Lohan’s Paris ‘no show’ leaves red faces at Ungaro

Bosses at French couture house Emanuel Ungaro have been left deeply embarrassed after their star designer Lindsay Lohan failed to turn up for their Paris Fashion Week show yesterday. It appears Lohan and Ungaro have parted ways following the actress's disastrous debut collection last October.

In the past few weeks Lohan has been regularly spotted in the front rows of shows including Roberto Cavalli in Milan and at Viktor & Rolf in Paris (pictured above with 'CSI' star Gary Dourdan). But at yesterday's Ungaro show she was nowhere to be seen, despite her high-profile hiring six months ago as the label's artistic adviser.

Emanuel Ungaro had not made any official announcements about splitting with Lohan prior to the show. But backstage yesterday the label's owner Asim Abdullah told industry journal Women's Wear Daily that Lohan was "not involved" in the latest collection. Lohan's creative partner, Ungaro’s head designer Estrella Archs, was left to take her catwalk bow alone.

Last September Ungaro's president Mounir Mouffarige announced Lohan's appointment as artistic adviser with great fanfare, hailing the match between the august French fashion house and Hollywood starlet as an "explosive combination".

A month later, Lohan's debut show at Paris fashion week was slammed as "cheesy and dated" and "truly, deeply horrible". The collection, which included tight mini-dresses and ruched leggings, is chiefly remembered for its glittery heart-shaped nipple tassles.

The fallout from the show saw Mouffarige, who personally recruited Lohan, resign and several major department stores announce they were dropping the line. Meanwhile Ungaro himself said he was "furious" about the direction the label, from which he retired in 2004, was taking.

Yesterday's collection - Archs' first effort sans Lohan - was deemed an improvement, but not by much. The new designs were "still a non-starter" for Los Angeles Times' fashion writer Booth Moore. "Eighties-inspired print blouses and ruched and pleated cocktail dresses paid homage to the exuberant style of the house in a way that wasn't offensive but didn't inspire much desire or look especially luxurious either," she wrote.

Lohan was conspicuous by her absence, wrote Guardian fashion editor Jess Cartner-Morley. Despite this, "the gaudy cheapness which was attributed to Lohan's influence still lingered." ·