Lanvin Appoints Gerrit Ruetzel as President of the Americas
Gerrit Ruetzel has been appointed president of the Americas at Lanvin, a new post.
He will be responsible for expanding the brand’s retail productivity and footprint, ramping up digital commerce and product strategy in the U.S., a key growth market for the French house.
More from WWD
Most recently, Ruetzel was chief executive officer of the Americas at Bottega Veneta, where he worked nearly five years until October 2021. Before that he was with Hugo Boss as president and CEO of Hugo Boss Fashions, CEO/president of Hugo Boss Hong Kong Ltd., managing director Latin America, as well as director of international sales.
Ruetzel reports to Siddhartha Shukla, deputy general manager of Lanvin.
In an interview, Shukla, who joined Lanvin a year and a half ago, said he spent the first year trying to professionalize the organization and bring some discipline into it. Now the focus is on resetting product strategy and marketing and getting the house back in a position to compete successfully. One of the initiatives is to strengthen the U.S. team.
“Getting Gerritt is a big part of that to position ourselves to evolve and reset the image of the house,” Shukla said.
He said the U.S. had strong growth in the market in the past year, and that the customer has great affinity for the brand, which they’re looking to build upon. He said Ruetzel’s top priorities will be to reset product strategy, the development of the network and boosting digital.
Lanvin’s wholesale partners in the U.S. include such retailers as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Net-a-porter, Essence and The Webster. The brand has eight freestanding boutiques in the U.S. in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, California, Miami Design District and Las Vegas, including two outlets.
“We’re under-penetrated in terms of stores,” Shukla said. “There’s a real opportunity to develop the network and making the existing stores more productive. Definitely, in the coming years we’ll open new locations. But I definitely think there is a digital opportunity,” he said.
“Choosing Gerrit was about bringing somebody in who’s a seasoned executive. He’s run a region before, he ran Bottega Veneta Americas for five years. He has the right mix of leadership, of managing a key premiere European brand in the Americas, and has a very good handle on the market.” He also said Ruetzel is someone who’s channel agnostic “and understands retail, wholesale and digital equally well.
“I also think just as important, if not most important, he is entrepreneurial, and he’s ready for what the project of Lanvin is.” He called Lanvin “an entrepreneurial project,” where they are rebuilding the oldest couture house.
As far as new product categories, Shukla said Lanvin is a luxury lifestyle brand that has the capacity to build an assortment across women’s and men’s. “There’s a great opportunity in diversifying the product offer across categories,” he added.
He said the U.S. team needs to be able to lead on a regional level, and not be reacting. “The vision for the house is coming from Paris, but the appointment was important. There are plenty of big houses operating [in the U.S.] with regional heads. It was time for us to have that,” Shukla said.
After completing its merger with the Primavera Capital Acquisition Corp. SPAC, Lanvin Group went public on the New York Stock Exchange last December. In addition to Lanvin, the group owns Wolford, Sergio Rossi, St. John Knits and Caruso.
Best of WWD
