As a matter of interest ...and excerpt from the Herald Tribune that contributes too to set the record straight :
By Suzy Menkes
29/3/07
" Far from being dropped by Dior, as rumors had suggested, the designer himself decided to walk away, rather than sell his name in order to set up his own label, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who declined to named, citing the confidentiality of the discussions.
The designer had previously said that he wanted to create a women's line to fit with his skinny, androgynous male tailoring and that had been his objective since he signed with Dior in 2001.
The sticking point of the Dior negotiations was apparently over the ownership of any eponymous line, said the person familiar with the discussions. In the case of John Galliano, Dior's women's designer and of Marc Jacobs, creative director of Louis Vuitton, LVMH has complete ownership of both names and therefore control of development and strategy of their personal labels.
Sidney Toledano, the president and chief executive of Dior, while refusing to discuss the tension between Slimane and his former parent company, admitted that it was not easy to make appropriate choices of designers who were mature enough to give creative input to product, image, branding and various ready-to-wear collections...."
