In August of last year, Cathy Horyn of the New York Times declared the ‘Fall of the House of Ungaro.’ One would hope that with a track record of bad decisions, both in terms of creative talent and investment opportunities, the house would turn itself around; unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet. In the 80s and 90s you couldn’t walk ten feet in a department store without tripping over an Ungaro, but their cult popularity wore off as women worried less about dressing for their man and more about dressing for themselves. This is a house that’s seen talent such as Peter Dundas, Giambattista Valli, and most recently Giles Deacon in the designer’s chair but in spite of the designers’ aptitude, the house has yet to turn around. This season, we saw a designer-less collection, in spite of Jeanne Labib-Lamour’s finale bow.
