Dive Brief:
- Dries Van Noten is leaving his role as designer of his namesake label in June, according to a press release posted to parent company Puig’s website and a separate statement posted to Van Noten’s LinkedIn page.
- The menswear spring-summer 2025 collection will be his last, and the label’s studio design team, with whom he works closely, will produce the womenswear spring-summer 2025 collection, per Van Noten’s statement.
- A new designer for the brand’s menswear and womenswear collection has not been named. Van Noten said in his statement that he intends to “stay involved in the House that I treasure so much.”
Dive Insight:
Luxury fashion continues to shift in 2024 amid economic fluctuations and changing consumer habits.
Earnings in the sector posted in the past three months have been uneven: Prada and LVMH revenues were up for fiscal 2023, while Kering was down for the same period.
As companies navigate earnings headwinds, there have also been creative changes. In January, Adrian Appiolaza became creative director of Moschino following the November death of Davide Renne. Last week, Blumarine’s creative Walter Chiappoini announced he would leave after accepting the position in November and producing one collection for the label.
It’s nonetheless rare for a designer to step back from a namesake brand.
Van Noten, who launched his label in 1986, said in his statement that creating his own company was his dream, but that he now wants to shift his “focus to all the things I never had time for.”
“I’m sad, but at the same time happy, to let you know that I will step down at the end of June,” said the designer in his statement. “I have been preparing for this moment for a while, and I feel it’s time to leave room for a new generation of talents to bring their vision to the brand.”
Van Noten also thanked “everyone at Puig” as well as “the fabric and accessories suppliers, ateliers and manufacturers, embroiderers in India,” his life partner Patrick Vangheluwe, and “everybody who loves what we do.”
“I am sure of this: the DVN future remains bright,” he said.
In the corporate statement, Marc Puig, chairman and CEO of Puig, expressed “heartfelt gratitude to Dries Van Noten for the inspiring partnership we have built since he joined our House of Love Brands in 2018.”
“We respect Dries’ wish to step aside, after an exceptional 38-year career in fashion,” said Puig. “It is a distinct honour for Puig to now be entrusted with carrying his legacy into the future, and a unique responsibility we will treasure as a new and exciting chapter opens for both Dries and the brand. The relationship we have with founders, even after their retirement, has long been a defining factor for Puig’s success, and we look forward to continuing our personal and professional friendship as Dries remains involved in the brand to work on certain projects.”
Puig, which also owns Rabanne, Carolina Herrera, Charlotte Tilbury, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci and the beauty licenses of Christian Louboutin, Banderas and Adolfo Dominguez, posted an earnings increase of 19% year over year to 4.3 billion euro, or approximately $4.7 billion at current exchange rates for fiscal 2023.
