After Hours Summary: PEGA +8.4% to join S&P MidCap 400; SNDX +4.4% on several insider buys; IBP +3.8% as CFO bought 2750 shares; TRNS +5.3% higher on earnings
After Hours Gainers:
Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: TRNS +5.3%, XYF +4.7%, EGHT +3.8%, SB +2%, AGYS +1.3%
Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: ASPI +9.4% (deal with terraPower including loan agreement for construction of a HALEU production facility and supply agreements for HALEU), PEGA +8.4% (to join S&P MidCap 400), SNDX +4.4% (discloses several insider buys), IBP +3.8% (CFO bought 2750 shares), VRRM +1.3% (authorizes new $100 mln share repurchase program), ANNX +1% (showcases tanruprubart data), GTLB +0.7% (achieves FedRAMP moderate authorization), HOG +0.6% (says CEO search continues at pace), VRTX +0.5% (authorizes new $4 bln share repurchase program), AWK +0.1% (to purchase multiple water and wastewater systems for $315 mln), TALO +0.1% (CFO to step down, reaffirms guidance), PPTA +0.1% (receives final federal permit for Stibnite Gold Project)
After Hours Losers:
Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: YALA -12.6%
Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: SARO -4.1% (two shareholders to launch 30 mln share offering; also stock offering by selling shareholders), AMRC -3.4% (executes note purchase agreement and private shelf to finance energy infrastructure projects; additional $300 mln shelf facility), RHP -2.7% (to acquire JW Marriott resort for $865 mln; also 2.3 mln share offering), DLTR -2.2% (names Chairman/CEO of Family Dollar), FDX -1.7% (announces leadership roles as it makes progress to separate its LTL freight division), RGNX -1.4% (royalty monetization agreement for up to $250 mln), CXW -1.2% (increases share repurchase program by $150 mln), IDR -1.1% (files for $35 mln mixed securities shelf offering), CRSP -0.1% (collaboration with Sirius Therapeutics)
Inside Coco Chanel’s Renovated Villa La Pausa on the French Riviera
ROQUEBRUNE-CAP-MARTIN, France — In the 1930s, Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s hillside villa on the French Riviera was a magnet for creators like painter Salvador Dalí, filmmaker Luchino Visconti and writer Colette. After a multiyear restoration, Chanel is reopening the villa next month with the aim of hosting artists once again.
Architect Peter Marino, who has collaborated with the French luxury brand for more than three decades, pored over hundreds of archival photographs to recreate the original interiors of La Pausa, the legendary designer’s home — complete with a mirrored bathroom that echoes the Art Deco staircase of her couture salon in Paris.
But that’s the only reminder of the glitz and glamour of her fashion empire. Chanel, who built the house from scratch, envisioned it as a peaceful retreat. She enjoyed nothing more than to jump on the Train Bleu in Paris at midnight and arrive in Monte-Carlo by dinner time.
On a recent visit to the house, set in an olive grove with spectacular views stretching from Monaco to the Italian Riviera, the only sound was birdsong. Sitting on the wisteria-covered patio surrounded by lavender, jasmine and magnolias, it was easy to see what prompted Chanel to buy the property, which encompasses a chapel, guesthouse and tennis court.
The entrance hall of La Pausa.
Jason Schmidt/Courtesy of Chanel
Next month, the villa will welcome a clutch of art world luminaries after the Art Basel fair in Basel, Switzerland, before hosting its first official writers’ retreat next November.
“Gabrielle Chanel had a clear vision that La Pausa should be a place for ‘pause,’ a home of one’s own in which to convene artists and thinkers. For a roaring decade after its construction in 1928, La Pausa offered just that — a tranquil yet stimulating environment, free from the distractions and constraints of everyday life,” said Yana Peel, president of arts, culture and heritage at Chanel.
“At La Pausa, we will again ignite new ideas that might not otherwise have the freedom, resources or space to flourish, as an extension of the patronage and elevated hospitality that Mademoiselle Chanel offered in the villa’s heyday,” she said in a statement.
A philanthropist and former chief executive officer of the Serpentine Galleries in London, Peel leads the Chanel Culture Fund, which supports artists, and works with curators, museums and institutions on long-term projects. La Pausa is one of several heritage sites under its umbrella.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and friends climb an olive tree at La Pausa.
Photo Roger Schall © Schall Collection
In addition to Chanel’s apartment at 31 Rue Cambon, renovated in 2020 by decorator Jacques Grange, the house is supporting restoration work at the Aubazine Abbey, the austere 12th-century Cistercian convent-orphanage where she spent her teenage years, forging her taste for minimalist design.
Chanel, who frequently toured the Mediterranean aboard the Flying Cloud — the yacht owned by her lover, the Duke of Westminster — bought La Pausa in 1928 for 1.8 million francs, a princely sum at the time, said Hélène Fulgence, head of heritage sites at Chanel.
“She was 43 years old and at the height of her fame, and she had never taken a break. She was always thinking about the next store, the next idea, the next factory, the next fragrance,” Fulgence said as she guided a handful of visitors through the property.
A Golden Moment
In lieu of the pink and green bungalow originally built by British novelists Alice and Charles Norris Williamson in the 1910s, she commissioned a young Belgian-born architect, Robert Streitz, to construct the house of her dreams. Chanel stipulated that none of the trees should be uprooted, including the olive tree right in the middle of the path leading to the front door.
The living room of La Pausa.
Jason Schmidt/Courtesy of Chanel
A fan of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, Streitz designed the house around a cloister-like patio, with a 26-foot-high entrance hall with five rectangular windows overlooking a twin staircase. Chanel nixed the staircase plan, asking him instead to create a single set of steps, an almost exact replica of the monks’ staircase at Aubazine.
Bare at first, the lobby was gradually furnished with Spanish and Rococo furniture in the same vein as the carved wooden doors.
The living room, dominated by two mauve velvet couches, hosted lively gatherings where Misia Sert played the piano and guests like Dalí, illustrator Christian Bérard and gallerist Pierre Colle would roll up the Persian rug and dance in improvised costumes.
“We think that Christian Dior came here with Pierre Colle because they ran a gallery together, and Pierre Colle was a frequent guest at La Pausa,” Fulgence said.
Without a doubt, the most poignant room is Chanel’s bedroom, which has a balcony facing the sea.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s bedroom at La Pausa.
Jason Schmidt/Courtesy of Chanel
Its furniture had been put into storage when the house was sold in 1953 to Emery and Wendy Reves, an American couple with a sizable collection of Impressionist masterpieces. Wendy Reves, who lived there until her death in 2007, had the bedroom completely remodeled, though the rest of the house was left largely intact.
The house was put on the market in 2013 for 40 million euros, but its contents were bequeathed to the Dallas Museum of Art. Chanel acquired the house in 2015 for an undisclosed sum, and Fulgence was able to buy back furniture and homewares at an auction in Paris in 2019, including Chanel’s gilded wrought iron headboard.
Tucked into the frame are a gold star and a palm frond, exactly as pictured on an old photograph of Chanel receiving visitors in bed. Marino had her ivory quilted bedspread reproduced, but the room’s Baroque mirrors, bedside lamp and Louis XIII chair are all original.
“I hoped the restoration would recall the time in which the house was built, as though Mademoiselle Chanel had left the room only five minutes before. Authenticity and the history of La Pausa were paramount,” Marino said.
A view of La Pausa in 1932.
© Société des Bains de Mer, Monte Carlo
He details the process in “La Pausa: The Ideal Mediterranean Villa of Gabrielle Chanel,” a 350-page coffee table book to be published by Flammarion in French and English in September. Illustrated with 500 exclusive photographs and unpublished archival documents, it captures a golden moment in time between the wars.
A Haven for Artists
Mornings were quiet, as Chanel never emerged from her quarters before 1 p.m. In her 1960 memoir “In My Fashion,” Vogue editor Bettina Ballard recounted a typical day at La Pausa.
“The house was blissfully silent in the morning. If and when you came down, there were small, unostentatious cars with drivers to run you down the mountain to swim or shop in Monte Carlo,” she wrote.
“Lunch was the first moment of the day when the guests met in a group, and no one ever missed lunch — it was far too entertaining. The long dining room had a buffet at one end with hot Italian pasta, cold English roast beef, French dishes, a little of everything,” she said.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and Jean Hugo at the buffet table at La Pausa.
Photo Roger Schall © Schall Collection
“No one bothered to listen to anything that didn’t have a modicum of wit to it. Chanel, who ate little, stood most of the time during lunch before the great fireplace, as usual, one hand plunged in a pocket, the other gesticulating, her broad mouth opening even broader in a grin as she remembered and recounted wicked or touching or funny anecdotes from her own or her friends’ pasts,” Ballard said.
Afternoons were dedicated to walks, tennis or napping in the hammocks suspended between the olive trees.
“We went down the hill from Roquebrune very seldom at night, and when we did it was a little like an invading hostile army making a sortie against a rival camp. Chanel thrived on feuds and always had one simmering with the Honorable Mrs. Reginald Fellowes or Princesse Jean-Louis de Faucigny-Lucinge, both wielders of strong social axes,” Ballard recounted.
Chanel’s circle formed their own clique, distinct from that of Gerald and Sara Murphy in Antibes, who entertained Pablo Picasso, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Cole Porter, or Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles in Hyères, who ran with a Surrealist crowd.
Audrey James Field, the sister of Dalí’s patron James Field; poet Pierre Reverdy, and Dalí himself stayed at La Pausa for months at a time.
Having fled Spain because of the Civil War, Dalí settled at the villa from September to December 1938, completing 11 major paintings that were exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City the following year, paving the ground for his move to the U.S.
He and his wife Gala slept in the little guesthouse next to the chapel. Having fully updated the house’s 100-year-old plumbing, ventilation and electrical systems, Marino has also added showers to the guest bedrooms in preparation for a fresh crop of visitors.
Resident chef Arquimedes Jesus Rodriguez, who trained with Mauro Colagreco at the three-Michelin star restaurant Mirazur in nearby Menton, creates dishes based on locally sourced ingredients.
Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s bathroom at La Pausa.
Jason Schmidt/Courtesy of Chanel
In addition to the four nonfiction writers expected this fall, the villa will host other artist residencies. “The idea is to make this villa a place to generate ideas and exchange points of view, so that artists in Chanel’s entourage can draw inspiration from it,” Fulgence said.
The location should also fuel the imagination of the house’s creative teams.
“Our image departments and our creative studio directors have an open invitation to come to La Pausa as often as they want for whatever they want. And then there are the friends of the house, clients but also celebrities who are in Cannes and who will drop by La Pausa,” she added.
Still, staying overnight will remain a rare privilege. “Sleeping in Gabrielle Chanel’s bed is very, very special,” Fulgence said. “This is not a hotel. It’s really a private home.”
Pierpaolo Piccioli Is Balenciaga’s New Creative Director
The seasoned Italian designer starts on July 10 and is to present his first designs in October during Paris Fashion Week.
Seasoned Italian designer Pierpaolo Piccioli is the new creative director of Balenciaga, effective July 10, with his first collection to be unveiled in October during Paris Fashion Week.
He succeeds Demna, the edgy Georgian designer who made the French house a byword for hefty sneakers, drop-shoulder hoodies and dystopian cool over an acclaimed 10-year tenure that also reshaped the boundaries of luxury.
Last March, Balenciaga parent Kering appointed Demna the new artistic director of its cash-cow property Gucci, tasked with jolting the Italian fashion house out of its doldrums.
Piccioli, who spent most of his fashion career plying romance, glamor and couture grandeur at Valentino, arrives at a global brand with a fleet of raw, concrete stores, a business split evenly between women’s and men’s, and a recent reputation for hype and provocation.
Due to Demna’s underground proclivities, the brand became famous within streetwear circles, prized for its oversize tailoring, bulky footwear, slogan knits and distressed jeans.
In more recent years the house charted an upscaling drive by bringing back haute couture, signing a fleet of A-list actresses including Nicole Kidman, Michelle Yeoh and Isabelle Huppert, and introducing a range of status handbags, including the Le Cagole, Rodeo and Bel Air models.
To be sure, Balenciaga has flirted with a variety of fashion directions under its previous creative directors, which included Josephus Thimister, Alexander Wang and Nicolas Ghesquière, who leaned into an experimental and at times futuristic approach that catapulted the house back into fashion’s big leagues.
Piccioli, 57, has been sitting on fashion’s sidelines since he parted ways with Valentino in March 2024, having worked at the Roman house for 25 years, and sharing the creative director role jointly with Maria Grazia Chiuri from 2008 to 2016. He started his fashion career with a 10-year stint at Fendi, also working there alongside Chiuri.
Citing sources, WWD reported that Piccioli could be next in line at Balenciaga as far back as March 2024. It is understood the Rome-born designer also held discussions with Fendi, while maintaining close ties to Valentino owner Mayhoola, which also controls Balmain and Walter Albini.
A beloved figure on the international fashion scene, Piccioli is prized for daring volumes and colors, particularly for haute couture, and for widening the Valentino esthetic beyond its jet-set image of yore to embrace younger and more diverse audiences.
On Monday, he shared a letter reflecting on how Cristóbal Balenciaga has been a touchstone throughout his career, mentioning that the first picture he ever uploaded on his personal Instagram page was a 1967 wedding ensemble by the Spanish master. “Simplicity is a solved complexity,” he wrote underneath the image, posted in 2018.
“Cristóbal Balenciaga’s legacy and archive is probably one of the most influential fashion statements of all time,” he wrote. “He has done everything before everyone; he has literally invented the culture of creativity; he has infused the idea of couture in every aspect of his career, and he has shown, through his creations, the power of evolution and innovation.”
That said, Piccioli made clear he also plans to build on what the brand’s more recent creative leaders constructed.
“Balenciaga is what it is today thanks to all the people who have paved the way. Cristóbal, Nicolas, Alex, Demna,” he wrote, “In all its phases, while constantly evolving and changing, it has never lost track of the house’s aesthetic values.”
Piccioli’s arrival at Balenciaga, the day after Demna presents his swan song couture collection for the house, adds yet another hotly anticipated debut to the fashion calendar, with Gucci, Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Loewe, Versace, Jil Sander and Jean Paul Gaultier among houses unveiling collections by new creative directors this fall.
In a brief announcement issued Monday evening in Paris, Kering said Piccioli would “bring his unique creative vision and extensive experience to Balenciaga, building on the strengths and success achieved by the brand over the past decade under Demna’s creative direction, and in continuity with the legacy of Cristóbal Balenciaga and of the historic Parisian house.”
Commenting on the appointment, Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of brand development, called Piccioli “one of the most talented and celebrated designers of today.”
“His mastery of haute couture, his creative voice, and his passion for savoir-faire made him the ideal choice for the house,” she said, also thanking Demna for “the bold, distinctive vision he brought to Balenciaga over the past 10 years, shaping the house’s identity in the contemporary era.”
Gianfranco Gianangeli, who was been CEO at the brand since last January, said he was “excited to begin this new era at Balenciaga with Pierpaolo. His creative vision will thrive, and he will perfectly interpret the legacy of Cristóbal Balenciaga, building on the house’s bold creativity, rich heritage and strong culture. With the expertise of our teams and the dynamic creative energy that has historically driven Balenciaga, I look forward to what we will build together.”
Bellettini added her vote of confidence, saying, “I am convinced that Pierpaolo and Gianfranco will lead Balenciaga perfectly through this important new chapter of its remarkable history.”
Basque fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga first set up his fashion business with a boutique in San Sebastián, Spain, in 1919, ultimately opening his couture house in Paris in 1937 on the Avenue George V.
Oscar de la Renta, Pierre Cardin and Emanuel Ungaro were among those who worked in his atelier, which had a reputation for uncompromising standards and an architectural approach to cutting. Among the founder’s most famous creations were the cocoon coat, balloon skirt and sack dress.
Balenciaga closed his house in 1968 and died in 1972.
Piccioli certainly winked to the designer’s sculptural constructions when he designed a one-off collection of down creations for Moncler in 2018.
Balenciaga remained dormant until 1986, when beauty firm Jacques Bogart SA acquired the intellectual property and resumed operations, including licensing. Fashions were initially created by Michel Goma, then Thimister, and then Ghesquière from 1997 to 2012.
Kering does not break down revenues for Balenciaga, lumping it in with “other houses” including McQueen, Pomellato and Brioni. Revenues at “other houses” declined 11 percent in the first quarter of 2025, though Kering trumpeted a “very solid” performance of Balenciaga’s leather goods.
The brand has been consistently expanding its retail network, ending 2024 with a tally of 271 stores. Market sources estimate the brand’s revenues are north of 2 billion euros.
Balenciaga is said to be preparing fragrances to be introduced in 2025 under Kering Beauté.
In his letter, Piccioli said he sees in Balenciaga “a brand full of possibilities that is incredibly fascinating.
“I must first and foremost thank Demna; I’ve always admired his talent and vision,” Piccioli wrote. “I couldn’t ask for a better passing of the torch. He paid homage to Cristóbal in his own way, sharing his point of view while maintaining the house’s core identity alive. This gives me the chance to shape a new version of the maison, adding another chapter with a new story.”
He expressed gratitude for “the trust that [Kering chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault], Francesca and Gianfranco are giving me. We were effortlessly on the same page from the start, and that is the best way to start something new.”
It is understood Piccioli will relocate to Paris to dedicate himself to the house.