BRAILLARD DENIES BLASS MOVE
NEW YORK — Herve Pierre Braillard is staying at Vera Wang after all.
The designer, who is design director of Vera Wang, was rumored this week to be taking a senior position on the design team at Bill Blass. But on Thursday, he denied any such move was in store.
“It’s not true,” he said. “I work with Vera all the time as her assistant. So far, I have been very comfortable and have no plans [to move] for the future.”
Bill Blass is in the midst of assembling a team of designers to work with Lars Nilsson, who was named head designer at the company following the dismissal of Steven Slowik last month.
Braillard, a friend of Nilsson from their previous jobs in Paris as well as former schoolmates, was said to be a front-runner for one of those positions. A spokeswoman for Blass would not discuss whether he had been contacted, but said on Thursday that “we have been having discussions with several designers and nothing has been confirmed.
“Lars Nilsson is working diligently to finish the fall 2001 Bill Blass collection and looks forward to presenting it,” she said.
