# Rise and Fall of the House of Ungaro



## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Ungaro catalogue header for its 2015 watches - (pic from image.slidesharecdn.com):










I recently purchased a pre-owned but unused Ungaro Metro wristwatch, as part of my fashion house watches collection: I didn't expect much and didn't get much because in spite of the famous name of "Ungaro", this watch is an inexpensively made Chinese job, with a plastic Japanese SIIO quartz movement and rather cheap-looking chrome plate on the large square base-metal case. The bezel is metallic black coated, and the black dial has blue numerals and white a silver coloured hands. OK, the watch is quite stylish, and at least the crystal is glass and the strap genuine leather, but that's about it, and the question is, how did such a celebrated name in high fashion become so poor in products bearing it's name. This question is at the heart of my title for this topic: no, it's not original as a New York Times Style Magazine article of 20 August 2010 by Cathryn Horyn also bears this title, but I did think it up independently and only read this 2010 article as I was doing further research.

Ungaro Metro quartz watch from 2011 - the same as my own example described above (pic from thumbs.worthpoint.com):










The height of the Ungaro fashion house came during the period when Emanuel Ungaro was still at the helm. Emanuel Ungaro was born in 1933 in Aix-on-Provence, the son of an Italian tailor who fled his country to escape from Fascism. As a tailor, it isn't perhaps surprising that Emanuel's father had ensured that the first toy his son had was a sewing machine. At the age of 22, Emanuel moved to paris and three years later he began designing for the House of Cristobal Balenciaga. After three years so employed, Emanuel moved on to work for Courreges (graves accent on first 'e'), and then in 1965, with the assistance of Swiss artist Sonja Knapp and Elena Bruna Fassio, he established his own fashion house in Paris.

Right from the start, Emanuel Ungaro garnered attention for both his attitude and his clothes. For example, he refused to show evening dresses at his debut show, stating that, "They are not my style. I am a man of this age and I will design for women of this age." Ungaro rapidly developed a reputation for his flamboyant use of pattern and elegant draping, and his style essentially emphasised comfort and the flattering encasement of the female form. To quote Cathy Horyn (2010) from her excellent article on Ungaro, with whom I share the title of my own topic, "Men loved women in an Ungaro dress, it was said, because the style and the vibrant colors made them imagine what she had on underneath - in a way that an Armani pantsuit did not - and, further, what they might do with this thought. The woman, then, had utterly enslaved the poor devils, and made them pay for the privilege besides. This was essentially Emanual Ungaro's approach when he opened the house in 1967 on the Avenue Montaigne. make them pay!"

Gold plated Ungaro quartz diamante ladies' watch, pre-owned on Gumtree for AU$45 (pic from i.ebayimg.com):










Ungaro was immediately successful, and he garnered some top celebrity clients including Jacqueline Kennedy and Catherine Deneauve. His success was to carry on through the 1970s and 1980s, with a shift in his styling away from colourful ruffles and exuberent palette towards more sober and understated tailoring which became the fashion in the 1980s, just prior to the grunge movement that was also becoming evident. Ungaro launched his first menswear collection, Ungaro Uomo, in 1973, and in the same year, he took part in the Battle of Versailles Fashion Show held in November. his first perfume, Diva, came ten years later, in 1983, and was followed by Senso (1987), Ungaro (1991) and Emanuel Ungaro For Men (1991). It is notable that the business formula adopted by Ungaro was to use the haute couture side to "advertise" the cheaper, and above all the "licensed" products, including the "Emanuel" line of jackets and dresses, which brought in the bulk of the revenue and made the Ungaro family very wealthy. Emanuel married Laura Bernabei in 1988 and he has a daughter, Cosima Ungaro - that, interestingly - seems to be pretty much that as far as revelations about Emanuel Ungaro's personal life is concerned.

By the early to middle 1990s, the Ungaro house was in trouble, losing money and starting to look for a way out of its difficulties. One problem was the hierarchical nature of such haute couture based fashion houses - only when a decision was made at the very top could any new idea be endorsed. Also, the 1990s brought new ideas of fashion and style that didn't really suit the Ungaro fashion philosophy, and by the mid-1990s Emanuel Ungaro had decided to delegate his business to another, selling the majority share in his company to Salvatore Ferragamo SpA and engendering a sort of partnership between the two houses. The idea was for Ungaro to retain its identity but would have a lucrative shoe and handbag division developed by Ferragamo, During this troubled time, the success of the Ungaro fragrances continued and contributed to the formation of a new company between Ungaro, Ferragamo and Bulgari, and the creation of new Ungaro scents - Fleur de Diva (1997), Desnuda (2001) and Apparition (2004).

This rather more substantial offering from Ungaro dates to 2008 and is in solid stainless steel with 10 ATM WR and quartz movement (productionparadise.com):










Emanuel Ungaro was still at the head of his fashion house if no longer the true "master of the household" and in 1998 he hired Giambattista Valli from his position as Creative Director at Krizia to help him sort things out so that he himself could gradually exit from the scene. The two men worked together until 2004, during which Ungaro still had a substantial - if insufficient - number of regular couture customers. However, after a disagreement between Valli (who was by now the company's global communications director) and Emanuel's wife, Laura, Valli left the label. This was probably the final stimulus that caused Emanuel Ungaro to finally retire from the business and in 2005 he sold the label to business man Asim Abdullah for US$84 million. Emanuel then retired from the fashion industry.

The purchase of the House of Ungaro by Asim Abdulla seems almost to have been an act of unbelievable folly, and it is evident that the name of Ungaro suffered badly at the hands of Mounir Moufarriage, the man that Asim Abdullah placed in charge of the ailing fashion label. Abdullah had absolutely no experience in the fashion business; when he took the reigns at Ungaro in 2005 he was a 42-year old computer engineer who had just made a fortune in technology. Originally from Karachi, Pakistan, Abdullah graduated from Stanford and then entered a lucrative phase of entrepreneurship. In the late 1990s, he and a partner founded Veo systems, which created e-commerce software. They merged with Commerce One and Asim Abdullah became a director. This was just before the internet company bubble burst, and Asim managed to successfully turn his company into a public concern, then leave with half his shares, a wealthy man.

The motive for Asim Abdullah to enter the fashion world seems to have been firmed up when, on a business trip to Paris, he learned that Ungaro was up for sale. The idea of marketing luxury goods appealed to him, and he felt that by employing the best people and altering the conventional top-down approach so often found in heritage fashion houses, he could suceed and turn Ungaro around in a few years. Unfortunaly, perhaps inevitably, Asim Abdullah blundered badly in taking on Ungaro, starting with the obvious warning sign that he was the only serious buyer in the fray. He then failed attempt to hire the so-called "best people", and lacked the ability to deal with the fashion world and its populace. The mistakes began to mount up when he put Mounir Moufarrige in charge, and also then found himself with the flight of designers from the brand, starting with Peter Dundas, who subsequently was the star at Pucci. The revolving door of designers continued until the last of them, Esteban Cortazar, left two years after his appointment in 2007 because he refused to work with actress Lindsay Lohan. The blame for this conflict with house designers is certainly the legacy of Mounir Moufarrige, a veteran of the industry who was trusted for too long by Asim Abdullah. Moufarrige was apparently prone to self-aggrandisment and he also became too involved in making design decisions over and above the genuinely talented designers employed at Ungaro.

Solid stainless steel Ungaro chronograph with 24 hour register and 1-second stopwatch. Mineral glass crystal and WR of 50 metres - priced at about £150 (pic from cf4.souqcdn.com):










Lindsay Lohan - was subsequently given the post of Artistic Director, and Cortazar was replaced by new head designer, Estrella Archs, but this was met with shock and dismay at the 2009 Paris fashion Week. As Cathy Horyn (2010) vividly states, " Abdullah is a good man of good character, but he had no instincts for the fashion world, with its fast talkers and almost invisible snares. This was obvious last fall when he agreed to hire Lindsay Lohan as "artistic adviser" for Ungaro. Forty years of labor and passion had gone into that house, and he blew it by putting Loony Lohan on the runway. Who was going to touch a $2,000 Ungaro dress now? The whole thing made Abdullah sick with misery."

Lindsay Lohan did not last long at Ungaro - she had been another bad idea promoted by Moufarrige, and her debut collection at Ungaro was a disaster. Moufarrige had hoped that she would bring publicity and therefore income into the Ungaro coffers, but the reverse effect was the result, and the autumn/winter 2010-11 collection was presented by Archs alone. This collection did not garner much better reviews, and soon after, Lohan left Ungaro in high dudgeon, Moufarrige too departed his role. British designer Giles Deacon was now slated to take over as creative director.

Ungaro continued to struggle as a viable label through 2011, losing money and a sense of direction. However, a revived sense of optimism has been in place since the involvement of the Aeffe Group, the firm responsible for the design, production and distribution of a fashion brand collective including brands like Alberta Ferretti, Jean Paul Gaultier and Cacharel. Asim Abdullah seems to have learned hard lessons and has now accepted the appointment as creative director of someone who really knows what they are doing, in the shape of Fausto Puglisi. This appointment was a deal breaker as far as the Aeffe Group was concerned, and was a brave move since Puglisi is a young talent whose design crfedentials don't really extend to haute couture or mass market clothing. Nevertheless, he has already imbued a new direction at the House of Ungaro, returning the label to catwalk Paris shows in 2013. It remains to be seen as to whether the House of Ungaro can return to long-term stability and fame; at least the fall has stopped short of total collapse.

Rather nice all stainless steel Ungaro watch with 24 hour and seconds registers - Japanese quartz movement, mineral glass crystal and leather strap, priced at £92 (pic from pricena.com):










The watches produced by Ungaro clearly reflect the ups and downs - mainly the downs - of the company and the label, and it would seem that the range is now relatively limited as far as current marketing is concerned. The demise in status for the Ungaro name is reflected in the 2008 association between Emanuel Ungaro and Avon, a collaboration to produce a duo of fragrances, U by Ungaro for Her and U by Ungaro for Him, with actress Reece Witherspoon serving as the scents' spokesperson. Notwithstanding a certain "improvement" in the image of Avon as a genuinely upmarket cosmetics company, the alliance between Ungaro and Avon was not likely to promote the true status of the Emanuel Ungaro label. I do wonder if Avon produced watches at about this time, and later, bearing the Ungaro name - there are certainly watches in Avon brochures with high-fashion brand names, and these inexpensively made timepieces may include examples branded Ungaro.

Ladies' fashion watch by Ungaro with silicon strap and quartz movement - this one from a Polish retailer and priced at about £31 (pic from videodruk.pl):










Whatever the case, there do seem to be two strands of Ungaro branded watches. There are quartz examples that have some quality and reasonable specifications, and there are others, like my own square-cased Metro model, that are made down to a price rather than as quality timepieces. These latter watches are truly just "fashion pieces" rather than serious timepieces, and it is likely that the Ungaro company licensed different quality watches at different times from different manufacturers. I do not know when Ungaro decided to start producing watches but I believe that it may just postdate 2005, and I am not sure who the licensee of the Ungaro name is/was when it comes to timepieces. Nor to I know the dates of production runs for the better Ungaro watches. In addition to models still current, there are apparently "leftover" stocks of various Ungaro watches, indicating that Ungaro watch production has been in phases. What I would say is that, for me, it is nice to have an Ungaro watch - a piece of fashion history that bears the name of a once great Paris fashion house. How far Ungaro has fallen, but perhaps a revival is on the way for this once great name, and if the 2015 catalogue is anything to go by, the recent Ungaro mens' watches are certainly a step up for the brand in terms of quality. I do like a few of the better Ungaro watches - those made for serious wear - and these seem to be mainly the gents' examples. Nevertheless, serious watch collectors are likely to eschew the Ungaro label as being just another fashion brand, and I suppose that I would tend to concur with that conclusion but with a touch of affection for the Ungaro name.

Two men's watches from the 2015 Ungaro catalogue (pic from image.slidesharecdn.com):


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## RWP (Nov 8, 2015)

A lot of research and a good read as always Honour. Some not bad looking watches in there.

Be well. :thumbsup:


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## davidcxn (Nov 4, 2010)

A very well written & researched write up about a brand I knew little about which I have enjoyed reading. :thumbsup:


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## dobra (Aug 20, 2009)

New to me Honour, a well researched and crafted piece.

mike


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## relaxer7 (Feb 18, 2016)

great write up!


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## Mechanical Alarm (Oct 18, 2010)

Simba, Simba...

An old Tarzan reference.


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Thanks folks. Nice to get feedback, especially when it's positive.


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## Guest (Jun 10, 2016)

Mechanical Alarm said:


> Simba, Simba...
> 
> An old Tarzan reference.


 is that tied into ungawa ?


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## Caller. (Dec 8, 2013)

Am I the only one that has never, ever heard of Ungaro? (Where's a shrug smiley when you need one)?


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## Guest (Jun 10, 2016)

Caller said:


> Am I the only one that has never, ever heard of Ungaro? (Where's a shrug smiley when you need one)?


 me too :watch:


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## Caller. (Dec 8, 2013)

And this isn't meant to detract from Honors excellent write up, but I've just never heard of them.


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## Mechanical Alarm (Oct 18, 2010)

Bruce said:


> Bruce said:
> 
> 
> > is that tied into ungawa ?
> ...


 S-o-r-r-y for the humor (in my best Steve Martin voice).


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Aaaaah, Finally relaxer7 I get it, but only by looking up "ungawa" on the inernet. Bruce and Caller may not have heard of Ungaro, but how many members have heard of "ungawa." :laugh:

Nice one though, and I apologise for not immediately getting the joke.


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## Mechanical Alarm (Oct 18, 2010)

> Aaaaah, Finally relaxer7 I get it, but only by looking up "ungawa" on the inernet. Bruce and Caller may not have heard of Ungaro, but how many members have heard of "ungawa." :laugh:
> 
> Nice one though, and I apologise for not immediately getting the joke.


 I'm going to venture a guess and say more than have heard of Ungaro. (Esp. with the new Tarzan movie coming out)


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## Mechanical Alarm (Oct 18, 2010)




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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Yes yes yes, I think I do now get the point. :laugh:


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