Lanvin artistic director departs, interim CEO named

Lanvin has parted ways with its artistic director Olivier Lapidus, less than a year after he was appointed. His exit, first revealed by WWD in an exclusive report, comes one month after Chinese conglomerate, Fosun International, acquired a majority stake in the troubled fashion house. Lapidus, who showed his second collection for the brand at Paris Fashion Week this month, will continue to design his own label, while Lanvin's women's collections will continued to be designed by their in-house team. In addition to Lapidus' departure, Lanvin's general manager Nicolas Druz is also leaving the brand. This marks the first big moves by Lanvin's new holding company.

Joann Cheng, president of Fosun Fashion Group and chairman of Lanvin's board of directors, has been appointed interim CEO of the brand. Druz has actually found a new home for himself with Fosun International as their new managing director.

Olivier Lapidus departs Lanvin

“Olivier steered the maison through a transitional period between ownerships,” said Cheng in a statement. “We thank him for that, and wish him every success for his own brand and future endeavors.”

Cheng has over 20 years of experience as a business executive. Before joining Fosun International, stints on her résumé included chief financial officer of Chinese Technology DJI Innovations, finance director of private equity firm TPG and Greater China controller at GE Capital, the financial services unit of General Electric. She will serve until a new permanent CEO is named.

Lanvin has seen a tumultuous time since they sacked famed artistic director Alber Elbaz in 2015. Sales have eroded at the brand, and didn't seen any uptick when they installed Bouchra Jarrar as their artistic director. Her time at the brand was also shorted lived and she was not too much later replaced by Lapidus. Since then, Lanvin's sales have declined to 162 million euros from a peak of 235 million euros. Fosun Group intends to help the brand stage a comeback on a major international expansion scale. Their first order of business will be finding new permanent talent to head up the brand.

Photo: Christophe Archambault / AFP