Log in / create account
What's your thing?
 
Search

Endpoint: Miguel Cruz (Brand)



05:18
Videos (4)
created on: 27/09/2021
by: Lo55o (12478)
 
 

Brand properties

General info :
Miguel Cruz was the eponymous brand name of a fashion label founded by Cuban designer Miguel Cruz.
A second-echelon but respected designer with a faithful following, Cruz had been established in Rome since the 1960s.

In December 1985 he sold his fashion business to Roberto Polo, a fellow Cuban, whom he had met through Maria Felix, one of the most famous film actresses of the golden era in Mexico and throughout Latin America.
When he approached Polo to borrow money from him for his business, Polo is supposed to have said, “I don’t lend money. I’ll buy you.”
Polo hired the fashion consultant Eleanor Lambert to advise him on the buyout of the Miguel Cruz company. Cruz was paid a salary of $120,000 a year and a royalty on gross sales, although Polo claimed in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily that he paid Cruz a minimum annual salary of $500,000. His intention was to vault Cruz into the ranks of the elite international designers of expensive ready-to-wear and to rival the houses of Giorgio Armani and Gianni Versace.

To launch the venture, Polo made an agreement with a retailer named Scarpa to turn her shops in Venice and Milan into Miguel Cruz boutiques. Scarpa received merchandise on consignment. Polo made a similar deal with a boutique owner on the island of Capri, and he paid $300,000 for the renovation of the shop. By the time the business opened, Polo had three boutiques, an office in the General Motors Building in New York with a rent of approximately $12,000 a month, and a showroom and warehouse in Milan. In spite of this huge overhead, Polo decided to launch an enormous advertising campaign. In the first season, he spent $700,000 for media (media means buying space) and $30,000 on production. For the spring ’86 collection, there was an $800,000 advertising budget. For the fall ’86 collection, Polo spent $900,000 on advertising.
Fashion experts say that the campaign didn’t work commercially, even if the photography was sometimes great. Like so much about Roberto Polo, his advertising sent out mixed signals; there was confusion as to whether he was selling his wares or his models. For the women’s line, a two-page ad showed a dimly lit female model in a black jeweled evening dress with one fully lit naked man behind her and another sitting on the floor in front of her.
It got to the point where the company was doing $1 million in advertising and only $100,000 in sales.
Unlike Polo’s art acquisitions, which could be sold at a profit, the Miguel Cruz fashion venture was a bottomless pit. It is estimated that Polo lost between $12 million and $15 million on it, but he remained adamant in his belief that the clothes were beautiful and that the company was going to be a big success.
Meanwhile, Mexican, Latin-American, and European investors in Polo’s company, Pamg Ltd., were demanding to know where all the Polo money was coming from.
The New York office of Miguel Cruz was run on money that was sent each month from Geneva. It took approximately $200,000 a month to keep the New York end of the business going, and more often than not only half of that amount was sent. Salaries and bills went unpaid. By the end of 1987 there were bills in excess of $1 million, including the salary for Miguel Cruz himself.
At a cost of nearly $1 million, in the fall of 1987 Roberto Polo built a new office for Le Parfum de Miguel Cruz on Avenue Marceau in Paris.
Clients began to place calls on their assets, meaning, in layman’s terms, they wanted their money back.
When too many of Polo’s investors demanded their money at the same time, it was like a run on the bank. He could not meet their demands.
A Swiss arrest warrant was issued on April 30. The Swiss were expecting Polo to appear at the opening of the exhibition of twenty-six paintings that were to be auctioned on May 30, but he didn’t show up. In the meantime the Swiss judge got in touch with the French police, and an international arrest warrant was issued.
On May 16, 1988 police entered the office of the Miguel Cruz perfume company in Paris and told the staff that Roberto Polo was under arrest.
At the the end of June, Roberto Polo was arrested in Viareggio.
The Miguel Cruz fashion house went defunct, and the perfume company came to a standstill.
Relations :
Founded by : Miguel Cruz 2
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Brand name used by [1985 - 1988] : Pamg Ltd.
This endpoint is new to the database, please check he (it) is not in with a similar endpoint name association (and use the ENA function if necessary).
Source :
ENA's

Magazines

(1 items)

Item number : 43717

Submitted by : Lo55o (12478)
on : 27/09/2021
Refined by : Lo55o (12478)
Last updated on: 27/09/2021