FALK TO BYPASS KLEIN OFFER, STAY WITH ARMANI
Byline:
NEW YORK — It looks like Armani won this one.
Calvin Klein reportedly tried to woo one of Giorgio Armani’s top New York executives, Paula Falk, in yet another raid on the Italian designer’s talent pool.
Falk, a women’s buyer for Armani’s New York store, was reportedly offered the top post at Klein’s ambitious new flagship store on Madison Avenue here, which is set to open this fall. The two came close to inking a deal, but Armani made Falk an eleventh-hour offer that reportedly involved a sizable pay hike.
It would have been the third defection from Armani to Klein. Last spring, Gabriella Forte left her executive vice president post to join Klein as president. In fall 1993, Noona Smith Peterson became Klein’s press representative in Milan, after working at Armani.
Officials at both companies declined to comment.