Fleur du Mal Names Vanessa Abreu President

Fleur du Mal, the New York-based luxury lingerie and ready-to-wear brand, has named Vanessa Abreu as president. She takes up the role on Monday, 19 October, WWD reported.

Abreu joins from Skims, where she was senior vice president. There she led the brand's move into physical shopping, covering shops, pop-ups and live experience-led concepts. She also oversaw brand collaborations and partnerships. That work included franchising, letting partners operate branded outlets, and wholesale, selling to shops that resell to the public.

Before Skims, she held leadership posts at Bottega Veneta, Burberry and Rag & Bone. It is a CV that mixes established fashion houses with a fast-scaling consumer label. Fleur du Mal has been without a president for two years.

The brand was founded by Jennifer Zuccarini, who remains chief executive officer. Abreu will be based in the company's SoHo office in New York. Her brief is broad. She is charged with expanding the retail and wholesale business, accelerating international growth and continuing e-commerce growth.

The starting point is a largely direct business. Fleur du Mal sells mainly direct-to-consumer, dealing straight with shoppers rather than through other retailers. Ready-to-wear, in this context, means clothes made in standard sizes rather than made to measure. Online ordering remains the core of how most customers buy.

The physical footprint is still small. The brand runs five freestanding stores, shops that stand alone rather than counters inside a department store. A new store in Dallas is due to open soon. Its key wholesale accounts include Revolve and Saks Fifth Avenue.

What makes this stand out is the fit with the job description. Abreu built her recent record on opening new types of shops and striking outside deals. For fans, this means more places to see the brand in person, in more countries, with the online shop still at the centre.