Dive Brief:
- Lanvin Group’s board announced Friday the departure of Joann Cheng, the group's founding chairman and CEO, in a company press release. The board appointed new executives to fill her positions effective Dec. 7.
- Cheng informed the board that “she has decided to step down from her roles to pursue new endeavours outside the group,” per the release. During her six-year tenure, she took the company public and oversaw the group’s fashion portfolio, which includes Lanvin, Wolford, Sergio Rossi, St. John Knits and Caruso.
- In 2018, China-based Fosun International acquired a majority stake in Lanvin, France’s oldest fashion house. Huang Zhen, director of Fosun Group and executive director and executive president at Fosun International, was appointed new chairman for Lanvin. Meanwhile, Eric Chan, co-chairman of Fosun subsidiary Greater Yuyuan Commercial Development Group, was named new group CEO.
Dive Insight:
Three years after Fosun’s purchase, the Fosun Fashion Group rebranded itself to the more widely recognizable name of Lanvin Group in 2021.
In the subsequent years, it went through several changes, including the departure of Bruno Sialelli, Lanvin’s creative director, who in April left the house after four years. Following his exit, the house created a new leather goods and accessories division and debuted Lanvin Lab, a collaboration-centric project. In June it tapped musician Future to serve as its first guest creative director for the incubator project, and his first collection was released last month.
Earlier this month, Lanvin Group announced a new CEO at its luxury footwear brand Sergio Rossi, per the release. Helen Wright succeeded Rossi’s interim CEO Paul Kotrba, who had been in the position for seven months after Riccardo Sciutto left in 2022, according to WWD.
Lanvin has not announced a new creative director, but Cheng teased a new hire in her departure statement.
Cheng described the past six years at Lanvin Group as some of the most fulfilling of her career.
“With the recent successful launch of the first Lanvin Lab collection, the appointment last week of the new CEO at Sergio Rossi and the imminent announcement of a new Creative Director at Lanvin, I am pleased to be stepping away from the group, with a clear creative direction set, and all the building blocks in place for the next phase of growth," she said in the release.
In August, Lanvin reported a 6.4% revenue increase for the first half of 2023, up 215 million euros, or about $235 million, year over year. On Dec. 21, the company will hold its annual general shareholders meeting.
