On the eve of the Paris haute couture week the fashion world was shaken by long-awaited news of the dismissal of the president of the French Federation of Haute couture and prêt-a-porter.

Didier Grumbach, who led the Federation over the past 16 years, decided to not renew his presidential mandate, ceding this honorable place to Ralph Toledano – a well-known head of the of the fashion department of Puig Group. Headquartered in Barcelona, Puig Group controls such luxury brands as Carolina Herrera, Nina Ricci, Paco Rabanne and Jean Paul Gaultier.

Having become the living embodiment of the Federation, Mr. Grumbach, however, was lately criticized by the fashion community for his somewhat outdated approach to the development and promotion of high fashion in France and abroad. Increasingly often speculations in the media about the forthcoming disappearance of haute couture tended to be associated by journalists with rather latent politics carried out by the former president.

All our hopes now rest on Ralph Toledano to breathe new life into one of the pillars of France – high fashion, by modernizing its Alma mater.