Serge Ruffieux will not take part in Carven's relaunch

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Published
Oct 13, 2018

New owner, new creative direction: as is often the case, Carven's purchase by Chinese fashion group Icicle – confirmed on Friday, 12th October by Paris' Tribunal de Commerce – will entail a design overhaul at the French label. The offer put forward by the brand's new owner includes the possibility to keep on between 72 and 73 of the label's employees, with one exception: creative director Serge Ruffieux. 

The house did not present a collection for Spring/Summer 2019 and its impending relaunch will now be undertaken without the Swiss designer, who has led its creative teams since February 2017. 

Ruffieux took over from design duo Alexis Martial and Adrien Caillaudaud, who had, in turn, replaced Guillaume Henry in 2015. 

Carven's new owner, Icicle, has stated that it "recognises Serge Ruffieux's great talent but needs time in order to better understand the situation," apparently alluding to the necessity to take stock at the brand before getting stuck into new creative endeavours. 

Ruffieux has previously worked at Gérard Darel, Sonia Rykiel and Moschino, but most notably at Dior, where he served as head designer for women's ready-to-wear and couture. It was here that he garnered the most attention, stepping into the shoes of temporary creative director alongside Lucie Meier for almost a year, between the departure of Raf Simons in 2015 and the arrival of Maria Grazia Chiuri in the summer of 2016. 

At Carven, where design will be one of the first areas to be relaunched, the brand's new owners will therefore have to find a new creative director. This task will fall to the temporary management team taking over from October 12th, made up of Icicle president and founder Shawna Tao, and Isabelle Capron, CEO of the company's Parisian subsidiary.