An experienced commercial helmsman who can accelerate brand expansionThe bright future of Jacquemus is being overshadowed.
According to Fashion Business News, French designer brand Jacquemus recently issued a statement saying that Bastien Daguzan, the brand's managing director and president, will step down immediately, and a successor has not yet been announced.
Earlier this month, Bastien Daguzan was promoted from managing director of Jacquemus to the position of president, a position that had previously been held by the brand's founder and creative director, Simon Porte Jacquemus, who is still the creative director and sole shareholder of Jacquemus.
Bastien Daguzan said in an interview at the time that the duo's roles would not change as a result, and that the new appointment was a recognition of the duo and a sign of mutual trust between the two.
Less than a month later, the seemingly well-worked duo announced their parting of ways, in a surprising manner.
Although both parties subsequently thanked each other for this cooperation, a peaceful breakup may have been a façade. Rumor has it that Bastien Daguzan was not leaving his job voluntarily, but was fired by Jacquemus.
Bastien Daguzan, Managing Director and President of the Jacquemus brand, has announced his resignation.Bastien Daguzan graduated from the Sorbonne University in Paris, and before joining Jacquemus, Bastien Daguzan worked for Spanish luxury brand Paco Rabanne and French designer brand Lemaire, where he provided business consulting advice for many years.
In May last year, Bastien Daguzan was hired by Jacquemus as the first CEO after the founder, with the mission of bringing the designer brand into the commercial orbit in a professional way, in addition to Simon Porte Jacquemus' creative and commercial flair, and eventually into the ranks of luxury brands.
As expected, the transfer of business decision-making power has allowed Jacquemus to move from a designer brand to a luxury brand.
For more than a year, Jacquemus has not only continued its strength in the creation of fantasy show scenes, holding a fashion show at the Palace of Versailles, an iconic historical site in France, but also gaining market attention through several creative projects, including 3D short films.
In April, Jacquemus posted a short video with artist Ian Padham on Instagram, in which the brand's iconic handbag, Le Bambino, was infinitely magnified as a moving bus, carrying passengers through the streets of Paris, which garnered nearly 80,000 likes and more than 8,000 comments in just one day.
Jacquemus presents a fashion show at the Palace of Versailles, an iconic historical site in FranceJacquemus, who is very popular in creating topics, has even successfully spread the popularity of social ** to the offline retail network. Since opening its first boutique on Avenue Montaigne, where Chanel is located, last September, Jacquemus' concept pop-up stores at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, summer pop-ups in resorts such as Portofino, Como in Italy and Saint-Tropez in France have all sparked buzz on social media with different creative installations or campaigns. This month, following in the footsteps of leading luxury brands such as Channel and Gucci, Jacquemus opened its first mountain pop-up store in the resort town of Courchevel, a well-known ski resort in France, to display autumn/winter ready-to-wear accessories and limited-edition holiday capsule collections. At the same time, Jacquemus also posted a number of creative videos on social media, including using branded skis to deliver silver Le Bambino bags and a Christmas tree to the resort, using snowball fights as booth display accessories, and placing Le Bambino bags on conveyor belts that were originally used to transport ski tools. In terms of product matrix, Jacquemus is also moving closer to the big luxury brands. Following beauty and homeware, the brand launched its first childrenswear collection last month, with designs that continue the brand's iconic logo and minimalist tailoring, including T-shirts, sweatshirts, shirts and denim suits.
Jacquemus has successfully spread the popularity of social networking to offline retail networksThe growing popularity of the market has made Jacquemus' business performance stand out from the list of designer brands. According to the information disclosed by the brand, Jacquemus' revenue in 2022 doubled compared to 2021 to 21.2 billion euros. Bastien Daguzan previously said that growth in 2023 is also expected to reach double digits.
Even against the backdrop of the meritocratic narrative that has prevailed in the luxury industry in recent years, Bastien Daguzan's achievements in the past have been impressive. Obviously, performance is not the reason for Bastien Daguzan to be the ultimate leader, let alone a year and a half for an alien brand at the helm to fully exert his influence.
On the other hand, a hasty change of CEO is not conducive to the stability of the brand's strategic decisions, which is exactly what Jacquemus, which is in the process of upgrading its positioning, needs right now, especially in the context of the pressure on the luxury market and the general stability of the brand.
Judging from interviews earlier this month, Bastien Daguzan's collaboration with Simon Porte Jacquemus has also been widely recognized, and the departure of CEO will undoubtedly run counter to Simon Porte Jacquemus' vision for commercial operations that he put forward more than a year ago.
In the context of all the good things, the unusual move has caused most industry insiders to attribute the main reason for Jacquemus's personnel ** to internal conflicts, and the fuse may be the rumor that Simon Porte Jacquemus will be the new creative director of Givenchy.
Just before Bastien Daguzan was promoted to president of Jacquemus, Simon Porte Jacquemus was thought to be replacing Matthew M. after posting an office note on his Instagram account with the caption "Chez Hubert de Givenchy."A hint at Williams as the new creative director of Givenchy.
Although Simon Porte Jacquemus and LVMH, the parent company of Givenchy, have not yet responded to the news, the market has high expectations for the rumor. The vague market positioning and the lack of popular models have made Givenchy neglected by the market in recent years. In its recent quarterly earnings reports, LVMH singled out the strong performance of Celine, Loewe and Marc Jacobs, while Givenchy did not.
Simon Porte Jacquemus is one of the most creative and commercial fashion designers of the moment, and his ability to build momentum on social media is exactly what Givenchy is in need of right now.
Considering the degree of matching between the needs of both parties, Simon Porte Jacquemus commented at the beginning of the month when he stepped down as president that the move was a step forward for his future presence at GIVENCHY. In order to devote more of his energy to Givenchy, Simon Porte Jacquemus needed to gradually reduce his workload with his eponymous label.
Simon Porte Jacquemus is rumoured to be the new creative director of Givenchy.If the rumours are true, the conflict between Bastien Daguzan and Simon Porte Jacquemus on this issue may have largely contributed to the former's departure. This contradiction may have stemmed from Bastien Daguzan's dissatisfaction with Simon Porte Jacquemus' distraction from taking over Givenchy.
Judging by Simon Porte Jacquemus' departure as president, it is almost predictable that if he were eventually hired as creative director of Givenchy, the phased reduction in investment in Jacquemus would be almost predictable. Given Givenchy's uncertain situation, Simon Porte Jacquemus may not take less than two years.
In the luxury industry, there are many designers who are the creative directors of their own brands and major fashion houses, but there are not many who can do both in a real sense. Most of them choose to pause or postpone the creation of their personal brands while they are at the helm of the creative direction of their luxury brands.
On the one hand, the complex business system behind large fashion houses requires designers to invest more time and energy in communication and operation, and on the other hand, designers are also prone to become obsessed with the larger stage provided by luxury brands backed by large groups, so they voluntarily abandon the continuous management of their personal brands.
But this doesn't apply to brands that are already fully on the track for commercialization.
Simon Porte Jacquemus once said, "I want to be synonymous with our generation. I wanted to work for Jacquemus, which is a big fashion house. The implication may be that he has no intention of running for office, even if he is offered an olive branch by a creative director at a major luxury brand.
Simon Porte Jacquemus's current catch of the olive branch from Givenchy may mean that in his opinion, Jacquemus has become a big fashion house through "practice" in the past year or so.
In other words, Simon Porte Jacquemus believes that Jacquemus can continue to operate in his brief absence, which is the purpose of his external hiring of Bastien Daguzan more than a year ago, and it is also a signal and proof that the brand is truly moving towards commercialization.
In addition to Bastien Daguzan, Jacquemus also added a new management position in September with the appointment of Vittoria Pietropoli as the brand's first Director of Communications. Vittoria Pietropoli was previously Head of Communications at Loro Piana, LVMH's luxury cashmere brand, and also spent four years at Moncler, where she led the global digital public relations and marketing department.
Jacquemus has appointed Vittoria Pietropoli (left) as the brand's first Director of CommunicationsJacquemus, who is eager to recruit, is actually a reflection of the fact that in recent years, designer brands and star brands have been keen to poach from the luxury industryExecutive trends. Kim Kardashian, who single-handedly created the SKIMS lingerie myth with a valuation of $4 billion, is another representative of this strategy.
Unlike Simon Porte Jacquemus, Kim Kardashian chose to work with veteran marketers Jens Grede and Emma Grede, who served as CEO and Chief Product Officer of SKIMS at the beginning of the brand.
If Jens Grede and Emma Grede, who have always been closely associated with the Kardashian family, don't reflect the talent landscape of SKIMS, then the strength of Kim Kardashian's think tank is evident in the strength of Kim Kardashian's think tank through the smash hit influencer and now Swarovski creative director Giovanna Engelbert, who led to a collaboration between SKIMS and Swarovski, to open up the brand's future in the field of ready-to-wear and accessories.
Kim Kardashian chose to work with veteran marketers Jens Grede and Emma Grede at the beginning of SKIMSOther heavyweights hunted by SKIMS include Robert Norton, Skims' chief commercial officer, appointed earlier this year, from luxury down brand Moncler. Since May 2017, Robert Norton has served as President of Moncler Americas, where he was responsible for the brand's retail expansion and the transformation of its franchise model, strengthening Moncler's position in the luxury sector.
In addition, in August this year, the news that Kim Kardashian founded private equity firm SKKY Partners to recruit Angela Ahrendts has attracted widespread attention in the industry.
Angela Ahrendts was Burberry's CEO from 2006 to 2014, working closely with then-Creative Director Christopher Bailey to modernise the then aging Burberry. In 2013, he drove a historic partnership between Burberry and Apple, and in 2013 he joined Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail and Advanced Business.
Unlike creative directors who have stood in front of the scenes in recent years, luxury executives are not familiar with the market, but they have an absolute say in the overall business decision-making. After the growth of the brand is driven by creativity, whether it can hold on to the country basically depends on the business operation of the executives, and the latter is the key to the long-term ideal development of the brand.
As a result, luxury executive talent has always been a scarce resource in the fashion industry.
For brands that start out with creativity or stardom, an experienced commercial helmsman can help brands go faster and further on the road to expansion. At the same time, the gradually complete organizational structure team will also provide a guarantee for the brand to achieve further breakthroughs.
Today, however, whether Simon Porte Jacquemus threw himself into Givenchy or not, Jacquemus has lost Bastien Daguzan. Even if Simon Porte Jacquemus finds Bastien Daguzan's successor in a short period of time, Jacquemus will not be able to avoid going through a period of transition, not to mention the fact that ** partners are not often available.
Simon Porte's future for Jacquemus is not worrying, but Jacquemus is facing its biggest crisis ever. In the worst-case scenario, Simon Porte Jacquemus travels to Givenchy, and Jacquemus is forced to press the pause button on his way to the luxury brand.
This is not what the market wants to see. There is no shortage of other candidates for the creative director of Givenchy, but there are few designer brands like Jacquemus.