Ungaro appoints Giles Deacon

After months of speculation, Giles Deacon has been named creative designer at Emanuel Ungaro, the Paris-based label said in a statement Tuesday. The announcement follows the departures of its former CEO, Mounir Moufarrige, the designers for both the women's and men's labels and its short-lived artistic adviser, Lindsay Lohan.

With the appointment, British designer Deacon becomes the latest in a series of designers to attempt to right Ungaro, which has been bleeding money since the 2004 retirement of its founder and namesake.

A graduate of the prestigious Central Saint Martins School of design, Deacon has garnered considerable critical acclaim for his signature label, founded in 2004.

"Not only is Giles recognized as a designer with extraordinary talent, he has the gravitas and the sensibility to reinterpret the rich heritage of Ungaro with a contemporary point of view," the statement quoted Ungaro general manager Marie Fournier as saying.

Once favoured by Hollywood's elite, Ungaro has long struggled to attract young consumers. In an attempt to rejuvenate the brand, Moufarrige — a Lebanese-born businessman who has made a career out of dusting off slumbering labels — joined as CEO and president in 2006.

However, Moufarrige, who stepped down late last year, struggled to turn the label around, and his attempts to appeal to younger consumers appeared to grow ever more desperate as the years ticked by.

The house became a revolving door as Moufarrige hired and fired designer after designer. Critically hailed wunderkind Esteban Cortazar, who joined Ungaro in 2007 at age 23, left just weeks before October's spring-summer 2010 collections.Moufarrige replaced him with young Spanish designer Estrella Archs and brought on as artistic adviser "Freaky Friday" star Lohan — who, despite having her own line of leggings, is more noted for her regular appearances in tabloids than her design ability. The result was disastrous. Critics ravaged Archs' and Lohan's hastily thrown together collection of ultra mini dresses and skintight pants paired with pasties.

Ungaro later said its relationship with the star had been severed. Moufarrige, Archs and Frenchman Franck Boclet, who designed Ungaro's menswear label, all resigned after the Lohan debacle, leaving the future of the house in question.

Tuesday's statement said Deacon will show his first collection for Ungaro next season, during Paris' spring-summer 2011 ready-to-wear collections in October. "It is genuinely exciting to be creative director of one of the few remaining independent houses on Avenue Montaigne," the hub of Parisian luxury, the statement quoted Deacon as saying.

Image: Ungaro