Marc Jacobs in Talks to Take Over Dior

Aug 22, 2011 - by Lester Brathwaite

The saga at Christian Dior continues as WWD reports that Marc Jacobs is in talks with Bernard Arnault and co. to take over the recently tumultuous couture house.

Dior has been without a creative director since that little incident with John Galliano -- you know, the anti-Semitism and the firing and the rehab and the court case -- since March.

Arnault, chairman of LVMH -- which also owns Marc Jacobs International -- had initially planned on hiring Jacobs for Dior back in the 90s, but that idea was vetoed by Dior's then president Francois Baufume. Instead, Galliano was hired from Givenchy to Dior and Jacobs signed on as Vuitton's artistic director in 1997.

Had I hired Marc Jacobs for Dior and John Galliano for Louis Vuitton, it would not have worked as well for both brands, even though both designers are geniuses of their own, Arnault told WWD in 2003.

Meetings are scheduled for this week in Paris between Dior and Marc Jacobs' legal representatives while the designer prepares for New York Fashion Week. Robert Duffy, Jacobs' longtime business partner, is also reported to be integral to the deal, despite currently having legal troubles of his own.

Should Jacobs move to Dior, Phoebe Philo is said to be on tap to replace him at Louis Vuitton, while maintaining her current role at Céline.

Since March, Dior has approached a number of designers to replace Galliano including Lanvin's Alber Elbaz, Balenciaga's Nicolas Ghesquière, Alexander McQueen's Sarah Burton, Haider Ackermann and Hedi Slimane. Elbaz, Ghesquière and Burton have allegedly withdrawn themselves from the running due to their strong personal commitments to their respective brands, while talks with Ackermann and Slimane proved fruitless.

Then, of course, there is Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci whose name has been bandied about as frontrunner for months now and who is a favorite of Delphine Arnault, deputy managing director at Dior. Where Tisci stands in all this is uncertain, but do you think Marc Jacobs is what Christian Dior needs right now? [WWD]

 

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