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Short term laurels



What’s stopping Indians being in high places for long? I mean, while walking into a Dior Couture show with Paris Fashion Week’s boss Didier Grumbach, he told me that Manish Arora has been appointed Paco Rabanne’s new creative director. And I was very happy. First, Manish had by then several laurels to his credit with many international brands and this was the first time he was going to head a fashion house. Second, he is from India and third, he is a friend from the industry whose work I have followed for many years.

After Didier told me about this, I called Manish and he told me it was true and that the brand will make an official announcement to this effect soon.

With India and what it has to offer in terms of inspiration etc making its rounds globally, I thought it was a nice thing to happen. Besides, Manish had by then proved his mettle on the runways of London and Paris and had become the only name asked about by the European fashion crowd.

Now with the news of him exiting Paco Rabanne, he becomes the second Indian designer to quit an European brand after Ritu Beri who relinquished her post as Jean-Louis Scherrer’s creative director after two seasons.

I wonder what can possibly go wrong at such positions at short time. Brands don’t appoint at just the drop of a hat. They do so after looking at the pros and cons. And I am sure there are contracts also signed stipulating their terms and conditions for a minimum period of stay. After all, in just a couple of seasons no one can turn around a brand, especially the ones like Paco Rabanne which stayed away from fashion runways for many seasons before Manish stepped in. A designer need to settle in and then work on the collections and it surely take more than two seasons and on this count, Manish’s exit comes as a surprise.

However, with all these happening, one form of respite for Indians gasping for news on Indians who are doing well in Europe is that of my country cousin, Ramesh Nair. He worked with Martin Margiela and Jean Paul Gaultier at Hermes and when Gaultier left the brand after many years of being there, Ramesh also said good bye to Hermes. Now I hear he’s doing well at LVMH working closely with its bossman… That’s a welcome respite for sure.

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Posted by Vinod Nair on Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 6:57 pm 
Filed under Fashion · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

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  • http://www.facebook.com/amitbhatia80 Amit Bhatia

    Obama has done himself no good but criticizing the video and then killing of American diplomat. This has become big election issue that he is a weak president who is into appeasing muslims. he should have first have send strong signal by talking tough about killing of US diplomat and then criticize the video but he did the opposite.

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  • The Shaft

    Khamenei is not Khomeini, Zia. Netanyahu is doing his best to arm-twist Obama into attacking Iran’s nuclear-whatever; arranged to kill the US envoy in Benghazi and mock at Obama’s foreign policy gains in the M.E. by the easiest ploy possible – insult the prophet and get the lumpen elements on the street. However, Obama the under-dog fighter will not allow a criminal like Netanyahu to beat him at this game.

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    Barnslayer Reply:
    October 14th, 2012 at 3:45 pm

    Arabs firing rockets into Israel. Yep, that’s Netanyahu arm-twisting obama alright.
    Islam tolerates no religion but islam.

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  • Barnslayer

    How much time have you spent in he USA? Obama is destroying our economy. By the way… ever hear of a poor person giving someone a job? Having money is evil? The Obamas, Oprah, the Kennedys and Clintons are millionaires. So are lots of liberal Hollywood. I guess it’s only evil to you if conservatives have money.

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  • devil_wheels

    I’m not sure how you can compare Romney/Ryan to the BJP. Neither Romney nor Ryan will advocate breaking the law, buildings or people. Both may be personally opposed to abortion but will ultimately uphold Roe vs. Wade.

    Both men also conceive of politics as a civil profession and neither will be found on stage with a naked sword in hand like Modi or countless other Indian politicians. There is just no valid comparison here between Romney and Ryan and the BJP or any other Indian politicians.

    I assume you were trying to make an analogy but it’s not a true one and I’m tremendously happy that you won’t be voting the US Presidential election.

    And by the way, Obama is wrong. They did build it.

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  • devil_wheels

    We are unfortunately living in a world in which many groups think the world revolves around them or at least that it ought to. The Hindus think that their ideology should be at the root of a chimerical “Indianness.” The Muslims think they ought to rule the world. The AARP thinks the old own the world and so do all the unions.

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  • devil_wheels

    There is a problem, yes but going off the deep end in the other direction is not a solution. There are also people like Aayan Ali Hirsi and a great many Muslims who I would not describe as “moderate” in the conventional sense who see the problem. They are becoming more vocal.

    There is also a great deal of culture left in the Islamic world. There are better and more intellectual movies and music that come out of Iran, Egypt and northern Africa than the nonsense that Indians seem to prefer.

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