Meet Joann Cheng, Lanvin’s interim CEO, who is steering the French luxury fashion brand into a post-coronavirus future
- Talking while in quarantine in Shanghai, the Fosun Fashion Group chairwoman lays out the future of fashion
Joann Cheng was on the seventh day of a 14-day quarantine when she spoke to Jing Daily on a recent phone call. The chairwoman of the Shanghai-based Fosun Fashion Group, which owns legacy luxury brand Lanvin, flew back from Paris in late March and was told to stay at home because of the city’s stringent quarantine measures for inbound air travellers.
It’s not the best time for Cheng to be locked indoors, considering her new responsibilities within the company. After Lanvin’s former CEO Jean-Philippe Hecquet stepped down on March 17, Cheng immediately assumed his role as interim CEO, where she will oversee operations and strategy for the 131-year-old French fashion house.
She will attempt to split her time 50/50 between her role as chairwoman and her new interim CEO position. As one might expect, her quarantine schedule is filled with calls from around the world that stretch from eight in the morning until sometimes midnight.
“Working at home is even busier than being at an office,” she laughed.
Fosun Fashion Group is representative of its parent company, the tech-driven consumer group Fosun International, and its global ambitions, as 55 per cent of the group’s 142.98 billion yuan (around US$20.17 billion) revenue during 2019 coming from mainland China, while 45 per cent came from overseas.
Unlike other investment groups that divide their portfolios by industry, the family-oriented Fosun International categorises their subsidiaries under three “ecosystems” – Health, Happiness and Wealth – which represent the three qualities families need to thrive.
The fashion arm, which fits into the Happiness ecosystem, also sets itself apart from other fashion investors by being hands-on with its portfolio, which includes Lanvin, Wolford, St John Knits, Caruso and Tom Tailor. Fosun Fashion is still “a baby”, said Cheng, since it was founded late in 2017 when Fosun International’s leadership decided to shift its strategy from a holdings company to a parent company with an interest in managing daily operations.