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Fashion House Smcp’s Bondholders Expect Initial Bids for Their Stake by Mid-may - Sources

A Maje label is pictured on clothes inside a Maje luxury clothing store, operated by SMCP Group, in Paris, France, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
A Maje label is pictured on clothes inside a Maje luxury clothing store, operated by SMCP Group, in Paris, France, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
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Fashion House Smcp’s Bondholders Expect Initial Bids for Their Stake by Mid-may - Sources

A Maje label is pictured on clothes inside a Maje luxury clothing store, operated by SMCP Group, in Paris, France, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier
A Maje label is pictured on clothes inside a Maje luxury clothing store, operated by SMCP Group, in Paris, France, December 21, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Bondholders in French fashion group SMCP (SMCP.PA), the owner of labels such as Sandro and Maje, are expecting first-round, non-binding bids for their 37% stake in the company by mid-May, said two people with knowledge of the transaction.

The bondholders, which include asset manager BlackRock and private equity firm Carlyle (CG.O), appointed investment bank Lazard Frères SAS to advise on the sale that kicked off in March.

The 37% stake is worth around 227 million euros ($251 million) based on SMCP's market value of 613.8 million euros at Monday's close, Reuters reported.

Potential buyers include private equity funds and other fashion retailers, said one of the people, who declined to be identified as the information is confidential.

The interested parties are taking into consideration that their acquisition of the stake would trigger a general takeover of the entire company and therefore are assessing the deal on that basis, the person added.

Rothschild & Co is advising SMCP in the sale, the company said in March.

Alastair Beveridge and Daniel Imison of AlixPartners UK LLP, who act as an intermediary for the bondholders, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SMCP and the two advisers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bondholders became equity owners in the French company after European TopSoho, a unit of Shandong Ruyi (002193.SZ), failed to meet a debt obligation of 250 million euros ($265.95 million) exchangeable for shares in SMCP in 2021.

The Chinese conglomerate, which embarked on a buying spree in 2015, acquiring labels including Aquascutum, Cerruti 1881 and Savile Row tailor Gieves & Hawkes, sought to build an empire to rival that of luxury behemoth LVMH, but struggled under the debt of its purchases.

SMCP reported 1.2 billion euros in sales for 2022, up 16.1% year-on-year and 266.6 million euros in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, up 8.5% from 2021.

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Fashion

Saint Laurent Says Designer Anthony Vaccarello to Leave

(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
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Saint Laurent Says Designer Anthony Vaccarello to Leave

(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)
(FILES) Belgian designer for Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello acknowledges the audience at the end of the women's 2018 Spring/Summer ready-to-wear collection fashion show in Paris, on September 26, 2017. (Photo by ALAIN JOCARD / AFP)

Belgian fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello will leave his post as chief designer at Saint Laurent after a decade in charge, the French house's parent company Kering announced Friday.

"Anthony Vaccarello has played a key role in Saint Laurent's development, helping to strengthen its identity and influence across the worlds of fashion and culture," Kering said in a statement, without giving any reason for Vaccarello's departure.

The designer had hinted at his potential exit at his final show for Saint Laurent on September 29.

Saint Laurent is the last major Kering brand to switch creative director as a ⁠luxury ⁠industry slowdown prompted designer changes last year at Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta.

"The focus of the new designer will be in currently under-represented product categories, such as women's daywear and menswear, in high-end leather goods, and less penetrated regions such as China/Asia," Barclays analysts said in a note.

Industry speculation points to Chemena Kamali, currently creative director at Chloe and previously womenswear design director at Saint Laurent, as Vaccarello's likely successor.
Saint Laurent's gross revenues fell by 9% and 6% in 2024 and 2025, before largely stabilizing this year, according to Kering.

Fashion

Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa Watch Chanel’s Creative Revival at Paris Fashion Week

Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
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Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa Watch Chanel’s Creative Revival at Paris Fashion Week

Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Models present creations for Chanel Women's Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on October 5, 2026. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)

Chanel’s artistic director Matthieu Blazy sent the fashion house's suits stretching towards sportswear and evening dresses drifting through clouds, with Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa and Pedro Pascal in the audience as he unveiled his spring-summer 2027 collection.

The Monday night show underscored that a year into his creative revival, Blazy has made the house feel newly unpredictable.

The former Bottega Veneta designer succeeded Virginie Viard, who took over after Karl Lagerfeld ’s death in 2019. Viard’s tenure brought record sales but Blazy’s contribution has been to restore a sense that Chanel’s familiar ingredients can produce something unexpected.

That renewal is visible in his treatment of the house’s symbols: tweed can stretch; formal jackets sit against bare skin; quilted bags turn slouchy.

The appeal lies in giving established clients something recognizable, and newer ones something to reinterpret.

Beneath illuminated birds at the Grand Palais, Blazy's collection traced Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s passage from Edwardian constraint towards the freedom she sought in dress.

“It’s about the women within a woman,” Blazy wrote in his notes.

Across 83 looks, that meant expanding the possibilities of a Chanel wardrobe: knits that skimmed the body, masculine tailoring, airy eveningwear and sharply abbreviated skirts.

Raw-edged waistcoats and narrow skirt suits reworked men’s formal clothes. A pearl-embroidered corset top paired with black trousers brought the tension between restriction and ease into focus.

Older fashions lingered in ruffled collars, peplums and traces of corset boning.

The strongest development was Chanel’s new “smocked tweed,” designed to stretch and move with something of athleticwear’s ease. It was a useful proposition for an expensive, familiar garment: preserve its character while improving its possibilities.

Competing patterns and frothy tutus sometimes tipped towards costume. Dres

ses made from layered, printed silk were more persuasive, turning cloud formations and changing light into shifting color, The Associated Press reported.

Model Dyanira Hurbuscher opened and closed the collection — carrying Gabrielle Chanel’s own 2.55 handbag, borrowed from the famed archives.

That element neatly framed the collection’s ambition: continuity with room for change — a balance Blazy’s revitalization of Chanel rests on.

He has made Chanel's heritage feel available for play, backed by serious work in the ateliers.

Lipa wore a sleeveless skirt suit with pink heels. Kidman attended with her daughter Faith Margaret.

Fashion

Chanel Unveils Tiger-Print Tweed and Sheer Skirt Suits in Spring/Summer Paris Show

Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)
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Chanel Unveils Tiger-Print Tweed and Sheer Skirt Suits in Spring/Summer Paris Show

Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)
Models present creations from the Spring/Summer 2027 collection of Chanel during Paris Fashion Week, in Paris, France, 05 October 2026. (EPA)

Chanel showed see-through skirts and tiger-print tweed in creative director Matthieu Blazy's spring/summer 2027 collection on Monday as the Parisian fashion house rides a wave of enthusiasm that has helped drive sales even as other luxury brands struggle.

Since his first collection a year ago, Blazy's designs — injecting youthful glitter and loud color combinations into the Parisian label's traditional tweed suits — have attracted new customers to the brand and kept Chanel stores ‌buzzing with activity.

Front-row ‌guests including Dua Lipa, Nicole Kidman, ‌and Pedro ⁠Pascal arrived to throngs ⁠of cameras in the vast expanse of the Grand Palais. The glass dome roof was hung with a giant moon and a flock of luminescent seagulls, while the floor was laid in a Martian orange-and-green pattern in reflective resin.

Models emerged wearing skirt suits in sheer cream ⁠or black fabric embroidered with flowers and beads, ‌and in tweed loosened into a ‌wide windowpane print with mesh panels, or reworked in ‌an eye-catching red-and-white tiger print.

“Chanel felt as alive as ever,” ‌said Angélique Liautaud, womenswear buying and merchandising director at French department store Printemps. “The masculine wardrobe, the fluid dresses, the lingerie, the liberated body, brought a new sensuality to the house.”

Some skirts were sliced ‌into swinging panels, others were shortened into pleated mini-skirts paired with cropped jackets showing the ⁠midriff. Hems ⁠were frayed or finished with metallic beading.

Models sported new versions of the brand's two-tone pumps — in leopard print or tiger print with a cream toe, or baby blue and silver, while sandals were chunky with a large interlocking C logo in gold across the front. Quilted handbags came in black, burgundy, and white with a couple of wild variations in zebra print layered with clashing primary colors.

Blazy, known for soundtracking his shows to anthems from the 2000s, ran out to greet the crowd after the finale to the heavy synths of "Gimme More" by Britney Spears.