NEW YORK — After a four-year tenure, Caroline Brown, president of Carolina Herrera, has resigned from the company.
She will leave at the end of the year. Under her leadership, Herrera experienced consecutive years of fiscal growth and she helped implement such steps as expanded product offerings, development of digital branding, broadening of international distribution and the strengthening of domestic partnerships and the company’s infrastructure. Brown also helped oversee the further expansion of Herrera’s secondary collection, CH Carolina Herrera.
Brown couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday on her plans. A Herrera spokeswoman said a search is on for her successor.
While leveraging the haute couture know-how of the New York-based atelier, Brown spearheaded a strategy to address a wider range of lifestyle needs. For example, the company expanded its product offerings to include luxury daywear and capsule collections augmenting seasonal deliveries. Among these were “Icons of the House,” or signature pieces as in The Night Collection and heritage prints in Archive, a cotton daywear program.
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The size of Herrera’s business could not be learned, but the Puig-owned fashion house said in May 2012 that it had global retail sales estimated at $1.3 billion the year before, up 21 percent from 2010.
In an interview in July, Brown told WWD, “We are always challenging the existing product matrix to say, ‘What can be enhanced?’ and ‘How can we do it better?’”
During Brown’s tenure, the company took a deeper dive into digital. The Herrera brand Web site was relaunched in 2012 and several social platforms and digital initiatives were subsequently launched. In August, Herrera introduced the company’s first iOS application, Style Concierge. The app is specifically tailored for each client and targets Herrera’s top customers.
In another effort to grow the business, Herrera launched eyewear in 2011 for both the Carolina Herrera New York and CH Carolina Herrera brands with licensing partner De Rigo. The new collection has experienced strong reaction in the Middle East, South America and Spain, exceeding sales projections in each country.
Brown also strengthened Herrera’s infrastructure, starting with the New York headquarters and rolling out enhancements to the production, design and atelier facilities, as well as the development of a senior executive team. To accommodate a doubling of space devoted to product development and design, the corporate headquarters were renovated and expanded and the supply side was realigned in 2011 to establish new manufacturing partners that specialize in luxury. Last spring, Brown appointed Giuseppe Celio, formerly of Oscar de la Renta, to the position of chief operating officer.
Brown told WWD in July, “We pride ourselves as a company in having a great environment and a culture that is conducive to productivity. It stems from Mrs. Herrera herself, who is not about a lot of drama. It’s a very civilized environment but we’re a very close team.”
Prior to joining Herrera, Brown was chief executive officer of Akris U.S., and before that, senior vice president of marketing and communications, U.S., for Giorgio Armani.