Ungaro's Giles Deacon a cool sartorial savior

(10-24) 04:00 PDT Paris - --

It's 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 3. Paris Fashion Week is under way, and Giles Deacon should be having one of the more stressful days of his life. But if he's fretting, it's not evident.

The 40-year-old Brit is the newest creative director at the French fashion house of Emanuel Ungaro, owned by tech titan Asim Abdullah of Atherton - and the sixth since Ungaro himself left in 2004.

Deacon's spring 2011 collection will debut the next day, and with the revolving door ready to thump him unceremoniously on the rear, the pressure is on. The once-lauded brand became an industry laughingstock last year, when troubled starlet Lindsay Lohan was hired to work with designer Estrella Archs. The move nearly brought the house down.

But now, the question is whether Deacon is merely a life buoy, or Ungaro's sartorial savior.

A 1992 graduate of London's prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, he won the British Fashion Awards' Designer of the Year honor in 2004. His resume includes stints at Bottega Veneta, Gucci and Louis Vuitton. His own line, Giles, is reportedly profitable. He's a pro, or so it seems. Maybe that's why he strides down the hall of the second floor at 2 Avenue Montaigne on an unseasonably warm October afternoon, beaming, looking at ease as he extends a firm handshake.

"Nervous?" Deacon responds to an interviewer's question. "Not at all. I'm excited."

So, too, is Abdullah, the house's owner, who has flown in from the Bay Area for Fashion Week. He emerges from an office to say hello, looking cheerful and devoid of the dark under-eye circles he has sported in the past.

Calm amid a storm

This relaxed atmosphere is striking to a repeat visitor, who in past years has observed a certain level of anxiety, if not chaos, in the days before the runway show - racks of gowns crowding the hallways, clothes piled in offices, workers scurrying around.

Today, the atelier is tranquil. Is Deacon overbearing? An ogre commanding silence? None of the above. Turns out, he is more like a high-fashion Boy Scout, with that all-familiar motto: Be prepared.

"The more organized and professional everyone is, the more creative people can be," Deacon says. "Disorganization leads to mistakes, in designs, in cutting the clothes wrong. It has to be as near perfect as it can be, to the best of everyone's abilities."

This is exactly the way Abdullah, who made a fortune selling his Veo Systems to Commerce One, wants it. Not that he hasn't tried before.

But retooling an undervalued company doesn't come easy, and high fashion does not move as nimbly as high tech. It is not a case of simply throwing money out to hire top talent. A designer needs to be an artist and businessman at once, creating clothes that will have broad appeal to luxury clients and aspirational consumers alike.

And with the global recession lingering, luxury-goods makers are finding it tougher than ever.

Ungaro hopes to avoid the route of Christian Lacroix, a house that recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after the company failed to prove commercially viable, and Lacroix himself left.

New creative director Sacha Walckoff has abandoned womenswear for now, in favor of men's apparel and licensing agreements for Lacroix-branded linens, upholstery, housewares and other products expected to generate mass-market sales.

Pierre Mallevays, managing director of Savigny Partners LLP, a corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions firm in London, noted that some luxury brands - Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Chanel, to name a few - have not only managed to withstand the downturn, but have actually increased market share in recent years.

He attributes it in part to "an uncompromising commitment to high quality and craftsmanship and brand integrity" and to a more complete control of the product, something he implied that Ungaro has lacked.

A balancing act