SHE'S GOT THE LOOK

AT the time, nobody thought much of it. It may have seemed a little unsporting to be leaving your own party so early, but when Stella McCartney exited last week's much-hyped Chloe bash a little before 10pm, saying she was "tired", most of the guests took the remark at face value. Of course she was tired: she had just flown back to London from the Oscars, where she had dressed Kate Hudson in a Chloe gown. Who wouldn't be tired?

More specifically, though, it seems that Stella was tired of Chloe. No Press statements have been issued as yet, but it seems certain that McCartney will leave the house when her contract expires in June and go to Gucci. Not to design the Gucci label itself - her anti-fur and leather stance would make that liaison ill-advised - but to take on the far more exciting project of launching her own label, Stella McCartney, bankrolled by one of the biggest titans in fashion, Gucci Group.

What designer could ask for more? It is one thing to lead the design team at a venerable old French house, but quite another to be given your own label.

However successful McCartney's efforts were in stamping her own identity on Chloe, the constant criticism that she was taking the label too far from its roots must have rankled. Taking over from Chloe's former designer, Karl Lagerfeld, was never going to be easy: when he recently dismissed her as "just a designer of T-shirts", the insult stung.

Just like Alexander McQueen at Givenchy - another Brit whose label was recently bought by Gucci Group -McCartney must often have felt a victim of that peculiarly Parisian mentality whereby nothing is ever quite good enough - unless you're French.

The French are incredibly proud and protective of their big design houses.

Much as they might embrace the sound financial wisdom that a "hip" British designer is just the thing to get on board you want to breathe new life into your label, in their hearts they have always found it slightly distasteful that the British must infiltrate their hallowed houses at all. This can lead to hidden tensions - of the sort that McCartney is rumoured to be feeling at Chloe. For all the fuss attending McQueen's appointment at Givenchy, the liaison soon turned sour because Givenchy allegedly refused to give McQueen enough creative control. When McQueen sold his own label to Gucci Group in February, Givenchy's parent company, LVMH, may have been furious, but for McQueen it was the perfect revenge.

Gucci Group understands one fundamental thing which LVMH seems unable, or unwilling, to grasp: that fashion today is not about the perfect toile being made into the perfect bias-cut dress and finished with the perfect hem.

Fashion today is all about image.

Women don't want off-the-peg perfection: they want a label which says something about who they are and what they stand for. And if your label is to stand for something, then your designer had Girl most likely: McCartney's friend Phoebe Philo is tipped to take over at Chloe Gucci signings better stand for something too. Gucci Group knows the value of image, and has bagged McQueen and McCartney for itself before anyone else can. Both are talented, trendy and give good quotes.

Their best friends might be Madonna and Kate Moss, but people outside the closed world of fashion know who they are as well: "that bonkers bloke with the mad clothes" and "that veggie chick with the famous dad". Tom Ford, who has been pivotal in engineering both signings, knows that you cannot put too high a price on this sort of strong identity. With clever marketing and good management, Gucci Group will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Lagerfeld's insult missed the point. Of course McCartney is a lot more that "just a designer of T-shirts", but even if she weren't, so what? In a world where T-shirts are ubiquitous, women want to wear Stella's. This augurs well for expansion: no doubt Gucci hopes women will soon be buying the bags, sunglasses, makeup and perfume, too.

WHO will succeed McCartney at Chloe, who knows? After convincing itself, very publicly, that Givenchy would go to Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens, much of the fashion world was left with egg on its face when Julien Macdonald eventually got the job. The industry should exercise more caution when speculating about McCartney's replacement. But when was the fashion industry ever cautious? And so the rumour mill rumbles on - this time throwing up the name Phoebe Philo.

Philo, young, blonde and with a passion for ragga music, has been McCartney's right-hand woman since the beginning.

Those who have never quite been able to separate the "B" word from the formula behind Stella's success like to carp that Philo is the real talent behind the Chloe label. If she inherits the Chloe job, this theory will be tested. Yet would McCartney be willing to leave her best friend and muse behind ?

The good news for London is that McCartney will be based here if she goes to Gucci, and is believed to be elated at the prospect of returning. Does this mean London Fashion Week will have a new star on its schedule? Watch this space.

French snobbery and Italian savviness might just have done British fashion a great big favour.

Danny Elwes

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