Roger Vivier Executives Shuffle, New CEO Comes From Miu Miu

As the Tod's group's only growth engine at present, Roger Vivier does not have much chance of trial and error.

According to fashion business news, Italy luxury group Tod's announced that Maria Critina Lomanto will replace Camilla Schiavone to become the new CEO of its brand Roger Vivier. Camilla Schiavone, who joined Roger Vivier in 2014, has left office as the head of Rautureau Apple Shoes group.

According to public information, Maria Critina Lomanto graduated from University of Milan and served as the business and marketing director of luxury brands such as Prada, Jil Sander and Saint Laurent. In 2013, she became the general manager of the retail business of Miu group, a young brand of Prada group. Last June, Maria Critina Lomanto formally joined the Tod's group in charge of Roger Vivier footwear and accessories business, with nearly 20 years of luxury related experience.

It is noteworthy that in March last year, Bruno Frisoni, the Roger Vivier creative director of Gherardo Felloni also came from Miu Miu. When he was the creative director of Dior at John Galliano and Raf Simons, he was responsible for the design of women's shoes. After returning to Miu Miu in 2014, he was the design director of shoes, leather goods and jewelry.

Some people in the industry pointed out that the appointment of Maria Critina Lomanto means that Roger Vivier has entered a new chapter. According to statistics, although the sales of Roger Vivier fell 3.2% to 173 million euros last year, the first series of Gherardo Felloni design received a positive response. Sales in the first quarter of the brand rose 16.2% to 43 million 900 thousand euros, ending the four consecutive quarter of decline.

Roger Vivier was founded in 1930 by the designer of the same name. It has accumulated a lot of fame by virtue of Aiguille's high-heeled shoes and Virgule heel. In 1965, Roger Vivier's classic Belle Vivier square shoe was released.

In 1998, Roger Vivier died at the age of 91. Subsequently, Roger Vivier fell into a quiet period of nearly 6 years. It was not until 2003 when it signed a licensing agreement with Tod's group that it returned to the market, and was formally acquired by Tod's group in 2014.

After taking over the creative power of Roger Vivier, Bruno Frisoni chose to innovate on the basis of keeping classic style, and also introduced a series of advanced customization. With the return of style in 60s, Roger Vivier once again caught up with the trend of the ride. The classic style just catered for the needs of white-collar workers, almost becoming the most common commuter shoes at the time, and the first choice for consumers' wedding shoes. As a "rigid demand", it guaranteed the sales volume of Roger Vivier to a certain extent.

In addition, the "KOL" products at home and abroad have swept the Chinese social network rapidly. In 2005, Roger Vivier opened its first store in Hongkong and officially entered the Greater China market. Currently, there are 18 stores in mainland China.

However, in the face of increasingly busy urban life, sports shoes have gradually replaced high-heeled shoes as the first choice for women to buy shoes in the workplace, and sales of shoes that are over 3 inches or higher have been declining. Roger Vivier has been on the decline since last year, and eventually Tod's group is determined to change its creativity and management team.

Some people have pointed out that even if Roger Vivier can keep the classic brand elements following the brand for a century, there will be no way to satisfy the younger generation's pursuit of freshness in the luxury shoe industry that lacks innovative and overproduction pain.

Perhaps aware of the rapid growth of sports shoes, Gherardo Felloni has introduced Viv'v Run sports shoes in its first Roger Vivier series, and has also added a series of handbag accessories featuring square buckle to meet the diversified needs of consumers. The classic brand shoes of shoes are integrated into feather, jewelry, satin and leopard patterns on the basis of classic elements such as Belle Vivier and Virgule heel.

In the eyes of Gherardo Felloni, the trend change of sports shoes and high-heeled shoes is actually a manifestation of generation gap between Roger Vivier and the old and new consumers. After all, they are keen to experience the younger generation of diversification and are more mobile than any generation in the past.

Out of the love of song and dance drama, Gherardo Felloni invited Hollywood superstar Susan Sarandon and new Anna Sophia Robb to take the lead together, taking the 1965 popular movie I Knew Her Well as the inspiration to take a series of short films, aiming to better display the conflict feeling generated by this generation gap, and explain to consumers the latest design of the Knew 2019 autumn and winter series.

This series of products continues the gorgeous style of Gherardo Felloni, which is not only made of buckled sports shoes made of purple satin and water drill, but also has a daily white shoe series. It also features matching buckles and a letter bucket "R".

Roger Vivier 2019 autumn and winter series of commercials released in June through the brand social media account, has aroused great concern and wide discussion in the industry. "The relationship between different generations is something I have always been interested in. I want the consumers to get a better understanding of the female images represented by Roger Vivier through this short film," explains Gherardo Felloni.

Last October 25th, Roger Vivier announced that China's female star Tang Yan was the spokesperson of the brand China. He also provided Tang Yan's wedding shoes with a large number of advertisements. According to fashion business express, Tang Yan now has 73 million 830 thousand fans in micro-blog.

In addition, Gherardo Felloni also created a "Hotel Vivier" flash shop for Roger Vivier, which has been touring in New York, Tokyo and Hongkong, and landed at Paris's Lafayette department store recently. Gherardo Felloni said that fashion can not be predicted, and the brand must make people feel alive around the world.

When it comes to the problem that Roger Vivier is a French brand but is led by Italians, Gherardo Felloni believes that this will not affect the brand's own genes. Although he and Tod's Group CEO Diego Della Valle are Italian, but all the other businesses are in Paris except for the production of products in Italy.

While constantly adding firewood to Roger Vivier, Tod's group also did not abandon the core Tod's brand. Unlike Roger Vivier, the Tod's brand has been separated from the original creative director Alessandra Facchinetti, and the creative power has been the responsibility of the internal design team.

Diego Della Valle earlier admitted that Tod's does not need creative directors, but rather runs products like fashion magazines, and then launches a plan called "Tod's Factory". He stressed that the traditional cycle that was released every 6 months has lagged behind. The new business model will make the brand more flexible so that it can make better and more efficient adjustments to the series of products.

In June last year, Tod's's handbag, which was co operated with the Chinese fashion blogger, was sold out in a short span of 6 minutes. Its total sales volume was as high as 3 million 240 thousand yuan, which refreshed the sales records of a single handbag sold by domestic fashion bloggers at that time.

In July of this year, Tod's also released its first series of "Happy Moments", which was the first collaboration with Israeli designer Alber Elbaz who left Lanvin for nearly 4 years, and the first official series in recent years. Diego Della Valle says Alber Elbaz is one of the few great designers of the time, with a very modern and interesting aesthetic taste.

Tod's brand chief executive officer Umberto Macchi di Cellere predicts that the Tod's capsule series with Alber Elbaz will help stimulate new sales growth. In the first quarter of this year, Tod's brand sales fell 11% to 106 million 400 thousand euros, down 12 consecutive quarters. The performance of the other two brands of Tod's group is also not optimistic. Hogan brand sales fell 1.3% to 54 million euros, while Fay sales fell 6.4% to 12 million euros.

Also in the throes of transformation, Italy luxury Footwear Group Salvatore Ferragamo has seen its sales decline 3.3% to 1 billion 340 million euros last year, and net profit fell 21.2% to 90 million euros last year. In the three months ended March 31st, Salvatore Ferragamo's first quarter sales grew 4.3% to 317 million euros, and net profit rose 23.5% to 11 million euros.

Micaela Le Divelec Lemmi, CEO of Salvatore Ferragamo, who has worked as an executive at Gucci, said that with the beginning of the new stage, the idea of Paul Andrew being responsible for creativity is conducive to better transformation and upgrading of brands.

Luca Solca, director of luxury banking division of Paris bank, France, has pointed out that whether it is Salvatore Ferragamo or Tod's group, the gradual transformation strategy is too slow, if the new management can not make effective decisions, or will be forced to sell.

As of press release, Tod's group's share price dropped 0.04% today to 40.82 euros per share, with a market value of about 1 billion 351 million euros.