Dog Days

What do you do to liven up the dog days of August? If you’re Karl Lagerfeld, you send out Japanese-style Bearbrinks styled with Chanel logos, tweed, camellias and oversized black sunglasses. If you’re Hedi Slimane, you step out to a party at Missteps in New York, camera at the ready, to photograph clumps of young men. But if you’re Lars Nilsson, you quit your job at Nina Ricci “for personal reasons”. There’s a wee bit of humor in the role reversal – Nilsson was fired from Bill Blass in New York the morning after getting good reviews for a catwalk show. Now Nilsson has divorced himself from Nina Ricci in Paris five months after getting good reviews for a catwalk show.

The CEO of the Puig Group, Mario Grauso, which owns Nina Ricci, interrupted his vacation long enough to issue a statement of regret over Nilsson’s unexpected split. But the person who’s probably ended his vacation early is the currently-unemployed Olivier Theyskens, a spurned designer prepared to accept offers from suitable admirers. Could Nina Ricci be the new Rochas?

– Timothy Hagy