Cathy Chai left her steady job in financeat a UN agencyin Beijing for a finance gig at Medecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) in war-torn South Sudan. The Saint Laurent head office is based on Rue de Bellechasse in Paris. In a second, I said, Yes! Then I said, You know I dont speak French, right? and he said, I know that. A great sales force can make a difference, in terms of proposing a silhouette. Certainly, Bellettini deserves to be recognised as one of the most influential leaders in fashion today. How Yves Saint Laurent's CEO Worked to Improve Corporate Culture Bellettini said that rather than trying to craft a personality far from your true self in order to win the interview, authenticity is key. Secondly, as a brand, YSL has set a clear strategy dedicated to never making compromises and executing meticulously. It helps that were open, that we tend to smile, that we have this funny accent, she said, smiling. On March 10th, hundreds of excited audience members watched the zoom stage open to reveal a sneak peek of the Yves Saint Laurent headquarters in Paris; sitting in her chic pantsuit and shining a wide smile was Francesca Bellettini, CEO of YSL. Although the virtual platform did not allow us to see the audience members, you could tell by Rosenkranz and Siegals faces that they were thoroughly moved by Bellettinis words. 29 November 2018. How Saint Laurent Became a $3 Billion Powerhouse. But in one areapublic relationswomen appear to dominate. During tumultuous economic periods, purse strings are naturally tightened and non-essential purchases are forgone, including luxuries. Saint Laurent opened its first flagship in China in 2019 and the network is being expanded in the country. Bellettini encouraged everyone to always be curious. The creative director responded to Bellettini with, So you did not like the rest? Bellettini drew attention to how important it is to respect designers and understand the pressure they have on their shoulders. OXFORDSHIRE, United Kingdom These days, Saint Laurent chief executive Francesca Bellettini spends more time fielding questions about her former colleague, current Celine creative director Hedi Slimane, than she would perhaps like. Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times. Yet, this also meant that they could not hire more people either. Having crossed the $1 billion in sales threshold in 2017, the brand isa star performer in parent companyKerings luxury portfolio. California Weighs $360,000 in Reparations to Eligible Black Residents. When you are at 2 billion, to think of potential at 3 billion is too easy, she says. Her father, whom she adored, was an accountant at a lumber company; her mother, a school administrator. Our Q3 performance in China was very strong, with excellent growth in-store and online. Plan A was to study Business Administration at Bocconi University and follow her dream of running a company. It makes us simpatico. The worst thing you can do with your teams is to create a culture of fear.. Bellettini holds a degree from Bocconi University in Milan and began her career as an investment banker in London, working for Goldman Sachs, Compass Partners and others. Well keep working on it because for me, the journey in sustainability is never finished. CEO and president of Yves Saint Laurent, Francesca Bellettini . If you judge everything he has been doing since he has arrived and the inclusivity he has expressed from the first campaigns, I hope people are able to recognise that. Her obsession is paying off. In his place, Bellettini appointed Anthony Vaccarello, a young designer who had previously been successful at Versus Versace. View the profiles of people named Francesca Bellettini. From 2008 to 2013, she worked at Bottega Veneta, eventually as worldwide merchandising and communications director. Customer Service. Painted black lacquer with gleaming white markers, its more appropriate for an upscale bondage club than a place to stash the companys off-duty town cars. The established fashion executive spent years at the helm of several Kering brands before being tapped to lead Saint Laurent. Life & Arts Saint Laurent CEO Francesca Bellettini on the making of a $1bn brand At the FT's Business of Luxury conference in San Francisco this week, the head of the French house with 26 per. Francesca was Worldwide Merchandising and Communications director at Bottega Veneta, and Strategic Planning & Associate Worldwide Merchandising Director at Gucci. Her husband, a businessman who has been in her life for 20 years, lives in Milan. Anthony Vaccarello has nearly finished giving a tour of the just-opened 140,000-square-foot headquarters of fashion house Yves Saint Laurent in a tony corner of Pariss seventh arrondissement when, heading toward the exit, he says hes saved his favorite part for last. Notable for Saint Laurent under Bellettini is its leather business. At a time when fashion is all about body positivity, Saint Laurent put thin models on the catwalk of its recent show. Bellettini decided that experience in finance would bolster her chances of pursuing her dream of running a company -- and so, she dove into a very new universe of Goldmach Sachs International. and other data for a number of reasons, such as keeping FT Sites reliable and secure, Speakers like Victoria Beckham, Saint Laurent chief executive Francesca Bellettini, Balenciaga CEO Cdric Charbit and model Bella Hadid engaged with a variety of issues: technological disruption, developing sustainable practices and . Francesca Bellettini: The Powerhouse Behind the Billion-Dollar Brand. Ending with a hopefulness to participate the next time Brown University Fashion Week takes place in person, Bellettini left us in awe. She worked at Prada and Helmut Lang prior to. In 2019 she was awarded the FrenchKnight of the Legion of Honour, the highest possible distinction for a civilian in the country. So maybe it makes sense that in this new mothership, the result of three years of work, he prefers a hidden space over all else. To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. Some white space to reach its new target. The Italian executive, who took over the Kering -owned brand in 2013 and has since overseen a tripling of its sales, was joined by family, colleagues and members of the Saint Laurent galaxy at the. Le grand appartement (2006) - IMDb Ms. Bellettini, an executive director at Bottega Veneta, will succeed Paul Deneve, who is leaving to join Apple Inc. after just two years at the fashion label. And you have to act as if youre already there., https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/style/francesca-bellettini-yves-saint-laurent-paris.html. According to the fashion house's CEO, Francesca Bellettini, the Vaccarello era at the fashion house will be a . Francesca Bellettini is 50, she's been the President and Chief Executive Officer of Yves Saint Laurent and Member of the Executive Committee of Kering SA since 2015. As an Italian national, Bellettini grew up loving fashion and beauty, noting how her hometown, an influential street fashion hub, was inspiring. In 1999, she joined the Business Planning and Development division of the Prada group, and later became Operations Manager for Helmut Lang. 2023 Fortune Media IP Limited. S&P Index data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. He is Belgian-born, and his first language is French, but his parents come from Agrigento in Sicily, and he grew up speaking. The companys enviable performance can, in large extent, be attributed to a drastic and unexpected rebranding. This business model is something Bellettini argues helps the brand to get back to its core essence as a fashion house. Bloomberg Daybreak, anchored from New York, Boston, Washington DC and San Francisco provides listeners with everything they need to know. Still, she acknowledged, It is sometimes true you dont consider the circumstances in which things happen.. cookies Bellettini was non-hesitant to her reply: That is easy, my team. You could feel the powerful connection Bellettini shares with her team; We work a lot and we also have a lot of fun, she said noting how important this is when working endless hours together. Rosenkranz asked about hurdles and bumps faced along the way, and Bellettini shared how her biggest mistake was allowing fear to get in her way. of Saint Laurent, she was the first name on my list, Mr. Pinault said. Any changes made can be done at any time and will become effective at the end of the trial period, allowing you to retain full access for 4 weeks, even if you downgrade or cancel. Kerings largest brand missed analyst estimates, citing the gradual arrival of the new Aria collection and the decline of traffic in the stores in Asia-Pacific due to Covid restrictions this summer. Francesca Le Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images Its a cascade. Specifically, by handing greater autonomy and authority to local market chiefs, the brand has been able to connect far better with audiences in each region. The brand also completely stopped making public markdowns during the pandemic. Can New Bottega Balance Hype, Heritage and Rapid Growth. We communicate the brand, and Anthony does it in a way thats very relevant, she says. Bellettini took it to that level within a three-year period. (In the third quarter, sales were up 28.1 per cent, while Kering sales were up 12.2 per cent) In 2020, when the pandemic hit, sales were down 13.8 percent while Kering sales were down 16.4 percent. Our duty is to know what's going on in the supply chain and control it in the best possible way. Francesca Bellettini is appointed president and chief executive. Investing veterans Deborah Jackson and Andrea Turner Moffitt connectfemale entrepreneurs with investors in a creative way with their firm, Plum Alley Investments. Saint Laurent CEO Francesca Bellettini Reveals the Brand's Secrets to Francesca Bellettini is an Italian businessperson who has been the head of 8 different companies and currently is Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent of Monaco, Chairman of Yves Saint Laurent Parfums SAS, Chairman & President of Yves Saint Laurent SAS, Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent Logistica SRL, Chairman for SL Luxury Retail SRL, Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent Spain SA, Chairman of Yves Saint . PARIS Francesca Bellettini is riding high.. 2016 Saint Laurent achieves 26 per cent year-on-year growth. Check if your Flexibility has been another. The rue de Bellechasse headquarters was the idea of Francesca Bellettini, president and CEO of Yves Saint Laurent. She is determined never to panic or bow to public pressure out of fear. She has that rare leadership quality which allows her team members to do the work they were hired to do with little or no interference. Elon Musks Twitter is dying a slow and tedious death, Who to fire? Moreover, Bellettini called for everyone to be ambitious but never impatient; experiences take time to be made. Francesca Bellettini is an Italian businessperson who has been the head of 8 different companies and is Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent of Monaco, Chairman for Yves Saint Laurent Parfums SAS, Chairman & President of Yves Saint Laurent SAS, Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent Logistica SRL, Chairman at SL Luxury Retail SRL, Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent Spain SA, Chairman at Yves Saint Laurent Boutique France SAS and Co-Managing Director at Yves Saint Laurent Germany GmbH. Definitely the sensitivity of people and their ability to speak out is much bigger than before, she said. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for $69 per month. Francesca Bellettini (born 18 April 1970) is an Italian business woman. After Prada, she jumped to Helmut Lang, to Gucci and then to Bottega Veneta, where she was communication and merchandising director, living comfortably in Lugano, near Milan. The ads were displayed on about 250 kiosks in France, mainly in Paris, and in fashion magazines; the open-legged ad was splashed on a large billboard along the route to Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport. After an internal study of YSL, Ms. Bellettini concluded that the company either had to invest substantially and spark growth or begin dismantling operations and shrink to half its size. Facebook gives people. Her extensive managerial experience in the fashion industry precedes her time at Bottega Veneta;she previously was a merchandising director at Gucci, operations manager at Helmut Lang, and has also held various positions at Prada. Saint Laurent's Power Woman - The New York Times Ms. Bellettini said that she received a stream of hate emails, including one calling her a whore. Bellettini has overseen a radical rebranding, overhauling the company from within Image: Nico. Moderated by Emma Rosenkranz 23, vice-president of Fashion@Brown, and Dani Siegal 24, social media coordinator, Ms. Bellettini gave an inspiring talk which spoke to her courage, integrity, and drive. Saint Laurent CEO Francesca Bellettini's big ambitions Saint Laurent is the new rising star at Kering. He was Ms. Bellettinis only candidate. Its part of the DNA of the brand, Bellettini told Business of Fashion (BoF) in an April 2016 interview. Do whatever you like. She took the job. Virtual reality and sports seem like polar opposites. Francesca Bellettini Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images She had always loved fashion, but the job came with a 50 percent pay cut. Escucha 'Nice to Meet You (Acoustic Live Solo)' de Francesca Michielin en Apple Music. Francesca Bellettini, chief exec of fast-growing Yves Saint Laurent, says a crucial part of managing a business is balance. For more updates about the The BoF 500 subscribe to the Daily Digest newsletter. (For example, we would never do gaming simply because its something Generation Z is into. Join Facebook to connect with Francesca Bellettini and others you may know. What was truly striking, however, was when Bellettini explained her out-look on life: if Plan A fails, Plan B will never be a watered-down version; instead, both paths will take her down something remarkable and exciting. They talk just about every day, share vacations and some weekends, but rarely appear in public together. FOR those predicting another seismic shift in brand identity at Saint Laurent - following the departure of Hedi Slimane last month and the appointment of Anthony Vaccarello - you will be in for a surprise. When she arrived from another Kering brand, Bottega Veneta, in 2013, the. An Italian woman who had never run a company, lived in Paris or learned the unwritten codes of French society, she was considered a strange choice to become chief executive of Yves Saint Laurent, the ultimate French brand, in 2013. And she doesnt speak French. He was required to sign a confidentiality agreement. , who was succeeded by Anthony Vacarello in April 2016. The biggest move to bring clarity back was changing the brand name. President and Chief Executive Officer, Yves Saint Laurent. Powered and implemented by Interactive Data Managed Solutions. Some mourned the YSL moniker, while others embraced the freshness of the new name and new look.