, who said he had had no issues with Mr. Grumbach, also noted that “whenever new people come in they bring new ideas and it creates new opportunities.”
“We have seen it in Milan, with the new president of the Camera della Moda, Jane Reeve, whom I have been talking with quite a lot,” Mr. Kolb said, referring to Italy’s fashion industry association.
As it happens, Mr. Kolb said he had emailed a colleague at the Fédération Française a few weeks ago to suggest a friendly meeting of representatives from all four fashion-week cities, though he was quick to note there was “no agenda” behind the idea.
Mr. Toledano will take up his new post on Sept. 1. New York Fashion Week, which begins the women’s ready-to-wear spring 2015 collections, starts three days later.
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