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  • drexl
    Senior Member
    • Sep 2006
    • 798

    Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

    Published: Thursday, February 28, 2008

    Fashion Scoops: Top Cat... The Blues... To the Nines













    TOP CAT:
    Hussein Chalayan is expected to be named creative director of
    sportswear giant Puma. Sources in Paris said the London-based designer,
    who held a runway show for his fashion line Wednesday, has been tapped
    by Puma to up the lifestyle brand's style quotient. It is understood
    that Puma, controlled by retail and luxury giant PPR, also will invest
    in Chalayan's business. Jochen Zeitz, Puma's chief executive officer,
    sat beside PPR ceo François-Henri Pinault at the Chalayan show, but
    both declined all comment. Puma has been a player in the
    fashion-meets-sporting goods arena in the past, collaborating with
    designers including Alexander McQueen, Jil Sander and Philippe Starck.
    Last year it launched Urban Mobility, a premium accessories range. It
    also tapped Lydia Hearst to design a handbag collection and fitness
    line. Puma and Chalayan are to host a press conference and luncheon
    today in Paris.



    http://www.wwd.com/fashionscoops/article/123006

  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    #2
    Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

    I can't conjure up anything but a Keanu Reeves style "Whooah" [:|]
    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

    Comment

    • kucejoe
      Senior Member
      • Sep 2006
      • 348

      #3
      Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?



      As you succinctly put it, "Whooah"



      Anyways, here is a more in depth article:






      Puma, Chalayan Team Up



      PARIS ? Sportswear brand Puma AG on Thursday named Cyprus-born
      designer Hussein Chalayan as its creative director and acquired a
      majority stake in his signature fashion brand, confirming a report in
      WWD.



      Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. The announcement came
      a day after the London-based designer unveiled his fall women's wear
      collection here.



      "Hussein Chalayan is a proven visionary in the fashion industry,"
      Jochen Zeitz, chairman and chief executive officer of Herzogenaurach,
      Germany-based Puma, said at a press conference here Thursday. "As
      creative director, he will bring use of new technology,
      forward-thinking design and a provocative point of view to Puma."



      Chalayan becomes Puma's first creative director, according to Zeitz, as
      well as the first fashion designer to be appointed as creative director
      of a major sports label. Last year, retail and luxury conglomerate PPR
      purchased a 62.1 percent stake in Puma.



      "Acquiring majority shares of the Hussein Chalayan brand is giving Puma
      the ability to move into a new space, expanding our reach to become the
      most desirable sports lifestyle company in the world," Zeitz said,
      noting that the designer retains a substantial share in his namesake
      company.



      Last week, Puma, Europe's second largest sporting goods brand after
      Adidas, reported that full-year earnings increased 2.2 percent to 269
      million euros, or $371 million, on sales that rose 0.2 percent to 2.37
      billion euros, or $3.28 billion.



      This is not the first time Puma has ventured into the fashion arena.



      According to Zeitz, Puma's collaboration with Jil Sander 10 years ago
      was the first between a sports label and a fashion designer ? ahead of
      rival Adidas' Y-3 collaboration with Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto.
      "[Puma] was the first to use the word 'fashion' in our strategy and to
      do collaborations with designers such as Jil Sander and Neil Barrett,"
      Zeitz said.



      The company has since tied up with high-end designers such as Alexander
      McQueen and Philippe Starck. Puma also boasts a cobranded shoe
      collection with Italian motorcycle maker Ducati Motor Holding SpA, and
      last year it tapped Dutch designer Marcel Wanders to create an
      accessories line. It also has a denim collaboration with Hong
      Kong-based Evisu and produces jeans in-house as part of a new lifestyle
      subbrand, dubbed Dassler.



      Zeitz said the partnership with Chalayan brings its fashion involvement
      to the next level. "This is not a collaboration; this is a long-term
      partnership. He is part of our business and we are part of his," said
      Zeitz.



      "This isn't a short-term relationship; this is a marriage," agreed
      Chalayan. "Combining Puma's infrastructure and technological platform
      with PPR facilities, we will be able to turn experimental ideas into
      reality, both for the Puma and Chalayan lines. Hopefully people will
      have the means to access real products evolving from our process rather
      than only seeing them in shows and events."



      Effective immediately, Chalayan will take on the creative mantle
      designing all product categories ? footwear, apparel and accessories ?
      for Puma's Sport Fashion and lifestyle categories. The collections,
      which will be positioned at a premium price point for the sportswear
      category, will be sold through select Puma stores, key concept stores
      and shop-in-shops worldwide.



      "My way of thinking is very appropriate for sports," offered Chalayan.
      "There is something in sportswear that is less transient than in
      fashion. You are constantly building and developing products and
      technology."



      Zeitz said he hoped the deal would boost Puma's apparel business, which
      today is led by the brand's footwear sales. For 2007, Puma sales in the
      footwear segment increased 1.9 percent to 1.48 billion euros, or $2.02
      billion at average exchange, while apparel sales increased by 5.7
      percent to 998.7 million euros, or $1.37 billion.



      Puma also will help to build Chalayan's business internationally,
      according to Zeitz. "The time has come now for [Chalayan] to fully
      expand his potential and build his brand. It is the best opportunity
      [for Chalayan] to evolve in a retail environment," Zeitz said.



      Zeitz did not rule out building stand-alone Hussein Chalayan stores in
      the future, but said the company would aim to grow via wholesale
      channels in the short to medium term.



      "His line will be sold at top accounts. We will build a viable business
      model before venturing into other channels," Zeitz said. Chalayan
      agreed. "We want to become a global brand, but gradually, in a healthy
      way," the designer said.





      It was a deal that happened very quickly, said Hussein Chalayan
      at a press conference with the Chairman and CEO of PUMA, Jochen Zeitz,
      this lunchtime to announce the designer's appointment as the first
      Creative Director of the 'sports lifestyle brand'. But the potential to
      turn what Chalayan deems 'prototypes' - the wearable technology that
      has characterised his work over the past 14 years- in partnership with
      a company whose bread and butter is perfomance technology was too good
      an opportunity to miss. "Technology is the only thing that can make
      fashion look new", he said, "and I'm very excited to turn all that
      research into a reality".


      Zeitz was keen to stress that this was no mere 'collaboration' but a
      long-term commitment -more marriage than short-term relationship added
      Chalayan- and to that end, PUMA, part of Francois Pinault's mighty PPR
      group have bought a 'majority stake' in Chalayan's own company (they
      would not be drawn on how much). A very intelligent communicator, the
      CEO reminded an excitable press pack that it was PUMA (and by
      implication not Adidas)
      that was the first sportswear brand to work with fashion. In 1998, PUMA
      launched a sneakers line with Jil Sander, a good four years before
      Yohji Yamamoto embarked upon his joint line with what Zeitz referred to
      as "the 'A' word". As for whether fashion and sports were good
      bedfellows, Zietz said 80% of PUMA product is now sold as a fashion
      item and acknowledging the emotional correlation between aesthetics and
      performance, cited Linford Christie telling him ten years ago "when I
      look good I run faster".


      The amount of excitement and good will towards Chalayan from those
      writers who have followed his career during a period when it has become
      increasingly difficult for designers without major backing was palpable
      and a joy to witness. With a generation of young designers coming up
      through the ranks whose modus operandi
      is distinctly anti-conceptual and anti-intellectual, ideas-based
      fashion design had been receiving less press support of late. It is a
      wonderful moment for British fashion design to see one of its most
      inspired visionaries and ingenious innovators to have his dreams
      translated into reality. "In Autumn/Winter 2009", Zietz assured,
      Chalayan's "influence will be felt".

      Suspension Point Store (Online + Montreal, QC) / Tumblr / Instagram
      ...

      Comment

      • laika
        moderator
        • Sep 2006
        • 3787

        #4
        Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

        I think this is fantastic news, for both Chalayan and for Puma--good for them for recognizing what he's capable of, and what he can bring to the company. It's should be a very fitting and mutually beneficial partnership, imo. [Y]
        ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

        Comment

        • Faust
          kitsch killer
          • Sep 2006
          • 37852

          #5
          Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?



          [quote user="laika"]I think this is fantastic news, for both Chalayan and for Puma--good for them for recognizing what he's capable of, and what he can bring to the company. It's should be a very fitting and mutually beneficial partnership, imo. [Y]
          [/quote]



          I have to disagree here. I don't think Chalayan will add anything to sportswear, it's a waste of his talents - and I don't see Puma supporting his creative ventures. I predict another downfall of an independent designer gobbled up by a big corporation. This consolidation in fashion is really alarming. Too late, of course.

          Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

          StyleZeitgeist Magazine

          Comment

          • laika
            moderator
            • Sep 2006
            • 3787

            #6
            Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

            [quote user="Faust"]




            I have to disagree here. I don't think Chalayan will add anything to sportswear, it's a waste of his talents - and I don't see Puma supporting his creative ventures. I predict another downfall of an independent designer gobbled up by a big corporation. This consolidation in fashion is really alarming. Too late, of course.



            [/quote]



            You think he's going to stop making his own collections? [^o)] [:O]

            ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

            Comment

            • Faust
              kitsch killer
              • Sep 2006
              • 37852

              #7
              Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

              [quote user="laika"][quote user="Faust"]




              I have to disagree here. I don't think Chalayan will add anything to sportswear, it's a waste of his talents - and I don't see Puma supporting his creative ventures. I predict another downfall of an independent designer gobbled up by a big corporation. This consolidation in fashion is really alarming. Too late, of course.



              [/quote]



              You think he's going to stop making his own collections? [^o)] [:O]



              [/quote]



              That would be the worst case scenario, but I doubt it. Most probably it will be watered down in terms of either design or quality, and will become a non-event. I hope I am wrong, of course, but the recent record of collaborations and takeovers is on my side.

              Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

              StyleZeitgeist Magazine

              Comment

              • laika
                moderator
                • Sep 2006
                • 3787

                #8
                Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

                [quote user="Faust"]

                That would be the worst case scenario, but I doubt it. Most probably it will be watered down in terms of either design or quality, and will become a non-event. I hope I am wrong, of course, but the recent record of collaborations and takeovers is on my side.



                [/quote]



                I was hoping it would go more the way of MMM and Diesel, but I do understand your cynicism. [70]

                ...I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.

                Comment

                • Faust
                  kitsch killer
                  • Sep 2006
                  • 37852

                  #9
                  Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

                  [quote user="laika"][quote user="Faust"]

                  That would be the worst case scenario, but I doubt it. Most probably it will be watered down in terms of either design or quality, and will become a non-event. I hope I am wrong, of course, but the recent record of collaborations and takeovers is on my side.



                  [/quote]



                  I was hoping it would go more the way of MMM and Diesel, but I do understand your cynicism. [70]



                  [/quote]



                  Not cynical, pessimistic.

                  Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

                  StyleZeitgeist Magazine

                  Comment

                  • tjoek
                    Senior Member
                    • Apr 2008
                    • 113

                    #10
                    Re: Hussein Chalayan creative director at Puma?

                    Good, it's about time for Puma to throw Nike out from the throne....

                    ________
                    Honda S65
                    Last edited by tjoek; 01-19-2011, 02:37 AM.

                    Comment

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