Word: boussac
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Paris-based company is the personal property of Marcel Boussac, 89, an ostentatious millionaire entrepreneur who did so well in textiles after World War I that he became known as France's "Cotton King." In 1946, seeking to revive the war-tattered clothing market, he teamed with a young designer, Christian Dior, to found a fashion house. The next year Dior presented his first collection: the long, ample "new look" that established his reputation and set fashion trends for a decade. Under the management of Jacques Rouet, now 60, it flourished, even after the death of Dior...
Poor management failed to respond to competition, first from European neighbors, and more recently from Third World countries where labor costs are lower. To keep C.I.T.F. going, Boussac mortgaged more and more of his possessions, which include race horses, half a dozen chateaux and the morning Paris newspaper L'Aurore. Finally, unable to borrow further, he reluctantly allowed the company to be taken over by a court-appointed receiver who will decide what, if anything, can be done to salvage C.I.T.F.'s 11,500 jobs. Last week, in an effort to keep C.I.T.F. alive, Boussac offered to give...
Inevitably, the house of Dior will have to be sold to help Boussac pay off. That prospect pleases the Dior staff, which has seen the firm's profits sink year after year into the bottomless Boussac pit. Partly as a result, Dior has not had resources to invest in new products and outlets needed to keep from falling behind such dynamic competitors as Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Cardin...
...Dior firm has plenty of suitors. Last week Robert Hocq, president of Jeweller Cartier, offered to pay $65 million for it. Among other potential buyers are French cosmetics manufacturer L'Oreal and champagne producer Moët-Hennessy, which bought Christian Dior Perfumes when Boussac needed cash in the early 1970s. The main concern of Dior's management and the French government is that the prestigious label remain in French hands. "You can't separate the Christian Dior image from France's," says Rouet. "When an American woman pays for the Dior label, she wants...