Saint Laurent’s Berlin Site, New Appointment at LVMH, Nia Lynn Links With SI
MIES GENERATION: The Neue Nationalgalerie, a storied cultural and architectural landmark in Berlin, will be the site of Saint Laurent’s men’s fashion show next month, sources told WWD.
The French fashion house dispatched a save the date for June 12, but has been mum on other details. Brand representatives could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday. Contacted by WWD, museum representatives said they don’t “make any statements about third-party events.”
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The low, yet imposing building by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe opened in 1968 and is dedicated to 20th-century art. The listed edifice reopened in 2021 after a five-year renovation overseen by David Chipperfield architects.
Considered a modernist masterpiece, the glass-walled entrance hall sprawls over 28,000 square feet and boasts soaring ceilings.
It was recently the site of the inaugural Rimowa Design Awards, and has hosted fashion shows or presentations in the past for the likes of Giorgio Armani, Hugo Boss, Joop and Perret Schaad.
Current exhibitions include “Gerhard Richter: 100 Works for Berlin” and Tehching Hsieh’s work “One Year Performance 1980-1981 (Time Clock Piece).”
Saint Laurent and its creative director Anthony Vaccarello typically go on the road to unveil spring-summer men’s wear collections, last year inviting the fashion pack to the desert outside Marrakech for a gobsmacking sunset display around a circular pond.
In recent years, the brand staged itinerant shows in Venice, Italy, New York City and Malibu, California. — MILES SOCHA
LVMH ROLE: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has named former Sephora executive Gonzague de Pirey chief omnichannel and data officer, charged with spearheading the broad adoption of data and artificial intelligence across brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Guerlain and Tiffany & Co.
Effective June 1, de Pirey will succeed Michael David, who was named chief omnichannel officer in 2021.
De Pirey reports to Antonio Belloni, group managing director of LVMH. His appointment comes as generative artificial intelligence is adopted by a growing number of retailers, and as e-commerce adapts to a volatile environment overshadowed by the cost-of-living crisis.
A graduate of Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, the French executive joined LVMH in 2020 as general manager of Sephora Germany, steering the beauty retailer through the pandemic with initiatives that included launching social selling as a new sales channel.
He was subsequently named global senior vice president of new ventures at Sephora, initiating partnerships including a long-term strategic deal with Zalando to create a prestige beauty experience online.
“He has extensive experience in omnichannel business across industries and countries. As the leader of Sephora’s new ventures, he has shown the ability to drive breakthrough initiatives for our customers and business. These assets will be key to accelerate the progress of maisons and regions in leveraging the power of technology and data,” Belloni said in an internal memo shared with WWD.
De Pirey will manage the group centers of competence for omnichannel, data and artificial intelligence and remote customer service.
He will work closely with Franck Le Moal, LVMH Group IT director; Frédérique Rousseau, LVMH Holding human resources director and other activities; Nelly Mensah, vice president of digital innovation-global head of Web3 and metaverse, and Laetitia Roche-Grenet, open innovation director.
De Pirey will manage a team that includes Olivier Astié, omnichannel and e-commerce director; Anca Marola, chief data officer; Camille Canque, LVMH client services general manager; Lan Luan, senior vice president digital, Asia-Pacific, and Larissa Higgins, vice president digital, North America.
“His teams will work with innovation thought leading companies, and with our maisons to offer a more integrated and elevated experience to customers across touchpoints, and to increase the efficiency and responsiveness of the supply chains,” LVMH said.
De Pirey has worked as a senior executive in industries including retail, high-performance materials and commodities in France, Russia, China and Germany. — JOELLE DIDERICH
SWIM DREAM: Model, entrepreneur, mother and designer Nicole Williams English is debuting an exclusive Nia Lynn by Nicole Williams English swimwear collection in collaboration with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit on Wednesday.
“My biggest dream and career goal was to be a Sports Illustrated rookie — my whole entire career I waited for this moment. Over 20 years — being a swimwear model and living in New York, that was my ultimate dream; it’s a huge accomplishment,” Williams English, one of this year’s rookies, told WWD. Since 2017, she has been running her exclusive swimwear label and has launched four collections in small, exclusive drops.
Upon receiving the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue rookie news, Williams English (who was pregnant at the time) proposed the idea of designing her own swimwear to wear on the Miami Swim Week runway last July, which Sports Illustrated accepted.
“I got to work on a suit and I only had four days to make it. I sketched the whole suit, designed it and actually took an old pattern from my first collection and tweaked it and added the rookie logo to it. It was the most popular suit of my first collection that everybody was just so obsessed with, so I brought it back in gold metallic and mesh with black letters with ‘rookie’ across the front. That’s where it all started,” Williams English said, adding she also revealed her pregnancy on the runway (and was later photographed for the 2023 editorial while seven months pregnant).
Following the event, where the Sports Illustrated team loved her rookie suit, Williams English designed a collaborative Nia Lynn x Sports Illustrated Swimsuit collection, which launches the same day as the 2023 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
“It’s been a real pinch-me moment because this is absolutely a dream come true to be able to combine my dream career path with my love for design,” she said.
“For this capsule, I wanted to just have totally new designs. I knew that I wanted to have a lot of sexy suits, because when you open the Sports Illustrated magazines — the suits that the girls have on always have a ‘wow’ factor about them,” Williams English said of her inspiration for the collection’s one-pieces, cutout and gold hardware details, and custom prints. The 12-piece collaborative collection includes a range of string bikinis, a G-string and strapless bandeaus in traditional swimwear and new seersucker fabrications, as well as three vintage Body Glove-inspired, metallic maillots boasting the Sports Illustrated logo.
The collection, priced $72 to $152, is available to shop exclusively on the swimwear brand’s e-commerce, as well as on Instagram. — EMILY MERCER
DIVING IN: Popular luxury K-beauty brand Laneige is about to launch its first immersive virtual store, thanks to its partnership with experiential commerce firm Obsess, company representatives told WWD.
The hydration skin care company is set to announce the launch sometime on Tuesday. One draft of the release seen by WWD highlights features such as exclusive behind-the-scenes content with actress Sydney Sweeney, as well as the new Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic collection.
In terms of the environment, shoppers can expect to see a five-room layout decked out with animations, 360-degree video, gamified features and integrated checkout. The store’s themed multiroom setup allows the brand to focus on specific skin care collections.
“The virtual store is a powerful customer engagement tool that will allow shoppers to dive into Laneige’s unique scientific expertise and entertaining digital content, while also helping them select the right product for their skin needs, including our bestselling Water Sleeping Mask and Lip Sleeping Mask,” Julien Bouzitat, chief marketing officer of Laneige parent company AmorePacific US, is quoted as saying.
One room designed as an underwater world was designed to showcase its Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Collection, while another, titled “Dreamland,” is cast as a floating cloud to spotlight the sleeping mask category. “Carousel Candyland” is themed for its number-one lip treatments. The Laneige Lab informs guests about ingredients, and the “On Set with Sydney” room features actress Sydney Sweeney, with exclusive behind-the-scenes video from the Laneige spokesperson’s photo shoots for the brand.
Visitors can wander the rooms and view content, take a skin care quiz for custom product recommendations or go on a scavenger hunt to score free products with purchase.
The trend of virtual storefronts — visually oriented, immersive online shops built on augmented, virtual or mixed-reality platforms — preceded the once-hot, but now waning metaverse trend, though it benefited from the metaverse hype. The last two years saw an accelerated push for 360-degree shopping experiences, and Obsess has been among the retail tech firms at the heart of development, working with brand partners such as Charlotte Tilbury, Fendi, Christian Dior, Vacheron + Constantine, Mytheresa and more.
“Virtual stores are scaling rapidly in both brand and consumer adoption, and data from the 85 million+ user interactions that have happened on the Obsess platform proves that these interactive stores increase customer engagement and purchase behavior,” explained Neha Singh, founder and chief executive officer at Obsess.
“We are thrilled to partner with Laneige on this immersive e-commerce store, which brings 3D shopping to a new generation of consumers who have grown up with gaming.” — ADRIANA LEE
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