in 2004, is likely to name 25 year-old Columbian Esteban Cortazar to the role, according to inside sources.

Ungaro chief executive officer Mounir Moufarrige has a knack for making surprising designer choices. As president of Chloé, he picked the then 25-year-old Stella McCartney to succeed Karl Lagerfeld in 1997. Bogota, Colombia-born Cortazar, 23, presented his first signature collection in New York at the age of 18 and was immediately embraced by such retailers as the late Kal Ruttenstein at Bloomingdale's, said a report in WWD.

Born to Italian parents, Emanuel Ungaro moved to Paris at the age of 22. Three years later he began designing for the House of Cristobal Balenciaga for six seasons before leaving to work for Courrèges. Four years later, in 1965 with the assistance of Swiss artist Sonja Knapp, Emanuel Ungaro opened his own fashion house in Paris.