Paris - Uninspired? No! Intellectual.

Reuters 8th October 2006:

"This season the designers seemed to have sales in mind with a focus on accessories that create healthy profit margins.

At Chanel models were draped with belts, bangles and bags, while Lacroix's show targeted a new younger clientele with skimpy swimsuits and short hemlines. Designer Karl Lagerfeld has even brought out a CD of his favorite music.

Nearly every model sent out by American designer Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton -- the jewel in the crown of LVMH -- was carrying a handbag, the label's best known product.
LVMH president Bernard Arnault, who this week unveiled plans for a futuristic museum in Paris to promote the heritage of his label and celebrate creativity, said designers should be both creative and commercial.
"That's what we're trying to do and when a collection works well, it's because it's creative," he told Reuters.
His company also owns the Celine and Givenchy labels that showed in Paris this week. Net profits rose to 817 million euros in the first six months of the year and sales of leather goods rose 46 percent in July and August.

But several fashion critics found the week's shows provided little inspiration.
"I think we've seen the struggle of big houses ... when they don't have the right designer at the helm," said Hilary Alexander, fashion director at the Daily Telegraph. "You tend to get either a pile of boring merchandise just to sell handbags or ... collections which are totally incomprehensible."

Vanity Fair Fashion Director Michael Roberts said there were "Too many uninspiring clothes ... I think you can be commercial and still come out with something inspired."
"I think this is really a particularly off season for Paris. Hopefully next year it will be on again otherwise we'll have a problem," he added. "

Robert Burke, head of the luxury consulting firm Robert Burke Associates, said the minimalist trend required skillful presentation on the part of retailers.
"It's a more intellectual sale, as opposed to an impulsive sale. It's all in how it's displayed, how it's merchandised, how it's shown in the windows," he told the AP.
"It's always a balance of making sure that you don't have too much of a sea of black in your store, that you still have color and you still have some embellishment, because while the fashion world moves very fast, sometimes the consumer doesn't move as fast."