Ralph Lauren taps founder's son to lead innovation

Dive Brief:

Fashion house Ralph Lauren has tapped the founder’s son, David Lauren, to be vice chairman and chief innovation officer, the company said in an Oct. 7 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The terms of his employment arrangement with the company and his compensation are otherwise unchanged, according to the filing.
Lauren has worked at his father’s company since 2001 and was previously executive vice president of global advertising, marketing and corporate communications; he was named to the board in 2013. He has also been featured in the company’s advertising, as has his father.
In his new role, Lauren is tasked with creating initiatives that help drive the group’s brand across all channels and will continue to report to president and CEO Stefan Larsson, according to Women’s Wear Daily.

Dive Insight:

David Lauren will begin his new role amid CEO Stefan Larsson’s “Way Forward” turnaround plan, announced in June. The turnaround effort will see the closure of 50 underperforming stores (about 10% of its fleet), corporate job cuts of some 1,000 positions and a new focus on its best-selling brands.

Since his arrival at Ralph Lauren, Lauren has worked on the advertising and creative side of things, and is credited with bringing state of the art digital marketing into the mix, according to Fast Company. In 2009, Lauren produced an online-only fashion show for the company’s Rugby brand that allowed viewers to order clothes immediately — a departure from traditional wait times from runway to rack that is now being adopted by a number of top fashion brands.

Similarly, he created a series of online videos called “RL Gang,” live-action stories aimed at kids featuring young actors wearing Ralph Lauren children’s ensembles. Those clothes were also available for purchase in real time. Those and other creative efforts have brought the younger Lauren kudos within the industry.

But Lauren didn’t always expect to join his father’s company, instead initially taking a job out of college at a Gen X-focused campus publication he’d founded at Duke University while a student there. That magazine, Swing, was eventually bought by Hachette Filipacchi, but folded in 1998.

Analysts like Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at the NPD Group, have long suspected that Lauren would likely be the "heir to the throne." In 2013, Cohen told Fast Company: "This is all about the next generation. This brand is steeped in tradition and heritage, but you have to find new horizons.”