Luxury Industry Leadership Search

Luxury has always been a fairly feminine environment and the recruitment up to middlemanagement positions in the sector has followed the trend by actively integrating qualified women in fashion and cosmetics companies.

Women hold the majority of Studio positions (stylist or pattern maker positions) and Communication roles in the fashion industry, Marketing functions in perfume and cosmetics brands.

Over time the gender gap has become so apparent that some major luxury groups are working on gender equality to rebalance the share of men in their ranks!

Yet, the dominance of women in the sector is not ubiquitous and most of the top roles have been mainly in the hands of men. The position of Artistic Director (DA) is clearly an example.

Major fashion houses appointed in the past female professionals such as Maria Grazia Chiuri at Christian Dior, Clare Waight Keller at Givenchy, Véronique Viard at Chanel in this role whereas the artistic directors of the leading brands were historically men: Heidi Slimane,  Nicolas Ghesquière, Demma Gvasalia, Anthony Vaccarello, Jonathan Anderson.  The new wave of appointments seems to be mainly masculine with Michael Rider at Celine and Matthieu Blazy at Chanel,  to name a few.

The fashion Houses should better take into consideration the benefits of appointing women at the head of the “Style”. Women can understand fashion from a woman’s perspective, desires and expectations and therefore boost sales.

In a similar way, in the past 15 years, women have gained a strong presence in the Executive Committees, in roles such as Human Resources Director, Communications Director, VP Merchandising … but rarely as President – a traditional male bastion. This is also gradually changing as the appointments of women at the head of Celine, Boucheron and Christian Dior indicate.

It is simply a matter of time and discipline to identify and prepare the right candidates for the “chief” role. This requires having in place both an annual People Review with a strong focus on the identification of high potential women and individual development plans combined with internal succession plans who have at heart gender parity.

Women have their place in leadership positions in the luxury world but they have to plan wisely their career progression to be able to secure the top picks.

By choosing the next career move, they have to keep in mind that some roles have gained prominence in the luxury sector and today the top roles include:

• Collection Merchandising and Retail Merchandising : how to structure international collections taking into account both sale capacity and local markets’ specific needs
• Retail management
• Roles around the ability to create a consistent Shopping experience on all distribution channels (Ecommerce and Boutiques)
• Digital roles (CRM, Social Networks …)

A key challenge is to avoid the temptation of staying at headquarters when changing roles.

Working abroad as a head of a subsidiary is a clear competitive advantage that can’t be overlooked. This allows to be free of an ethnocentric vision of the world and to acquire an invaluable experience when adapting the collections and tools to local needs. Women have to be more mobile… with family of course!

Corinne Delias has cultivated a robust expertise in Marketing and Human Resources through a diverse array of roles in France and abroad, working with prominent companies like P&G, LVMH, and REXEL, as well as family-owned businesses. Her recent assignments showcase her versatility and leadership across the Fashion and Luxury industry, including VP Collection Merchandising for a lifestyle brand, CEO of a Burgundy Domaine, and BU Director – Accessories for a major international fine jewelry brand. She has also recruited pivotal positions such as Visual Merchandising Director for an exclusive Belgian leather goods brand, Human Resources Director for a luxury fashion label, and Marketing and Communication Director for a lifestyle fashion brand. Additionally, she has demonstrated operational acumen to recruit Financial Director, and International Director for various high-profile fashion brands. As a certified assessor and coach, she has assessed the leadership Team of a fashion retailer and of a luxury brand.  She has coached several HR VP and CMO in the industry.