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Tag: daniel lee

  • Gucci powers Kering third quarter sales

    Gucci powers Kering third quarter sales

    Kering sales growth significantly outpaced its rivals during the third quarter, up 27.6 per cent as reported and 27.5 per cent on a comparable basis, to €3.402 billion. In Kering-operated stores, Asia Pacific sales rose 33.3 per cent on a comparable basis, bettered only by North America’s 36.1 per cent increase. Growth in online sales exceeded 80 per cent and wholesale sales rose 27 per cent.

    “We are extraordinarily proud of the remarkable performances Kering delivers quarter after quarter,” said chairman and CEO Francois-Henri Pinault. “Our growth, whose pace is unprecedented in the luxury sector, is sound, well balanced and sustained across all regions and distribution channels.”

    Pinault said the company’s enduring success comes down to the talent of each of its brands in “creating strong emotional ties with its customers, conceiving a bold, generous creative universe, and reinventing its codes”.

    “Beyond short-term developments, we know that the secular growth of the luxury market, but particularly our solid fundamentals and the discipline with which we implement our strategy, will continue to support our operating and financial outperformance.”

    Gucci led Kering sales growth during the quarter, with sales up 35.1 percent and strong performance across all distribution channels, regions and product categories. Gucci Asia-Pacific sales soared 41.9 per cent.

    Yves Saint Laurent sales rose 16.1 per cent, driven by the strong performance of iconic lines and the success of new collections.

    While Bottega Veneta sales were down 8.4 per cent on a comparable basis, the label is in a transitional phase led by recently appointed creative director Daniel Lee (ex Celine). His first full collection will go on sale early next year.

    Kering’s other houses (labels) achieved a 32.3 per cent increase in sales, driven by  “exceptional momentum” at Balenciaga and ongoing growth at Alexander McQueen. New collections and extended iconic lines from Boucheron, Pomellato and Qeelin were “very well received”.

    The watches and jewellery categories delivered what the company described as “solid performances”.

  • Bottega Veneta appoints British designer Daniel Lee

    Bottega Veneta appoints British designer Daniel Lee

    A new high luxury designer reshuffle brings some interesting aesthetic food for thought. Bottega Veneta, the quiet power of Italian stealth wealth, has appointed Daniel Lee, a 32 year old British graduate of Central St Martins, to replace its outgoing creative director of 17 years, Tomas Maier.

    Mulberry poached her head of accessories Johnny Coca to become its creative director in 2015. Lee, following Philo’s departure will have been out of a job. Her successor, the opinion dividing Hedi Slimane, is busy ripping out everything from her ten year legacy down to the patchwork marble floors (a special Philo commission featuring 12 varieties of marble sourced from Brazil, France and Italy) in the HQ and stores. The Philo vision for Céline is dead, something which her acolytes have been mourning.Lee on paper seems a shrewd choice. He was until recently the Director of ready to wear at Céline, latterly helmed by Phoebe Philo. Under Philo’s exacting steer, Céline assumed its role as the ultimate destination for the woman who lusted after a kind of intellectual design rooted in a nuanced evolution of minimalism. Her team were renowned in the industry for their talent.

    Enter Lee. Bottega is perhaps the natural successor to an evolution of the Philo style. Its tagline “When your own initials are enough” underlines its position as a home of understated, exclusive craft. Maier’s elegant, grown up collections riffed off this, explaining to the Telegraph in 2016 that he designs “for women not 16 year olds.” He marked the brand’s 50th anniversary in 2016 by inviting Lauren Hutton onto the catwalk, styling her in a re-imagined version of the trench coat and red intrecciato clutch bag she wore in American Gigolo.

    Lee will of course have his own ideas, in the statement announcing his tenure he said that “I look forward to evolving what has gone before, while contributing a new perspective and modernity”.

    Kering, the luxury conglomerate that owns Bottega Veneta, has form in making shrewdly successful quiet appointments. Since enduring the high stakes of installing Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent (he left the house in 2016, later receiving £8million in a lawsuit over intellectual property rights and contractual obligations) Kering has avoided courting more high maintenance names. They replaced Slimane with Anthony Vaccarello, who had form but little ego.

    When they promoted second in design-command at Gucci, Alessandro Michele – then unknown – in 2015, they scored a blinder. Michele has turned it into the hottest designer property, bringing in an approximated global revenue of 6.2 billion euros in 2017 – which accounts for over half of Kering’s overall revenue (reported as 10.823 billion euros in that year). Bottega Veneta reportedly brought in 1.18 billion euros in 2017, not a small amount, but something which they will likely be hoping to expand upon.

    Their policy of installing more low key names is the opposite strategy to rival LVMH which has embarked on a recent hiring spree of star designers, moving Kim Jones to head up Dior menswear, whilst installing sportswear supremo Virgil Abloh in his stead at Louis Vuitton menswear. The ping pong exchange of talent between the two groups has fuelled the ongoing game of industry musical chairs.

    A note of warning though to Lee, in an interview with ES magazine this week, Jones underlined the all consuming nature of these leading roles. “It’s a fantastic life and there’s lots of money to be made at the top, but there is also a vast amount of pressure. It can be all-consuming. You don’t have time for a life really, not at the level I now work. It can be very isolating. And you have to be prepared, sometimes, to sacrifice everything for it. I had to make that choice.”

    Lee worked at Philo’s atelier which was based in London. Tomas Maier was largely based in Florida, travelling to New York and Milan when required. What freedom of address Lee will be able to command remains to be seen. But, certainly at his first show in September, the expectation will be high. Let’s hope he’s ready for it.