It's all change at Lanvin once again, as the fashion house names yet another new artistic director for womenswear, Olivier Lapidus.
The announcement comes following Bouchra Jarrar's shocking departure on July 6, after just 16 months at the helm. A respected couturier, Jarrar had closed her own label to join Lanvin, and her next move remains unclear.
After a difficult 2016 that saw Lanvin suffer a reported 23 per cent drop in revenues, Jarrar quit the role claiming that she was unable to turn the company's fortunes around single-handedly. In March, she told the South China Morning Post: "I need the whole house's support; alone it's impossible."
Olivier Lapidus has been selected to take over at the storied French label. Jarrar's successor has a distinguished fashion pedigree. He's the son of Ted Lapidus, the man who dressed The Beatles, and he headed up Balmain Homme in the mid-1980s before joining his father's company.
It is rumoured that Lanvin wants to rebrand itself as a French Michael Kors, with a wider customer base. To this end, Lapidus may be a wise choice. His first womenswear collection for the label will be unveiled in September.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Family reunited
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was born and raised in Tehran and studied English literature before working as a translator in the relief effort for the Japanese International Co-operation Agency in 2003.+
She moved to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies before moving to the World Health Organisation as a communications officer.
She came to the UK in 2007 after securing a scholarship at London Metropolitan University to study a master's in communication management and met her future husband through mutual friends a month later.
The couple were married in August 2009 in Winchester and their daughter was born in June 2014.
She was held in her native country a year later.+
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
