This whole ordeal of whether or not Christian Lacroix’s namesake couture house will be saved or not reminds me of all the uproar surrounding whether or not Peter Som would leave Bill Blass – everyday there’s a slightly different version. Despite credible reports last week that the famed house’s owner, the Falic Group, was going to be receiving a serious a bail out bid by turnaround investment group Bernard Krief Consultants on Monday, July 27th, the judicial administrator of Lacroix said the bid was insufficient and two other bids were called “inconsistent” (two unidentified bidders offered up 1 euro).
That said, the Lacroix administrator did indicate that one offer was potentially serious – from Italian group Borletti (owner of department stores La Rinascente and Printemps). The deadline for offers for the couture house, which has been in administration after filing for bankruptcy protection against its creditors in May, has passed (it was Monday, July 27th). Now they will all be evaluated by a commercial court in September to decide the fate of the legendary house.
Should none of the bids work out, the house’s owner, the Falic Group, will activate a restructuring plan that would cut the Christian Lacroix workforce by 90 percent (from 124 to 12). This would reduce the house, which has not turned a profit in its 22 years of existence, into little more than a licensing operation.
