What's this and who bought it?

This is the sort of story that I can't resist. Something so out in left field that I actually feel a pain in my guts to even go there, and feel even worse dragging you all with me.....that's maybe going too far, I need to have witnesses on this dark journey. I start to get that sentimental feeling that Seventh Avenue really isn't that bad and the things that are passed off as fashion are simply that. Then I read, see, hear, or in this case smell something so fetid and rank that I'm shaken from my momentary reverie and tasered back to reality. I'm talking about Peacock International Holdings, the company which now owns the rights to Bill Blass and their decision to relaunch the collection, oh, and the choice they've made for Creative Director.

At the risk of this rant coming off as a personal attack, I will address that now before I go any further. Any designer fortunate enough to land a coveted position such as this is very lucky and to be applauded. The competition is great and the opportunities are Nil. For that reason I must commend the person for their good fortune and wish them well. That said, when the writing on the wall is so large and the message so clear that to read between the lines is just pointless redundancy and that message is "Step away from the burning building", someone should heed the Siren's song.

I have an uncomfortable feeling that eyes, ears, noses and brains are all on vacation. Nobody appears to be home and no one is checking the computer or answering machines for messages. It looks to me like full steam ahead. Scott Patti, the president of the company which does a lot of mens wear, shirts and private label stuff for chains looks and sounds like a guy with some business acumen. He also sounds like a man with an unchecked ego, just like Michael Groveman, the last man who tried to run Blass and drove it straight into an iron wall. Hearing that Steven Chai turned it down, as did any number of others, and Charles Chang Lima was considered but not offered the position is just part of the tangle of threads. Some others tossed their hats in the ring only to be summarily ignored. The biggest downside to the position is that Peter Som and a string of other hopefuls effectively squeezed whatever life remained in the label until it no longer showed any pulse. That said, even Peter has more get up and go than this guy. Ouch, was that hard to say.....

I am showing selections from the last 2 seasons of the designer who will most likely take charge.You can judge for yourselves the gifts that have obviously eluded him. A picture says a thousand words. Now, who knows, maybe Ikram, Michelle Obama and Desiree will call it brilliance and Thakoon and Jason will have another prodigy nipping at their heels.If that happens I may have to stop this blog and go back to Massachusetts and pick apples.

When someone or something dies it is gone. It lives on in our hearts and memories but that's it. Trying to revive it never works. Changing it and giving it a new life is possible, but that has evaded all who have tried at Blass. Halston, Jil Sander, Ungaro, Givenchy, YSL, and countless other companies have been unsuccessful in reviving or giving new life to these grand old houses. The public barely responds, the press eviscerates the collections (the intelligent press, at least) and it's only the owners who fail to wake up and smell the crack.

Jeffrey Monteiro is his name. He was the Design Director at Derek Lam before going out on his own and these images are from his Resort and Fall collections. One gown was all I saw in Resort and the rest of the images speak for themselves. Perhaps the plan for Blass has nothing to do with its DNA, but then why are they calling it "Collection"?

I'm confused. Are you?