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French Luxury Group Kering to Buy 30% Stake in Valentino for 1.7 Billion Euros Cash 

Italian fashion designer Valentino, right, standing underneath the logo of his fashion house, answers the questions of a fashion reporter prior to the presentation of his Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2008 fashion collection, on Jan. 23, 2008, in Paris. (AP)
Italian fashion designer Valentino, right, standing underneath the logo of his fashion house, answers the questions of a fashion reporter prior to the presentation of his Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2008 fashion collection, on Jan. 23, 2008, in Paris. (AP)
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French Luxury Group Kering to Buy 30% Stake in Valentino for 1.7 Billion Euros Cash 

Italian fashion designer Valentino, right, standing underneath the logo of his fashion house, answers the questions of a fashion reporter prior to the presentation of his Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2008 fashion collection, on Jan. 23, 2008, in Paris. (AP)
Italian fashion designer Valentino, right, standing underneath the logo of his fashion house, answers the questions of a fashion reporter prior to the presentation of his Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2008 fashion collection, on Jan. 23, 2008, in Paris. (AP)

French luxury conglomerate Kering has reached a cash deal to purchase a 30% stake in Italian fashion house Valentino for 1.7 billion euros from a Qatari investment firm.

With the purchase, Kering is seeking to shore up its revenue stream as it struggles to turn around former powerhouse Gucci. Kering on Thursday reported first-half revenues of 10.1 billion euros, up 2%, as Gucci sales stagnate.

Under the deal announced Thursday, Kering has the option to buy 100% of Valentino no later than 2028. The partnership could lead to the Qatari investment firm, Mayhoola, becoming a shareholder in Kering, as well as other potential “joint opportunities,” the statement said.

Kering Chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault expressed admiration for “the evolution of Valentino under Mayhoola ownership,” which Kering said turned Valentino “into one of the most admired luxury houses in the world.”

“I am very pleased of this first step in our collaboration with Mayhoola to develop Valentino and pursue the very strong strategic journey of brand elevation,” citing the role of Valentino CEO Jacopo Venturini, who “will continue to lead.”

Gucci, which accounts for nearly half of Kering revenues, is in the throes of a relaunch, with a new management team and a new creative director, Sabato De Sarno, who will unveil his first collection during Milan Fashion Week in September.

Valentino, founded by Valentino Garavani in 1960, recorded revenues of 1.4 billion euros in 2022. Pierpaolo Piccoli has been creative director at Valentino since 2008, working alongside Maria Grazia Chiuri from 2008-16.

With its corporate base in Milan and design studio in Rome, the fashion house is a mainstay of Paris fashion week with its womenswear and couture collections while recently returning menswear to Milan.

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Fashion

Talk of Olympic Fashion at Starry Ralph Lauren Fashion Event

Jessica Chastain poses for photographers upon arrival at a Ralph Lauren event during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jessica Chastain poses for photographers upon arrival at a Ralph Lauren event during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
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Talk of Olympic Fashion at Starry Ralph Lauren Fashion Event

Jessica Chastain poses for photographers upon arrival at a Ralph Lauren event during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Jessica Chastain poses for photographers upon arrival at a Ralph Lauren event during the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 27, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Fashion. Sports. And of course, the rain.
Those were the topics — separately, and together — on everyone’s lips as a gaggle of luminaries from sports, entertainment and media packed into Ralph Lauren’s Paris eatery Saturday evening in yet another high-wattage celebrity Olympic gathering in the French capital.
The starry crowd at Ralph's Restaurant included Oscar winner Jessica Chastain, Nick Jonas, John Mulaney and Alan Cumming, among other entertainers. First lady Jill Biden arrived late and drew a large crowd around her, The Associated Press reported.
“Saturday Night Live” executive producer Lorne Michaels was there, pointing to his shoes and noting they were still wet from the previous evening’s epic, and rainy, opening ceremony. “These shoes are not all-weather,” he explained. The ceremony had left many drenched, but most still very happy to be there — including Michaels.
“Let’s put it this way, I was watching in a place with a lot of stars, and nobody was complaining,” he said.
Also not complaining: the Olympic athletes in attendance, who’d spent much of the previous evening on a boat in the rain. Had they been worried about catching cold?
“It was a thought,” said Jeffrey Louis, a member of the US breaking team competing in the sport’s Olympic debut, “but then I figured we’d just all get sick at the same time."
"So we all embraced it,” added Louis, who said he had tried to cover up with a poncho briefly, but when he put it down, someone swiped it. But he survived the rains in good health — in any case, his competition is not until the end of the Olympics.
Likewise, Chiaka Ogbogu, a US volleyball player, decided to not to worry about colds. “We’re in it, so might as well not worry about it," she said she thought at the time. Also, she noted: Athletes are some of the toughest people out there. They can deal with colds.
Ogbogu, who is competing in her second Olympics after Toyko in 2021, said she was delighted to be at a Ralph Lauren event because she is a self-described “fashion nerd.” Asked which team uniform she liked the best — besides her own Team USA kit, which she was wearing — she noted the elegant Mongolian uniform, which has been widely acclaimed. She also admired Haiti's vibrantly colored designs, which likewise have gained attention
Singer-actor Nick Jonas cited a special reason for loving the Indian uniforms in the three colors of that country’s national flag: “My wife’s Indian,” he noted, referring to spouse Priyanka Chopra. He'd just flown into Paris a few hours earlier for a whirlwind few days at the Games, during which he plans to watch gymnastics with star SImone Biles, among other things.
Jonas missed the chance to see the opening ceremony in person — and to get wet — but watched it on TV. He said he was amazed by the production values — noting in particular the French tricolor smoke billowing over a bridge. “That was like nothing I've ever seen," he said.
As for fashion — the theme of the night — almost everyone seemed to agree that these 2024 Olympics had taken fashion up a notch. Ogobogu, the volleyball player, said it was “almost inevitable — I mean, it’s Paris!”
David Lauren, the label’s chief branding and innovation officer and son of founder Ralph Lauren, who did not attend, attributed it partly to the rise of social media and how quickly images of Olympic fashion travel these days, as compared to 2008 when the label began outfitting the US team.
To make his point, he whipped out his phone and showed an Instagram video of LeBron James, a US flag bearer with Coco Gauff, being readied in his white Lauren jacket with red-and-blue trim. It had nearly 850,000 likes.