What Is Wrong With The World, Part 1 (of many)

OK, so my post today was going to be about how sad I was that Proenza Schouler seem to have settled for a really rather lousy deal. $3.7 million for 45 percent of their company? OK, they didn't lose control but they are the top name touted for all the big jobs. They are da bomb, as it were. And $3.7 million in today's money is ... chump change.

They have $6 million in sales so the purchase price is less than the industry has been demanding of late and, they have big potential. Plus, they don't even know who their new owners are going to be. The group that purchased them -- Valentino Fashion Group -- is being taken over by a private equity company. Their long standing C.E.O., Shirley Cook, who will remain despite the investment is, I am told, a very nice woman in her twenties and was their roomate in New York during the early days of the company. Nothing wrong with that of course, many designers have C.E.O.s who are friends, not experts, but the fact Valentino Fashion Group they didn't put in their own executive does make you wonder how much attention they'll pay to the brand. How much time is Stefano Sassi, Valentino's C.E.O. going to have for them when he's got Valentino's transition to manage. So, anyway, all of this was going to be my post for today. Whither fashion and all of that. (Plus, why weren't they at the big Valentino bash with Zac Posen? Who is going to get that damn job anyway?) But then I read that Laurel Touby -- a woman best known for who she knows (remember me?) -- sold her website for $23 million. Baby, if you're looking for something to do with some of that cash -- buy the other 55 percent. It is the bargain of the century.

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