Cacharel Plans Relaunch for Spring 2010

French fashion house Cacharel announced last winter that it would be stopping all formal fashion shows. Now the label has just announced its staging a comeback, set to kick off with a spring 2010 collection presented at Paris fashion week in September. The firm's newest managing director Marc Ramanantsoa, with the label since last October, took on the task of relaunching the company for its 50th anniversary with new management, distribution and production structures. Through the comeback, the label intends to get back to its roots, calling upon images of sweetness and romanticism that the company made famous in the Sixties and Seventies. A new design team has also been hired, following the departure of design duo Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto, who left in November after only two seasons at the house. The house has seen its fair share of well-known designers, including husband-and-wife duo Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro who left the house back in 2007.

Now the theme seems to be mixing up the old with the new as the newest design team takes its cues from the signature designs of the label's heyday. We need to remain faithful to our origins, but we need to be modern,” Ramanantsoa said. Cacharel has already created an anniversary re-edition of iconic Liberty-print pieces from the Seventies, using original retro patterns infused with modern designs. The collection launched last March as and successfully followed the label's intent of gaining a new generation of customers. Plans for the spring 2010 relaunch will focus on newer art-inspired pieces designed in collaboration with Colombian painter Alberto Vejarano, a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Vejarano uses an innovative form of technology that allows printing hundreds of colors to replicate the team’s bold creations on fabric.

With the label's relaunch, plans are in the making for more Cacharel stand-alone stores, which are slated to appear in key cities such as Paris, New York, Tokyo, Milan and Dubai. Apart from a stand-alone store in Avignon in southern France and a temporary store in Paris for the Liberty collection, Cacharel currently relies on 226 sales points, including department stores, multibrand stores and online boutiques, to distribute its products. Discussions with potential investors to open further stand-alone stores are ongoing, according to Ramanantsoa.

Article and Photo Source: WWD

-Alia Rajput