Following months of rumours, Phoebe Philo’s departure from fashion house Chloe has now become a fact, reports Women’s Wear Daily. In today’s announcement, she will be citing personal reasons, according to market sources. The designer had expressed her wish to spend more time with her young family, a fact that was becoming increasingly difficult to combine with the tough demands of her job.
Speculation over the creative designer’s imminent departure from the luxury fashion label was first brought up by WWD in November.
A source told WWD that a successor has not yet been selected and the fall collection, which will be revealed in March, will be designed by the in-house team. The team – consisting of Sara Jowett, Natasha Lee, Valeska Duetsch, Adrian Appiolaza and Yvan Mispelaere – has already had experience designing in her stead, when Philo was on maternity leave.
The industry has begun speculating over her successor. Roland Mouret has been suggested as a candidate; however sources have said that there has been no contact between Mouret and Chloe chairman and chief executive Ralph Toledano.
Philo has been credited with the phenomenal success of the brand in recent years, especially of its iconic bags and shoes. Having joined the label in 1997 as part of Stella McCartney’s design team, she succeeded her four years later when McCartney left to design her own collection. However, the demands of the job apparently became too much for Philo, even when the label moved its design studios to London to accommodate her.
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Notwithstanding these struggles, in November the brand’s parent company Richemont reported robust first-half profits. “This business has outperformed its peers, more than doubling sales in the six months under review,” said Richemont chairman Johann Rupert. “Chloe is developing its wholesale business and rolling out its international retail expansion programme.”
The brand is said to generate wholesale sales of $300 million, although Richemont last year said it would invest “tens of millions of euros” in Chloe in order to make it a billion-dollar brand.
Meanwhile, Chloe has opened a spate of boutiques worldwide in the past year, with the most recent opening being its second Paris store on the exclusive Avenue Montaigne.
www.chloe.com 5 January 2006