FASHION SCOOPS
CAPUCCI COMEBACK: The house of Balenciaga isn’t the only grande dame poised for a relaunch. Two Italian investors have taken a stake in Capucci in a bid to rejuvenate the 51-year-old Rome-based fashion house, which is known for its sculpted and architectural couture dresses. An announcement is expected today, sources said. One of the investors is Franco Bruccoleri, a fashion industry veteran and owner of On Stage, the German-based designer clothing distribution company. The other investor’s name could not be learned. Roberto Capucci, 72, will continue as chief designer and remain a shareholder in the house he founded in 1950. Bruccoleri, whom sources say will be the managing director of Capucci, declined to comment. The designer could not be reached for comment. The sources said he will show his new collections in Paris, and the house will remain in Rome. Bruccoleri’s business, based in Munich and Dusseldorf, distributes clothing in Northern Europe for such designers and houses as Jean Paul Gaultier, Helmut Lang, Marni, Paul Smith, Narciso Rodriguez and Calvin Klein.
SELLING LANVIN?: Speculation is heating up that L’Oreal may have found a buyer for the Lanvin fragrance and fashion houses. Sources said the transaction could be announced later this week. The identity of the suitor could not immediately be learned, but the investor is believed to be French. A L’Oreal spokesman had no comment. The French beauty giant, which has held a controlling stake in Lanvin since 1994, has explored the possibility of selling the French house for more than a year and is said to have held talks with The Leiber Group, the American fashion group previously known as Pegasus Apparel Group.
IN THE FLESH: Talk about your conversation piece. As guests filed into La Bourse on Monday night to fete Yves Saint Laurent’s new fragrance, Nu, they ran smack into a massive Plexiglas corral of writhing, topless bodies, male and female, in flesh-toned thongs. The dancers, who rehearsed for three days, were meant to capture the spirit of the scent, named after the French word for nude. Jeremy Scott, however, wasn’t buying it. “All I see is an orgy right here in front of me,” he said, standing in the massive room that houses Paris’s stock exchange. “[This launch] is all about money — it’s in the Bourse — it’s a money event.”
And Gucci Group, banking heavily on the spicy fragrance to perk up YSL Beaute, spent many a penny to transform the space into a blue-light district, replete with satin couches and pillows. Tom Ford joined throngs of models on the dance floor, kept packed by deejay Mark Ronson who was spinning hip-hop and Eighties favorites. Then Ford scooted off to the sidelines to catch up with Charlize Theron, who flew in especially for the party. She gave the fragrance a thumbs-up. “I love it,” she said. “It’s got sandalwood in there.”
Designer Paco Rabanne said the party transported him to New York and — given all the flesh on display — reminded him of another era. “It brings me back to the Sixties,” he said.
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RED AHEAD: Herve L. (as in Leger) Leroux (as in redhead) continues down the comeback trail, two years after Max Azria bought his fashion house and ousted him as head designer. Just months after the debut of his first swimwear and ready-to-wear collections under his new name — coined by Karl Lagerfeld — and the inauguration of a boutique-cum-atelier on the Left Bank’s Rue Jacob, Leroux has added couture to his repertoire. For the 15-piece collection, which was presented to buyers and editors on Tuesday, he said he took a hands-on approach to the fabrics, “molding, working and sculpting them directly onto mannequins.”
DECONSTRUCTION: Imagine having a boutique and destroying it for a night. That’s what Coqueline Courreges did for her “Backstage de Vintage” happening Monday night. Clad for the evening in white overalls, she had several windows inside her Rue Francois 1er shop removed to make way for fashion sculptures, which included a metallic tube stuck in boiling tar, inside of which was a Courreges outfit. The piece de resistance was a resin-filled cube with an orange jacket inside. Sweaty workers, with Courreges supervising, hoisted it from a basement courtyard into the shop via a gaping hole that was once a window. As models clad in vintage dresses from the house cleared a path, it was then dragged through the shop and out onto the street. Asked what the whole thing signified, Courreges replied: “Volume. I love volume and structure.” She said the event was the first installation in a three-part series, which will include an exhibit during the FIAC contemporary art fair here in October. The third part may be a couture presentation in January, she said.