Hollywood power agents Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell have been in town for Fashion Week to study the fashion industry before taking control of IMG in April. The William Morris Endeavor co-CEOs have been touring the tents at Lincoln Center and meeting with top fashion executives and editors.
They dined at Le Bilboquet on Tuesday night with Revlon boss Ron Perelman, Dick Parsons, the former Citigroup chairman who’s on the board of Estée Lauder, and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes. Emanuel was chatting to Estée Lauder group president John Demsey, and we hear Whitesell and Emanuel were to meet this week with Vogue’s Anna Wintour.
A source tells Page Six, “Ari and Patrick took a walk of the tents on Tuesday, and are reaching out to the top people in fashion. Some fashion insiders are, of course, freaking out about this, but others see change as a good thing. It may be a way to take a step back and think about how things can be done better. It could energize Fashion Week.
“There could be a way that IMG could structurally work better. IMG Fashion, Sport, Media are all run as different entities, but WME does things differently. In their world, everything goes hand in hand.”
WME paid $2.4 billion for IMG in December, creating the largest entertainment and sports agency and a global talent management company. WME already reps stars including Charlize Theron, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, athletes such as Serena Williams and artists including Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift.