WWD.COMWWD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009 3

By Rosemary Feitelberg

IF LIFE DOES, IN FACT, IMITATE ART, VERA WANG’S SUGGES-tion Tuesday that her company’s new president, Mario Grauso, stand “towering” in the background for a photo session while she sit with a bird’s-eye view of her SoHo store’s intricate mix may very well capture the new pairing.

Grauso on Oct. 16 will take over the executive reins of the firm, freeing up Wang to focus more on the creative side. The designer had been seeking to fill that roll for the last five years.

Her newfound creative freedom will continue to be used to raise the 19-year-old company’s profile and build sales worldwide. She just won’t have to worry so much about “astonishing” scissor-sharp-ening bills, bar-coding her clothes faster, the company’s diet soda budget and all the other minutiae involved with running a business. The Simply Vera Vera Wang line at Kohl’s alone calls for 12 deliver-ies and 58 categories.

“I have always had to look at the business because it’s my busi-ness. You can’t just separate yourself out and say, ‘Oh, I am going to just have fun and play designer.’ It doesn’t really work that way.” Wang said. “I have had to make a lot of business decisions and see them through not only creatively but also fiscally. Having Mario to sort of partner with me and to take that off my hands is such an enormous relief. He is also someone who is very product driven and that is kind of a terrific combination.”

In this business cli-mate, they plan to be cau-tious. “Now if you take on a new project, you have to really think about where you are going and who is your partner,” Wang said.

“And where is there a need in the market,” Grauso continued, finish-ing the thought reflexively.

Grauso, who was most recently president of Carolina Herrera Ltd. and Puig Fashion Group, steps in with several tasks at hand — reexamining the designer’s contempo-rary Lavender business, which is on hiatus; de-veloping the burgeoning jewelry and shoe sectors; expanding distribution internationally, particu-larly in Asia; opening a freestanding store in Los Angeles next year, and dressing more celebrities for the red carpet. Even though Grauso’s knack for

celebrity dressing is often referenced as key to his rising up through the ranks, he said the funny thing is he learned it all from Wang. For example, on Sunday at the Emmy Awards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Alyson Hannigan turned up in Vera Wang dresses.

Wang and Grauso share a shorthand, as Wang described, from working together in the late Nineties, when Grauso was executive vice president of her company. “It’s nice that we spent four years working together 10 years ago when she had a smaller business. I know where she is coming from with this business. I know what she had to do to get to this place. I know how she built her brand,” said Grauso, who often referred to his new boss as “chief.”

Like many in the industry, Wang has weathered the rocky eco-nomic landscape. Late last year, the company laid off about 350 staffers, primarily sewers in its factories in Ohio and Florida. The designer said she maintains a conservative mode, not yet convinced the retail scene is springing back as some have speculated.

Retail sales of all products bearing the Vera Wang brand name are said to be in the $700 million range.

Wang and Grauso will continually reassess how women are shop-ping, believing generally that consumers are after “perceived value at every price point — it could be contemporary, bridge, moderate — even submoderate people want something for their money. They want to know what goes into the design, the detail, the fabric or on the boots — whatever it is, it has to have some kind of special voice and that’s not an easy thing to do,” Wang said. “I had a very difficult time trying to be creative on so many fronts and bringing Mario in as president will be really wonderful for me.”

Wang continued, “What Mario brings to the table with his work ethic — I think most people know I have a fairly extreme work ethic myself — that’s great.”

“Now there are two crazy control freaks making sure that every-thing is perfect,” Grauso added with a laugh.

But the duo aims to have the entire team in sync. Wang said, “You have to be a team. You have to move forward together. If everybody is going in different directions, you’re not going to make it no matter how talented you are. I feel really fortunate that I am going to have some more real help to back me up.”

FASHION SCOOPSWang and Grauso Map Out a Plan

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PASSING THE BATON: Patek Philippe owner Philippe Stern is giving his son, Thierry Stern, the reins of the U.S. division of the fine watch brand. Thierry next month is expected to be named president of Patek Philippe USA. The younger Stern was most recently vice president and worked in product development at the firm from 1998 to 2003. Thierry is scheduled to travel to the U.S. for a multicity tour culminating in Las Vegas on Oct. 15, where Wynn Las Vegas will host an exhibit called “American Faces” displaying the 170-year history of the brand through more than 100 rare timepieces. The elder Stern’s new title could not be determined at press time.

JUSTIN’S NEW JOINT: Denim brand William Rast will set up shop in Los Angeles in November. Justin Timberlake and Trace Ayala’s line will unveil its first retail location at the Westfield Century City shopping center before Thanksgiving, in time for the holiday shopping season. The People’s Liberation-owned denim brand, launched by Timberlake and Ayala in October 2006, is expected to turn a profit this year and has plans to open some 40 boutiques over the next several years, with three leases already signed. Westfield Century City, an open-air center, saw the completion of a $150 million overhaul about three years ago and other tenants include Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Bloomingdale’s, Coach, Juicy Couture and Zara. Designer Alvin Valley opened his first boutique in the center earlier this summer.

ARTSY FOLKS: Calvin Klein Collection is taking its affinity for the arts a step further next month when it partners with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to present a newly created art awards ceremony conceived by artist Rob Pruitt. The Rob Pruitt Presents: The First Annual Art Awards will take place at the museum on Oct. 29 in association with White Columns. The awards will celebrate contemporary artists in a Hollywood-style ceremony, with The Delusional Downtown Divas as the night’s masters of ceremonies; Glenn O’Brien as its official announcer and presenters such as James Franco, Nate Lowman, Mary-Kate Olsen, Cecily Brown, John Currin and Rachel Feinstein. Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces will perform that night.

Joan Jonas and Kasper König will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards, and other awards include Artist of the Year, Curator of the Year, Writer of the Year and several nods for shows of the year, as well as the Calvin Klein Collection New Artist of the Year. The event will benefit the Guggenheim, White Columns and Studio in a School organizations.

ALL THE RAGE: Lower East Side burlesque boîte The Box hosted a slightly more buttoned-up (though no less provocative) show on Monday night — a screening of “Rage,” a dark comedy about a series of murders that take place in a fictitious New York fashion house. Many of the film’s stars, including Jude Law, Lily Cole, Steve Buscemi and John Leguizamo were on hand to watch the flick, which is out now in theaters, on DVD and available online for download.

Buscemi, who plays one of the lone fashion outsiders in the cast, said he could identify with his character. When asked about the extent of his fashion knowledge, the actor said: “I wear clothes. That’s about it.” (He also added that he happens to be good friends with Nanette Lepore.)

Cole obviously had far more industry experience from which to draw — though the mannequin said “Rage” isn’t exactly true to life. “I think [‘Rage’] is a very extreme characterization of the values in the

fashion industry,” said the Brit, who plays a catwalker named Lettuce Leaf, whose star has risen and fallen within a year. “It tackles a lot of different issues that do not strictly apply to fashion.”

Namely, the fact that Law stepped into drag for the project to play an Eastern European female model named Minx. “He’s a good-looking guy, so it doesn’t surprise me that he made such a good-looking woman,” said Buscemi.

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS: The case of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of L’Oréal’s founder, against the photographer François-Marie Banier has taken a new twist. The public prosecutor’s office of Nanterre, France, has reportedly shelved its own inquiry into the Bettencourt affair, which began in December 2007, when Bettencourt Meyers lodged a complaint for “exploitation of weakness” of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt. This followed Bettencourt giving Banier gifts of almost 1 billion euros, or $1.48 billion at current exchange. The public prosecutor’s office has reportedly decided there isn’t enough evidence to prove an exploitation of weakness. Meanwhile, this summer, Bettencourt Meyers reportedly cited Banier directly in the Nanterre tribunal in order to speed up the legal process. On Sept. 3, a preliminary hearing took place, and a second one is scheduled for Dec. 11. No one at the court could be reached for comment Tuesday.

KNIGHT TIME: “It’s fabulous,” Naomi Campbell cooed as Nick Knight guided her around the “SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution” exhibition. It’s little wonder the supermodel was impressed — she features prominently in the form of a giant suspended polystyrene statue. Manolo Blahnik, Pat McGrath, Ozwald Boateng and Lily Donaldson were among guests who feted the launch of the multimedia show at Somerset House Monday night.

“Nick’s the reason I went into fashion,” said Alexander McQueen, who, like Kate Moss and Laura and Kate Mulleavy, partook of videos. Collaborations with Gisele Bündchen, David Bailey, John Galliano and Brad Pitt also feature in the show, which counts quirky exhibits such as telephones that play voice mails left by Lily Cole and Karen Elson. For his part, Knight is loath to pick a favorite. “That’s like choosing one of your children,” he said with a laugh.

NOT FUNNY: British actress Helen Mirren, 64, wasn’t amused Friday night in Washington, when the audience at the Sidney Harman Center laughed wholeheartedly on at least five occasions during her three-hour, nonstop performance of the tragedy “Phedre.” Playing the randy Greek queen in French playwright Jean Racine’s 1677 play, Mirren tackled the text with an ingenue’s insouciance infecting translator Ted Hughes’ irony with her own brand of girlish whimsy. Onstage, her elfin smiles and coy hand gestures seemed more impish than gut wrenching. But backstage, her frustration was palpable. According to one cast member, Mirren was “disturbed,” and at one point as she faced another volley of laughter from the audience, she stormed backstage to rail about what was going wrong.

When asked about the laughter, director Nicholas Hytner told WWD that, while the show had elicited “occasional laughter,” Friday night’s audience was “freaky.”

During the play’s run, Mirren is staying at the British ambassador’s house while the rest of the cast holds up at the Hampton Inn in Chinatown. On Friday, at the end of the 10-day, sold-out D.C. run, British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald and his wife, Julia, who prevailed on Hytner to bring the company to Washington, plan to host a luncheon in Mirren’s honor the day before her last show.

Vera Wang and Mario Grauso in her Mercer Street store.

Lily Cole in a Bally dress and a Stella McCartney jacket.

Naomi Campbell and Nick Knight

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6 WWD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

A Knotty Affair

Burberry Prorsum: “You’re such a grown-up girl now, darling,” said Mario Testino to Emma Watson as he slipped into the front-row seat next to Burberry’s newest poster girl — and Brown freshman — before the brand’s punchy, trench-centric show on Tuesday night.

Burberry, which came back home this season to mark the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week, drew the sort of marquee names the city hasn’t seen since Giorgio Armani blew into town to show Emporio Armani three years ago. Front-row guests included Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Victoria Beckham, Freida Pinto, Dev Patel, Mary-Kate Olsen, David Walliams, Samantha Cameron and Agyness Deyn.

“It feels like the Academy Awards,” said Natalie Massenet. “There’s a red carpet and everything.” Some of the Americans — including Stephanie Solomon, vice president and fashion director of Bloomingdale’s — swooped into the city just for the show, which was held at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and for the after party, held at Burberry’s new headquarters nearby.

“I promised myself I wasn’t going to travel during term-time, but I really wanted to be here, so I just got on the plane — and I’m leaving tomorrow,” said Watson, adding she has some “really nice” college roommates, but isn’t sure yet what her major will be.

Paltrow said she was at the show to cheer on Christopher

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto

Emma Watson

Victoria Beckham

For full runs of shows, see WWD.com.

For full runs of shows, see WWD.com.

Pringle of Scotland: The Scottish landscape — from the heather-clad hills and windy beaches to the mushrooms that grow by the roadside — fed Clare Waight Keller’s imagination for an ultrafeminine, knitwear-focused collection. Ryan McGinley’s short film starring the Highlands-dwelling Tilda Swinton, featuring the actress scrambling over castle walls and running along beaches in full Pringle gear, set the tone before the show. The clothes included viscose sweater dresses with narrow front ruffles; kiltlike skirts; body-hugging dresses wound with tiny pleats, and coppery silk mesh tops. For several seasons, Waight Keller has been mixing different weaves in the same piece, and she continues to experiment. One lightweight dress featured woven lace and snaglike openwork, while others mixed crochet and flat-weave techniques.

Erdem: Erdem Moralioglu conjured up a natural fashion world of his own for Erdem. He sent out lots of multicolored flowers, some embroidered on simple shifts, others screen-printed onto dresses with tiered, ruffled skirts. The designer played with lace, fashioning it into a double-breasted white trench or a long-sleeved minidress. Black lace grabbed its share of the spotlight, too, layered over a blue dress or cut into bits to adorn a pink one. Although Moralioglu has worked with both flowers and lace in previous seasons, he never fails to keep them fresh.

Adidas by Stella McCartney: Stella McCartney screened a short film showing model Anouck Lepère diving into a pool in a racer-back swimsuit; cycling in a cap-sleeve, zebra-print top, and walking in a shiny petrol blue running jacket. Spotlighting two new categories for the Adidas collection — triathlon and cycling — the film will bow online in January. And while the garments may stand up to the rigors of sport, the collection still bears all of McCartney’s lighthearted, feminine design signatures. One dusty pink warm-up jacket features delicate puff shoulders, while a pair of leggings has a black-and-white trompe l’oeil acid-wash denim print. A shiny, tomato red cycling top was inspired by McCartney’s own experiences in the dicey London traffic. Bicycle gear has never looked so sexy.

WWD.COM7WWD, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

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Bailey, Burberry’s creative director, and to give her city’s fashion week a boost. “London’s my hometown — during the school year at least,” she said. “I feel like I’ve gotta give it some support.”

Beckham said she’s been bouncing back and forth across the Atlantic in the name of fashion and family. “I had my presentation in New York, and then went back home to check on David and the kids. Then I flew over here to go to the British Vogue dinner last night.”

And Bailey didn’t let down his fans. He celebrated volume and texture in this powerful collection, putting a sarilike spin on his trenches — and most other clothing — draping, knotting, twisting and ruching washed and distressed fabrics, including gabardine, chiffon, tulle and silk duchesse satin.

He knotted and twisted and built up the shoulders of trenches and jackets, putting a decidedly artsy spin on the power shoulder, and wrapped and draped tulle skirts around the hips so that they looked like swirls of icing. Cashmere knits with knotted shoulders twisted and bunched around the body, while ruffles spilled down the fronts and backs of trenches and snaked around the neckline of one cotton candy-colored dress.

Colors ranged from earth tones and mineral hues like copper, sand, and mud, mostly for the trenches, trench dresses and skirt suits, to sugary pastels, including lavender for a fur chubby and peppermint and lemon for the draped and knotted dresses.

“It was beautiful,” said Paltrow, who rushed backstage to congratulate Bailey after the show. “There was a lot I could totally see myself wearing,” said Pinto. “Especially all the pastels.” Olsen praised Bailey’s lightness of touch — and his verve. “I love that he shows so much enthusiasm. That’s what it’s all about,” she said.

more runway news...

Gwyneth Paltrow

LONDONcollections/spring ’10

Pringle of Scotland

Erdem

Adidas by Stella McCartney