Lands’ End Lands Luxury CEO From Dolce & Gabbana

Lands’ End CEO Edgar Huber is resigning from the company and will be replaced by Federica Marchionni, who is president of Dolce & Gabbana, the company said Monday.

Huber, who joined Dodgeville, Wis.-based Lands’ End in 2011, saw the apparel retailer through its spinoff this year from Sears Holdings.

“With the successful completion of the spinoff of Lands’ End from Sears Holdings Corporation, I have accomplished what I came to achieve at Lands’ End and I look forward to the company’s success in the future,” Huber said in a statement. He previously had served as CEO of Juicy Couture and president at L’Oreal and Kiehl’s.

Marchionni, who has been president of Dolce & Gabbana since 2011, will take over for Huber on Feb. 17.

“I look forward to leveraging Lands’ End’s strong foundation to expand the brand into new markets and channels over time while remaining true to the brand’s core values and customer base,” Marchionni said in the statement.

Marchionni started her career in marketing at technology companies including Samsung, Philips and Ericsson before joining Dolce & Gabbana as a global group director in 2001. After a brief stint as senior vice president at Ferrari, she returned to Dolce as president in 2011.

According to the statement, revenues at Dolce, which is privately held, increased significantly under Marchionni, who redesigned strategies for expanding the brand across multiple channels and oversaw the opening of several key stores, including the Fifth Avenue flagship in New York and its Chicago store.

Lands’ End said last month it expected its year-end-shopping-season sales to be disappointing, with net income down 20 percent and merchandise sales and services down 3 to 5 percent, sending its stock price sinking. Huber said at the time that the company was disappointed by sales of its cold-weather assortment and that customer reactions to some of its women’s knits and sweaters had been mixed.

This article appeared in print in the February 3rd, 2015 edition of Hamodia.