Givenchy, whose perfume business is said to be riding high, has tapped a new president and chief executive officer with experience in fashion and beauty, Renaud de Lesquen, currently president and ceo of Dior Americas, is to join Givenchy on April 1 and it is not a Joke.
A suave but discreet executive, de Lesquen has been in the New York-based role for four years, and previously served the same amount of time as president of Dior China. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at L’Oréal in Paris, as president and ceo of YSL Beauté, and before that as global president of Giorgio Armani Beauty.
The appointment suggests Givenchy is about to embark on a new development phase and also underscores the penchant of parent LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton to groom and promote executives from within.
De Lesquen succeeds Philippe Fortunato, an LVMH veteran whose six-year tenure straddled two distinctly different creative directors: Riccardo Tisci, culminating with an acclaimed New York showing, and then Clare Waight Keller, who arrived from Chloé in 2017. He ramped up retail expansion, brought couture back to the runway, oversaw the brand’s arrival on e-commerce, and also put the spotlight on its men’s wear division with a slate of initiatives, including a showing at Pitti Uomo. Continue reading
A clear tent under moonlit trees in the Jardin de Plantes undoubtedly held appeal for Givenchy’s “Winter of Eden”-themed fashion show. But maybe think twice before cramming 1,000 people in a space the length of a city block with only one way out through a dark tunnel of dizzying lights and pounding club beats?
The Verdict: Givenchy’s first new fragrance, meant as a Millennial answer “to Very Irrésistible”, failed to fully impress our panel of journalist. While the scent was immediately recognized for its luxurious blend of ingredients or, as canal-luxe said, for smelling “like money” and a few found it “elegant” and “delicate” the general consensus was that L’INTERDIT is a bit of a snooze. Despite the criticism, at least one journalist realized the house of LVMH ambitions with the fragrance, calling it “an ode…to ladies who still lunch;
On 11 September 75 models have presented the Givenchy black and white collection Spring/Summer 2016 with the skyline in the background of the new World Trade Center and paraded to the sound of a Buddhist monk in honor of 911.
“His are the only clothes in which I am myself. He is far more than a couturier, he is a creator of personality,” Hubert de Givenchy’s muse Audrey Hepburn said of the designer. Loved by some of the most iconic stars of the 20th Century – from Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy and Wallis Simpson, to his most famous muse Audrey Hepburn – Givenchy’s name and legacy have been synonymous with Parisian chic for more than 50 years.
