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Esteban Cortazar Named Ungaro Designer

Esteban Cortazar has been selected by French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro as its new chief designer for womenswear.

Cortazar, 23, succeeds Norwegian designer Peter Dundas, who left in July after three seasons at the house.

"I was looking for someone young, but I was mostly looking for someone who had an eye for modernizing the house," Ungaro Chief Executive Mounir Moufarrige told The Associated Press on Friday. "He is very mature for his age."

Moufarrige picked Cortazar after a global headhunting trip during which he interviewed 18 candidates, including some industry stars.

The Colombian-born designer, who was raised in the United States, presented his first collection in New York in 2003.

Cortazar will drop his eponymous line to concentrate on revamping Ungaro, and will present his first collection in the spring, Moufarrige said.

Ungaro has been through turbulent times since the retirement of its founder in 2004 and its purchase by San Francisco-based high-tech entrepreneur Asim Abdullah the following year.

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