Ungaro sees creative director depart

Ungaro, the luxury French fashion house, is saying goodbye to its creative director, Esteban Cortazar.

After only three runway collections, the designer and company are thought to have clashed over its marketing and advertising strategy.

According to WWD, Mounir Moufarrige, Ungaro’s chief executive officer, is said to be pushing for a celebrity for future ad campaigns to help wake up the house, and has been in talks with about half a dozen potential candidates, including Lindsay Lohan, but they would have nothing to do with design.

Ungaro has not done a campaign for its womenswear for many seasons, and the executive is keen to revive its provocative heritage, sources said. The couture house, founded by Emanuel Ungaro in 1965, once featured an ad of a dog in a studded collar licking a woman’s feet, for example.

Cortazar's successor has not been named, but Moufarrige is known for making bold and unexpected decisions, most famously for replacing Karl Lagerfeld with Stella McCartney, then age 25, as head designer of Chloé in 1997.