The Lohan Effect On An Un-Ungaro

I am trying desperately to make sense of Lindsay Lohan as Artistic Adviser of Emanuel Ungaro.  Even as I type those words, they just don’t make sense.  She took her final walk hand in hand with new Ungaro chief designer Estrella Archs, who is a Central St. Martins honors graduate and has worked for Hussein Chalayan, Pucci, and LaCroix.  Lindsay is, well, not a graduate and the only design experience she has is in the legging business.

However, the change is a sign of our time.  Celebrities are king, stealing magazine covers from supermodels, taking over cosmetics campaigns, and attaching their names to design projects.  So when it’s sink or swim time for an iconic label who has somehow struggled to capture positive attention even with boy wonder Esteban Cortazar at the design reigns, maybe the label needed to cause some celeb drama rather than bring in another big name talented designer.  And you can’t get more dramatic than La Lohan.

The show occurred today in Paris and according to insiders, the venue was packed with way more attendees than usual.  Perhaps the Ungaro team saw what a media storm the Charlotte Ronson show has been since Lindsay started canoodling with Sam Ronson.  Now, the CR show is one of the toughest tickets in NYFW.  The reviews are just starting to roll in, but the Twitterverse is going so crazy over it that I am sure that #ungaro will become a trending topic.

Hilary Alexander of The Telegraph has already labeled the collection as “falling short”, but did wish them luck for future collections.  Will anyone actually grant Ungaro a fabulous rave review with the post-rehab, tabloid princess having such a huge influence on a Parisian design house?  Regardless of good or bad, everyone is talking about it, which is perhaps exactly what the label was looking for.

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Lindsey Calla is a fashion writer living in NYC.  Read more from Lindsey at her blog, Saucy Glossie