Word: hermann
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...Hermann's new partner, Pilati, has come to appreciate those qualities and declares that he and she are alter egos. "I finally work with somebody who really knows what it is to be a designer today," he says. "She understands all the difficulties, all the pressures that I am living with. So she's not just a number person. She understands everything I need to succeed...
That focus landed Hermann at the house of eccentric wunderkind Galliano in 1996 and eventually at Dior. "We were le carpe and le lapin," she says, laughing at the French image of the classic odd couple, the fish and the rabbit. "He was the British boy, and I was the French bourgeois girl. But we respected the same values...
They developed a winning partnership?what Hermann describes as a unique connivance or collusion. Joe Boitano, group vice president of Saks Fifth Avenue, watched her guide Galliano through many "difficult moments" before presentations at the store. "Valerie just knew how to get into the trenches with the designer, understanding all his emotional and creative needs, and at the same time say, 'We're going to make this business happen...
Many insiders marvel at Hermann's touch for managing high-strung talent. With Galliano, she knew when to challenge and when to back off. So after he showed her samples of shockingly immodest miniskirts and transparent tops, Hermann says, she nudged him into lining them. But after 9/11, when Galliano created a collection in camouflage, Hermann didn't comment?and the public loved...
Tall and exuberant, Pilati complains of years of frustration and insecurity at YSL?until Hermann came along to relieve some of his burdens. That his new partner was a woman was an advantage: "A CEO who is your age, who is a man, might be a sort of competition," he says. "I have to be the public image of the house; he couldn't. With Valerie, actually, now I don't have tensions. I have challenges, even when we disagree...