FASHION SCOOPS
ON THE HUNT: Domenico De Sole, Gucci’s chief executive, couldn’t hide his pride at his two new acquisitions, the 51 percent of Alexander McQueen and 66.7 percent of Bottega Veneta, the Italian ready-to-wear and accessories company. De Sole said that Bottega “is a very good company and a great brand” and admitted that it also has fantastic production facilities.
Meanwhile, he hinted that Gucci remains on the prowl, planning to spend that $2 billion in cash. There have been reports of talks to buy the Geneva-based jeweler Chopard and the Italian fragrance house Acqua di Parma. De Sole declined to comment, however, simply saying, “We have several other things in the pipeline.”
PROM QUEEN: Celebrities beat a path to the door of Luella Bartley eager to get a dress from her for the British Fashion Awards on Tuesday night. But she was puzzled. “I don’t do dresses like that,” she said, standing in her Notting Hill showroom in a pair of jeans and a printed top. “I’ve never done big gowns. Goodness knows why they came to me. But Minnie Driver took a T-shirt and a pair of pants.”
That doesn’t mean, though, that Bartley isn’t intrigued by the idea of doing ballgowns. “I can’t get my head around it at this stage, but it might be fun to do them one day,” she said. “If I did them, they’d have to be really big, full dresses — like prom dresses.”
SORRY, BIANCA: The crush at the Alexander McQueen show was worse than ever as the designer tried to recreate the feeling of a war camp by first herding all his guests into “holding pens” for about 30 minutes. The experience was a bit too much for some. Bianca Jagger complained loudly that she needed to be let through, but the security guards weren’t buying it — she had to wait in the pen just like everyone else.
