Lindsay Lohan's Ungaro debut

The fashion critics who reviewed Lindsay Lohan's debut at Ungaro were menacing at the very least. The controversial choice to hire a young, Hollywood actress to consult to an established profit-making French fashion house seems as illogical as it is a snipe to those who study the craft, have genuine talent and relentlessly strive to take fashion forward and relevant through dedication and hard work.

As the International Herald Tribune eloquently stated, Lohan's arrival was greeted by critics as if a McDonald’s fry cook had been installed as the chef of a three-star Michelin restaurant.

“Lindsay, it’s time to get serious about reviving that acting career,” wrote Women’s Wear Daily in a review that called her debut, which took place at the Louvre on Sunday, “an embarrassment” and a “train wreck.” Style.com described it as “a bad joke of a fashion show.” The Examiner wrote "Lindsay Lohan ruins Ungaro."

Celebrity fashion designers have, until now, been mostly an American phenomenon, with lines targeted to department stores under labels by Jennifer Lopez, Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake, among many others. But Ms. Lohan’s arrival at a 45-year-old Paris house known for $1,500 dresses and a tradition of couture craftsmanship was entirely different. Editors and buyers who were present at the Ungaro show were shocked. Some of the models appeared in loose-fitting jackets that flapped open to reveal sequin-covered pasties, in the shape of hearts, on their breasts, leaving several people in the audience aghast. A few dresses looked as if they had been painted onto the models.

Since the retirement five years ago of Emanuel Ungaro, who was famous for making the color fuchsia chic, the house has languished with a revolving door of designers, the last of whom, Esteban Cortazar, quit when Mounir Moufarrige, its chief executive, first suggested hiring Ms. Lohan as his collaborator as a way to drum up publicity. (Obviously, it worked.) Estrella Archs, a Spanish designer who also shows a signature line in Paris, was hastily hired to replace him.

Ungaro’s latest maneuver was at least effective in drawing a heavy-hitting audience, as the editors in chief of Harper’s Bazaar, In Style and Elle and buyers from Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s and Bergdorf Goodman all attended.

Image: Ungaro Lohan
Source: IHT.com