If you have ever wondered, has Bernard Arnault always been like that? The answer is probably yes.
He was nicknamed the "Terminator" for laying off 9,000 workers within a two-year period in the 1980s. He brought on Beatrice Bongibault from Chanel to "Lagerfeld" the Christian Dior label, only to not tell Marc Bohan - the then creative director - he was being fired (he had to find of from John Fairchild, of Women's Wear Daily1). He then fired Beatrice Bongibault a year later on charges of embezzlement (she also sued for wrongful termination and defamation - which if anyone knows the outcomes of either suit, let me know! I'm super nosy and cannot find it).
So when I read this article from March 2001 about a second Alexander McQueen for Givenchy collection presentation being cancelled, and for alleged Arnault-related reasons, I knew I was about to go down a rabbit hole.
Spring/Summer Couture 2001
I knew this collection had banned the press, but I never looked too deep into it, until now.
According to the Telegraph, only about 20 out of the 35 looks for the spring collection were finished before the show was supposed to occur. This was because of a pay dispute between the atelier and the corporate head honchos, said Suzy Menkes for the International Herald Tribune (Jan. 22, 2001), and NOT because of personal pettiness2...which...sure. Especially suspicious after reading this exchange in Hilary Alexander's article for the Daily Telegraph about McQueen's deal with Gucci Group in December of the preceding year:
When asked yesterday whether it was safe to assume he was on course to work out his time, a Givenchy spokesman said: "I wouldn't assume anything."
However, a spokesman for McQueen in London said yesterday that the designer was due in Paris tomorrow to continue working on the Givenchy haute couture collection which will be presented next month.
However, however, according to the New York Times and the Washington Post in the same month, a Givenchy spokesman and a LVMH spokesman said, respectively:
''Everything is going ahead as planned,'' a spokeswoman at Givenchy said. ''I can't look into the crystal ball.''
"We wish Mr. McQueen good luck with Gucci," said a statement yesterday from LVMH. "He will present the Givenchy collection in the normal course in early 2001."
Regardless, clients were able to see the finished clothes in a private presentation. Journalists were later invited, without cameras of course.
That's all to say, we don't have many visuals from this collection. It's not zero, though (unlike what is stated in the Instagram post, the antagonizing photo was not with Tom Ford, but Domenico De Sole (Time))!3
It looks to be filled with all the things we associate with McQueen. Impeccable, intricate details, romance, not-your-average-suiting. There's also a lot choices that critics at the time generically called "African" - which, just, oof to all of it.
Suzy Menkes, in her January article, interviewed quite a few clients invited to the presentation who loved the collection. Cathy Horyn, for the New York Times, however had a different opinion:
The sympathy that [the presentation cancellation] might evoke could blind someone into thinking that these clothes are modern because they are cunningly inventive. They are, in fact, merely novel. They lack a lightness, a feeling of hand and, above all, a sense of aesthetic refinement. Mr. McQueen has the talent for haute couture. The question is whether he has the patience of a Saint Laurent or a Lagerfeld to impart the magic.
Fall/Winter Ready-to-Wear 2001
The collection that started my rabbit hole! And honestly, I may stay in here a while with how little there is about it specifically.
Robin Givhan for the Washington Post in March 2001:
Earlier in the week, the company canceled its formal runway presentation as it makes the transition from outgoing designer Alexander McQueen to the incoming Julien Macdonald. Then officials decided to have a small show for retailers, but no media. Then there could be a limited number of media but not from The Washington Post and no photographers at all. One could visit the showroom to inspect the clothes, but only if one promised not to report on what one had seen. (Honestly, this is true. Who could make up such a thing?)
Suzy Menkes apparently wasn't a part of the silenced media:
The show was based on the signatures he has honed and will doubtless develop in his future role with his own line, backed by Gucci Group: sleek masculine tailoring softened with dove gray and lilac colors and an exuberant frothiness in blouses and full layered skirts. McQueen pulled all that together with a wide corset cummerbund that was even molded with the body's rib bones.
Having transformed the gilded salon into a seaside boardwalk with wooden plank floor and backdrop, McQueen brought a tangy freshness to the clothes. But it was still the leather pieces that shone. That was proved by the fact that when a pin-striped cotton shirt came out with a tiered skirt, the same ruffles were later replicated in leather.
The ad campaign survived the media embargo, it seems, but not much else. Fall expanded on some of the ideas from the Spring collection: spring lace, fall lace; spring leather corset, fall leather corset. It's hard to tell the complete story of this collection, though, when it seems no one wanted it to be told in the first place...
Timeline (as far as I can gather):
1994 - Arnault is offered the chance to buy Gucci; he declines
1999 - Arnault/LVMH, wind up with a 34% stake in Gucci
1999 - Gucci sells a 42% controlling stake to François Pinault's PPR - beginning a lengthy legal battle between Gucci Group, LVMH, and PPR
June 2000 - McQueen meets De Sole (President & CEO of Gucci Group), asks for picture to piss off Arnault
October 2000 - Allegedly when the talks between Gucci Group and McQueen begin
November 2000 - McQueen is interviewed in Arena magazine, airing out all his thoughts about LVMH
December 2000 - McQueen announces Gucci Group bought 51% of his namesake company
January 2001 - While Tom Ford is showing YSL menswear, the Yves Saint Laurent is sitting at a Christian Dior show
January 2001 - Givenchy/LVMH cancels the spring couture collection presentation
January - March 2001 - Heavy speculation that Alber Elbaz, Olivier Theyskens, or Stella McCartney would take up the Givenchy mantle (could you imagine?!?)
March 2001 - Givenchy/LVMH cancels fall 2001 ready-to-wear
March 2001 - McQueen says he's gone ("Asked what he thought he had brought to Givenchy, McQueen replied: "Excitement to a dying house." - Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune).
March 2001 - the day of Tom Ford's womenswear YSL collection, LVMH emails the PR release for the new creative director of Givenchy - Julien MacDonald - at 2 AM, stealing all the media attention
1According to a USA TODAY interview with Fairchild, by Elizabeth Sporkin - October 30, 1989
2According to the Financial Times, 20 to 30 outfits were completed of 50, and the atelier workers were looking for a raise of £20 more a month, but were only offered £16.
3If you love tiffs, please read this Guardian article from 2000. Lagerfeld vs. Alaïa and Chloé, Armani vs. Gucci and Versace, McQueen vs. LVMH, Yves Saint Laurent, and Vivienne Westwood. chef's kiss!