What Does It Take to Be the CEO of a Fashion Brand?

The archetype of a fashion CEO is a bit fictitious.

From the world of film, the highly ambitious-yet-unbalanced Jules Ostin may come to mind. Or perhaps the fashionably terrifying Miranda Priestly (she’s not technically a CEO, but the point still stands) conjures up a satisfying ideal. From the real world, you might think of the French luxury billionaires — LVMH’s Bernard Arnault, Kering’s François-Henri Pinault — or names like Robert Duffy (former Marc Jacobs CEO) and Domenico de Sole (Gucci CEO-turned-Tom Ford chairman) that were once heavily mentioned in the press. (And, yes, there are some high-profile female CEOs, like Chanel’s Leena Nair and Dior’s Delphine Arnault, but not many.)

Maybe there’s not an individual that comes to mind at all, but rather flashes of a lifestyle: lavish work parties, 24/7 assistants, back-to-back meetings, hours spent sorting through fabric swatches and design concepts, sitting in a picturesque office while working as the ultimate decision-maker. Yes, there are some truths to those assumptions. But overall, the job description of a modern fashion CEO is not one size fits all.

The role a CEO plays in a company is dependent on what said business is trying to achieve. Mads Fibiger Rasmussen, co-founder and CEO of Organic Basics, sees his job as a “listener” who makes decisions informed by what “everyone close” has to share. “That is the only way for me to make decisions because I can’t be an expert in everything,” he tells Fashionista. “I just listen to what they say and then I make sure it’s communicated widely and implemented in the bigger strategy.”

Lisa Williams, CEO of Eileen Fisher, sees it as her duty to balance “business, people and planet.”

“For most traditional companies, the bottom line and the profit are what dictates the decisions,” she explains. “When you [account for] product and the way we approach it here, trying to do so with the most responsible of intention, it adds a different complexity. And then there’s the people piece of it. […] Trying to make decisions every day with [all] that in mind is so important.”

Ahead, four fashion executives peel back the curtain on their path to becoming CEOs, from education to early career steps to the most helpful skills needed for the job.

Education and Early Career

It isn’t unusual for fashion higher-ups to take a non-traditional route into the industry. Such was the case for Williams, who says she “fell into the industry.” She graduated college as a sociology major thinking she would become a lawyer, only to get accepted into an executive training program at a “big department store,” completely altering her career path. She learned the “complexities of the business” and found a love for product, merchandising and brand management. She later secured a stint in consumer products at Walt Disney Company and completed a 20-year run at Patagonia as chief product officer, before eventually landing at Eileen Fisher in 2022.

In hindsight, her sociology degree has been largely relevant to her success: “In any role as a working professional, interacting with people, understanding their diversity and different backgrounds and how they relate and how they don’t has been invaluable.”

Rasmussen (who studied business administration) also feels that his unique career path assisted him in running his brand and is the reason he’s even in fashion: He actually launched Organic Basics — an ethically-made underwear and essentials line — as a “hobby project” while he was still getting his master’s in finance.

“It was quite cool that I was able to do this business degree while doing the company because I could select my minors in whatever I needed for the business,” he says. The “practical experience” he got also provided a “positive synergy effect” on both his studies and daily operations because he could apply the “theories” he learned in class to the brand.

On the other hand, Adrianne Kirszner, CEO of Tanya Taylor, started her career in publishing. As an undergrad English major she thought to pursue editing before pivoting to fashion and beauty. (She did later get an MBA at New York University, too.) She then worked in planning and allocation at companies including Victoria’s Secret Beauty, Ann Taylor, Coach and Kate Spade. Still, she, too, has applied her college degree throughout her professional roles via strong communication skills. “I care a lot about, not only how I communicate, but how others communicate, whether it’s representing our brand externally or even how we communicate to each other,” she explains. “Knowing how to write and communicate is a skill that I hope stays valued as we move through the business community.”

Rather than follow an expected path, these executives go to show that if the passion and work ethic are there, once can anyone parlay just about any educational background into a leadership position.

“Throughout my career, I’ve always liked to hire people who are almost unexpected hires,” says Kirszner. “For me, it’s always like, is someone smart? Are they curious? Do they have a sense of the outside world? And those things sometimes tend to be innate.”

Being Appointed CEO

Don’t look on LinkedIn for CEO position openings: Some are internal hires, like Lanvin‘s Michèle Huiban, who worked five years as the company’s finance director and deputy general manager; and Saint Laurent’s former CEO Francesca Bellettini, who priorly worked at another Kering-owned brand, Bottega Veneta.

In many cases, brands are led by founder-CEOs like Dorsey’s Meg Strachan, Alice + Olivia’s Stacey Bendet and 3.1 Phillip Lim‘s Wen Zhou — though, the latter started in other divisions like product development, fabric sourcing, operations, human resources and finances before formally being appointed CEO.

Elyce Arons also falls under this category as the CEO and co-founder of Frances Valentine. Her story, though, has a twist: This isn’t her first run operating a fashion business. She was a co-founder of Kate Spade alongside its namesake, Andy Spade and Pamela Bell. Arons stayed with the company through its acquisition by Neiman Marcus Group, but eventually exited following its purchase by Liz Claiborne Inc. Kate Spade, the person, left as well.

“Liz Claiborne had no interest in being partners,” Arons reflects. “They wanted us all to stay, but they wanted us to stay only as employees, not as business partners.” Fast forward to 2014, she was ready to give it another go, once again partnering with Spade to launch Frances Valentine, a luxury apparel and accessories line. “I have learned, not in a formal way, but in a very informal way,” she shares. “Experience is the best knowledge, and I think that’s really where I gained my education is doing it at Kate Spade.”

Fashion CEOs also, of course, get hired from outside. (But still no LinkedIn postings.) Williams wasn’t actively looking to leave her job at Patagonia — the opportunity to connect with Eileen Fisher came organically, and Williams wanted to “at least have a conversation.”

“Even in that first conversation, I was so intrigued by thinking about what’s been important to me in a product and retail career, which is trying to find a way to do this with brands that have a purpose,” she says. “The more I learned about Eileen herself, the culture and the way she’s approached this business, it felt like a very natural connection.”

Kirszner’s appointment also came quite naturally. She met Taylor through a mutual friend and learned more about the brand’s next chapter, including its hunt for its first hired CEO. “I was excited about the opportunity to be able to take all my experience and parlay that into something that’s growing and smaller, where you can make a decision and it’s happening right away,” Kirszner reflects. “That was really the impetus for me moving to a small brand.”

Establishing a Leadership Style and Culture

How a fashion executive chooses to lead can set the tone for how well they’ll acclimate to a company’s dynamic. It’s a good sign, then, that fostering an empathetic and people-forward culture seems to be a consensus among all the interviewed superiors.

“You need to know people as individuals,” Kirszner says. “No matter how big your team is, you’re really motivating a group of individuals to work together […] The power and the importance of developing talent [ties into that.] For me, I’ve always thought about succession. As a leader, you’re really thinking about how you’re growing people’s careers on your teams and how you’re exposing them to opportunities to expand their skillset to set them up for future success.”

Williams agrees, adding she is always working from an “open-minded” perspective, “not always approaching things in the exact same way and being open to things that have worked in the past and how might they work even better [now].” Arons emphasizes being “caring” and “having relationships with all the people with whom we work” is crucial to propelling business forward.

“Your people are what make you,” she says. “Listen to people with divergent views from your own. When I’m stubborn and bullheaded about things and it’s my way or the highway, you lose a lot in the decision-making process if you’re not willing to hear all perspectives on something.”

Thus, these executives’ day-to-day agendas involve lots of collaboration. Arons’ daily schedule is “all over the place,” but it’s usually riddled with meetings across teams, be it design, wholesale, planning, production or creative marketing. Rasmussen, Kirszner and Williams also spend much of their days in meetings. The latter uniquely starts most of hers with “a moment of silence,” a company-wide practice of clearing your head for a minute before jumping directly into a meeting.

“It’s just about a little bit grounding in that moment,” Williams says. “To just sit down, recognize what you’re about to walk into, clear your head for a moment and really have the right intention for that particular conversation has been something that I’ve learned here that’s been a practice that Eileen and the team have been doing here for a long time.”

Leading Brands to Growth and Success

Many factors feed into a company’s growth, but a CEO can help set it up for access by exhibiting certain attributes like curiosity, collaboration, vision, self-awareness and flexibility. In an environment rooted in passion and encouragement, people are more inclined to collaborate and, resultantly, prioritize the company’s best interests.

Rasmussen witnesses this firsthand: “Being able to gather good people around a shared mission is something that has helped us a lot. If you can gather people around something that feels important and something where you’re not there just for the money, you can create something that becomes, in a sense, bigger than a business.”

Of course, given Organic Basics’ focus on sustainability, his strategy for growth is a bit more complex than it might be for a less conscious brand: There are limited Global Recycled Standard (GRS)-certified manufacturers he can work with, it’s harder to get in front of factories that pass the brand’s standards, product is more expensive to make and lots of time is spent calculating and quantifying its sustainability impact. (He treats this data with the same attention as the brand’s financial key performance indicators (KPIs).) All that said, sustainability remains the company’s priority.

“We have had periods in the company’s lifetime where we put profit at risk in the best interest of being more sustainable and valuing the planet,” Rasmussen confesses. “Ultimately, it’s about figuring [out]: How can we be sustainable while also being competitive with the other brands that don’t care about sustainability?”

Williams faces a similar conundrum with Eileen Fisher’s commitment to responsible design. She is always finding that balance between people, planet and profit, which “are in constant movement.” How to best navigate that complexity is a question she’s still finding answers to, but it helps that she works alongside a team committed to the same vision, and at a privately-owned brand with employee stock ownership.

“The expectation that we think about business holistically and not just from a finance and a numbers perspective is what is upon us,” she explains. Eileen Fisher has the luxury of considering business, planet and people all together “in any given moment.”

Kirszner also sees the benefit of leading a small, independently-owned brand, as it offers “a little bit more space” when making decisions, compared to being within a big portfolio with different stakeholders.

“It’s really important, especially in this seat, that even when you’re in the mix of some immediate situation or even just thinking about a short-term business project, that you always have the long term in mind; you’re always aware that every decision you’re making right now is impacting the future of the brand,” Kirszner continues.

While today’s executives commit themselves to thinking three steps ahead, they equally acknowledge that meeting the business where it’s at is key for the success of any CEO. “[This job] is about being open to any learning experience that can come your way […] and having reasonable expectations for yourself,” Williams concludes. “Giving grace to yourself is really, really important because life changes and you have to meet whatever moment that you’re faced with.”

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Source: Fashionista.com