Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts.
Diane Von Furstenberg is bringing the operations of the brand she founded in 1972 back in-house, after four years of outsourcing its management to Chinese licensee Glamel. Retailers were notified today, and the transition will be completed by the end of 2024.
Operations will be led by Graziano De Boni, who quietly joined as CEO in October 2023. Prior to DVF, De Boni held senior roles at Valentino, Prada and Giorgio Armani before founding his consulting business De Boni Consulting in 2018. He succeeds Gabby Hirata, who held the role from 2019 until June 2023.
Behind the scenes at DVF, De Boni has been planning how to kick-start the US business once again, 52 years into the brand’s existence. “When I joined DVF 10 months ago, I was asked to develop a plan for the legacy of the brand,” De Boni said in the release. “Regaining control of the design and narrative of our brand was the first necessary step to reimagining our business model for the future.”
Since the end of 2020, Glamel has managed the global business of DVF, meaning that all business oversight was down to the Chinese company; given it was the licensee, Glamel also had oversight of the brand’s design. Throughout this period, the Von Furstenberg family retained ownership of the brand. Now, they’ll once again have creative and managerial control. (Glamel will continue to distribute the brand in China.)
“Graziano has spent considerable time this year working with the product and focusing on building the brand strategy,” Von Furstenberg said in the release. “To execute this strategy, it was necessary that our operations return in-house. I am very excited to support Graziano’s leadership redesigning the company as he surrounds himself with talent that understands the zeitgeist of today and respects and appreciates the richness of the assets of the past.”
Recently, Von Furstenberg has made her mark within the cultural zeitgeist. On 6 June, documentary Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge opened the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. And in March, the designer released a collection with big-box retailer Target, opening up the designs to a younger — and wider — demographic.
“Immersing myself into the history of DVF, I found not only the iconic wrap dress that continues to sell after 50 years, but also a vast archive of prints and fabrics that revealed a unique and strong design vocabulary,” De Boni said. “Furthermore, I was amazed by the richness and breadth of content material and by the authentic personal relationship multi-generational women have with DVF. All of this is very relevant for today’s digital-first landscape of retail and social media.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
More from this author:
Tapestry prepares fight against FTC’s Capri merger block
What brands can learn from pop girl summer’s biggest hits
Very demure, very mindful: How brands should navigate ‘internet speak’
