Fortune magazine interviewed new CEO Federica Marchionni, who explained that she didn’t see much that looked appealing for her when she went to pick up her son’s school uniform. That’s bad: even fashion executives wear lounge pants and wool coats sometimes, don’t they?
Her plans involve expanding into more countries, and creating a women’s line that is “fitted and modern” among the chinos and floral cashmere cardigans. She also has very concrete plans like marketing their swimsuits more aggressively year-round in temperate areas of the country where people go swimming year-round.
The company’s future is still tied up with that of Sears: 235 of its stores are still mini-stores inside of the local Sears. So far, they only have 14 standalone Lands’ End stores in the U.S. It’s hard to build a brand identity separate from Sears when you are still physically located inside Sears and using Sears cash registers.
Lands’ End CEO on her post-Sears plan: “I am here to move the needle” [Fortune]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist