Ungaro | Creative Director | Lindsay Lohan

Two years ago, high end French fashion label Ungaro named fallen party girl Lindsay Lohan as its creative director in a move that stunned and horrified the fashion industry. Opinions weren’t improved after Lohan debuted her “collection”- a cacophany of stripper pasties and glittery kiss prints that had had fashion editors reeling. Soon after her split with the brand, Ungaro did a 180, naming esteemed designer Giles Deacon as Lohan’s successor. Though he performed impeccably, Deacon left the company earlier this month. Now Ungaro is back to square one, and strangely, has announced it will continue  without a creative director- purposely- and for the forseeable future. 

The move is most frowned upon by the industry which recognizes that what the line needs now more than ever is a leader with vision. However, this year’s Ungaro fashion show in Paris will be credited to its design team, and it’s still unclear which of them, if any, will bow at its end. 

“I’m not looking for a big name from the outside because I don’t want the development of the brand to be dependent on a big ego,” said Jeffry Aronsson, Ungaro sA’s chief executive, to The Wall Street Journal. “My goal is to revitalize the company in a sustainable way, not a flash in the pan.”

Lindsay Lohan moved on from her stint at Ungaro to become the newest face of the Phillipp Plein ad campaign.

Founder Emanuel Ungaro retired from ready to wear ten years ago, and in that time, the label has tried and failed with five different head designers- though its brief partnership with Lindsay Lohan proved to be its most damaging, in terms of consumer respect. Though once worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Ungaro reported a loss of $8.5 million in 2010. The label’s once coveted collections aren’t even sold in the US anymore, and it retains only one retail outlet in Paris- which often is only half-stocked. It’s understandable that the house has grown tired of trying to find “the one” and instead, wants to simply to focus on production, though that move feels more like the waving of the white flag, than a proactive business approach.

Here’s the problem. High end fashion labels don’t make it without a head designer. Take Dior, which has dragged out its search for a new leader for months now. In the interim, its couture show was by all accounts a mess lacking cohesion, despite being managed by its former head John Galliano’s right hand man, Bill Gaytten. There is no structure in a label that has no definitive vision, or whose vision is dreamed up by its executive board. Design by committee just doesn’t work in this realm.

Perhaps Aronsson is a genius, and this unorthodox move will be the company’s saving grace. Anything is possible, but from the looks of it, Ungaro’s future is being regarded with more trepidation than it is with enthusiasm.