At a time when all fashion advertisements are beginning to look the same, you can always count on Miuccia Prada to keep things interesting. Her new campaign for Spring/Summer 08 reflects the sweet optimism of her collection shown last September in Milan. It could have come right out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with all its nymphs and fairies.

Remarking on Prada’s dramatic move away from tougher designs in seasons past, Sarah Mower said "when Miuccia is fed up with being perverse in the anarchic-fierce way, she’ll change tack yet again and go against the grain by being so sweetly unchallenging you (almost) can’t recognize her." 

But are things as rosy for Prada on the IPO front?

This was the question on everyone’s lips as luxury industry observers debated the fallout of one of the most volatile weeks for the markets in recent memory. Earlier in the week, Tommy Hilfiger’s IPO, also scheduled for 2008, was pulled by Apax Partners which begged the question, would Patrizio Bertelli have to call off Prada’s IPO for the fourth time in a row?

A report by Dow Jones last week cited a source close to the Prada who said that the IPO was being planned for June 2008. The next day, Prada denied that a timetable was in place and asserted that the timing would be based on prevailing "market conditions," but that they still planned to list the stock this year. Blogging Stocks said that if the Prada folks were still planning on a flotation, then it must be for good reason.

In related (but only tangentially) news, men’s MiuMiu will not figure in Prada’s public future. Prada announced its decision to halt production of the men’s MiuMiu collection. While the women’s business has chalked up 100% growth in the past two years to $297 million, the men’s business has been a laggard. The writing was on the wall, however, as most MiuMiu stores (London, Paris, Milan) had already rid themselves of menswear.

Images courtesy of Prada.

© 2008 Copyright Imran Amed – The Business of Fashion

If rumours floating around Paris yesterday are on the ball, then PPR’s Francois-Henri Pinault has now got his acquisitive eyes fixed on Clarins.

The French cosmetics company saw its stock jump 7.7% on the speculation that PPR would make a bid for company in the coming days, pushing its market capitalisation to more than 2.6b euros. This rumour follows previous speculation that L’Oreal would make a bid for Clarins, after the death of its founder Jacques Courtin-Clarins in March of this year.

Acquisition rumours like this are a dime a dozen. But, this one might actually have some legs. An industry insider sitting next to me at last evening’s Walpole Awards said that attempts to reach PPR and Clarins to comment had been completely futile. Neither party had confirmed or denied the rumours – it was just radio silence and phones were just not being answered. It was precisely because of this that he was thinking twice about whether these rumours deserved more serious attention.

Industry analyst Emmanuel Soupe of Banque de Neuflize in Paris says that a link-up between Clarins and PPR’s YSL Beaute unit would make

more sense than a tie-up with L’Oreal, which could pose regulatory problems. Clarins is clearly a potential target. We’ll see consolidation in the cosmetics sector.

An acquisition of Clarins by PPR would follow the acquisition of Puma earlier this year, which was hailed by many as a master stroke by Pinault to enter the booming market for designer athletic wear and shoes, which is a different market than that of other PPR fashion brands like Gucci, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen.