PARIS, Aug 2, 2003/ FW/ --- Parisian Fashion House Pierre Balmain has named Christophe Lebourg as Artisitic Director to replace Laurent Mercier, who resigned in June.

The announcement of the appointment of a little-known French designer to the post, coming as it did at the start of the month-long August hiatus in France, caught the national media by surprise.

Christophe Lebourg most recently produced a line for French men's lingerie maker Emmience, and has previously held positions at Yohji Yamamoto, Angelo Tarlazzi, Cacharel, Joseph and Rodier.

On the same announcement, Balmain confirmed that Lebourg will debut on the Paris runways in October, during the Spring 2004 women's ready-to-wear season.

Citing the depressed economic situation, Balmain elected to skip the recent Paris couture shows. Last March, the house presented its Fall 2003 ready-to-wear collection in its atelier to a select group of press and buyers.

That move by Balmain led to speculations even while the season was still in full swing that all was not well between the fashion house and Mercier.

Swiss-born Mercier received mixed reviews for both his ready-to-wear and haute couture Spring 2003 collections for the house. His resignation last June, though it has been speculated, still surprised the fashion flock.

Some fashion insiders opined that the award-winning Mercier while he was designing his own line, has big shoes to fill after Oscar de la Renta.

The New York-based designer has been the artistic director for haute couture in Balmain since 1992. Under his tenure, Balmain has seen its fortunes turn around under de la Renta's design direction.

What was once a sleepy and conservative Parisian house has become one of the haute couture world's biggest success stories.

But all good things has come to an end. The Dominican-born designer resigned from his post last July 2002 due to health reasons.

Balmain has been dealing with an image problem, tarnished since de la Renta's departure.

In recent weeks, Balmain has firmed up its bid to take over a portion of Thierry Mugler couture, including several boutiques and one factory, leading to speculation that the House would concentrate on Ready-To-Wear and abandon Haute Couture.

If this is the case, Balmain would join numerous labels, including Lanvin, Nina Ricci and Paco Rabanne, that have followed the same course.