Cacharel’s removed Mark Eley and Wakako Kishimoto from their designer posts.

The duo’s been designing the line for just one year and though they haven’t made much commercial headway, they’ve gotten solid critical reviews and appeared to be on the right track toward revitalizing the French brand, which celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in Paris this past Fashion Week.

But they weren’t doing it fast enough for Jean Bousquet, the brand’s founder, who’s still in control of the line and let them go over “a conflict over creative vision”.

The thought of designing for someone else’s brand when that iconic figure’s still alive could make even the most hardened designer feel sick. It might not be Laurent and Pilati, but tension inevitably arises when trying to express something so personal while trying to create something fresh and new.

This Spring’s Cacharel collection was fun to see on a runway, and ten times more wearable than most, but it wasn’t so much classic Cacharel as it was grown up Eley Kishimoto, and we’re not surprised they weren’t the right fit for the French brand.

Though we don’t think Bousquet has too many chances left. Maybe he should focus on a total vintage revival - because that’d sell in a heartbeat.