Maria Luisa Poumaillou, French Retailer, Dies

PARIS — Maria Luisa Poumaillou, a prominent French fashion buyer and retailer, died Monday, her employer Printemps confirmed. According to sources, Poumaillou had been battling cancer for years, and had recently been hospitalized after a relapse. Perhaps best known for her defunct Maria Luisa boutiques, where she championed designers including John Galliano, Pierre Hardy and Alexander McQueen, Poumaillou has been associated with the department store Printemps since 2009, where she was fashion editor and oversaw an eponymous department on the second floor of its Boulevard Haussmann flagship. Her role at Printemps was described as a consultant to the store’s buying teams. At her shop there, she focused on international designers, recently stocking such labels as Anthony Vaccarello, Bouchra Jarrar, Haider Ackermann, Junya Watanabe, J.W. Anderson, Simone Rocha and Yang Li. “It’s often said that designers don’t exist without an executive. It holds true for buyers,” said Stéphane Wargnier, executive president of the Fédération Française de la Couture, du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Créateurs de Mode, praising Poumaillou’s “exceptional” eye. “She knew how to spot talents very early on. She knew how to buy and sell their collections.” Wargnier was a regular of her store on Rue Cambon in the Nineties. “It was like a salon.

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