PARIS – The fashion house Cerruti has a new owner, chief executive and designer, it was announced today.
Private equity firm MatlinPatterson, a $3.8 billion fund with offices in New York, London and Hong Kong, said it purchased Cerruti from bankrupt Fin.part with immediate plans to revitalize the brand under the artistic direction of Nicolas Andreas Taralis.
Financial terms were not disclosed, and a spokesman said it was too early to define details of the fashion relaunch.
The new chief executive officer will be Philippe Cleach, a lawyer who had already been working for Cerruti for more than 20 years.
It is the first fashion-related investment for MaclinPatterson, recently in the news for buying troubled Brazilian airline Varig.
Defunct Fin.part, founded in 1996 by Gianluigi Facchini, bought a 51 percent stake in Cerruti from the founding designer, Nino Cerruti, in 2000 for $70 million as part of an acquisition spree that included Frette, Maska and Moncler. Wracked with financial woes, Fin.part had churned through such designers as David Cardona, Roberto Menichetti and Istvan Francer at Cerruti before succumbing to bankruptcy last October.
Canadian-born Taralis, who honed his skills working three years with Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme, launched his signature collection in Paris in 2004, mixing tailoring with a rock-and-roll attitude.
For complete coverage, see tomorrow’s issue of WWD.