Contenders to Succeed at Dior Reportedy Include Prabal Gurung, Tom Ford, Sarah Burton

While Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci still remains the frontrunner among the fleet of designers in the running to succeed Galliano at the helm of Dior, a new report indicates that the playing field is wider than we'd thought.

WWD today gave a behind-the-scenes look at the decision-makers at Dior -- specifically Bernard and Delphine Arnault, as well as Sidney Toledano -- as well as some of the names currently on the roster to potentially take the creative lead at Dior.

According to WWD's sources, the latest field of candidates includes Haider Ackermann, McQueen's Sarah Burton, Lanvin's Alber Elbaz, Tom Ford, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Prabal Gurung, Hedi Slimane, and Olivier Theyskens, as well as Givenchy's Riccardo Tisci, who WWD reports has actually been "lobbying" for the gig.

Most interestingly, WWD's sources assert that the royal wedding might actually play into the decision, since LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault has a certain thing for royalty:

According to a source, Bernard Arnault is transfixed by royalty, and would be keen to launch Dior alongside the next-generation couple, just as Princess Diana helped catapult the image of the brand in 1995 when she toted a Lady Dior bag and, a year later, donned a midnight-blue, bias-cut Dior gown by Galliano to attend the Costume Institute gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

Needless to say, if those reports are true, it would certainly tip the scales in the favor of a designer like Sarah Burton, who is the only designer on WWD's reported list who even seems to be in the running to design for Middleton.

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