Sarah Brown has left her function as chief model officer of Violet Gray, WWD has discovered.
Brown, a former magnificence director at Vogue, first joined the corporate in 2021 as government director of Violet Lab, the retailer’s model improvement arm, earlier than being appointed chief model officer in March. She left “to pursue different alternatives,” a spokesperson for the corporate advised WWD.
Her departure comes shortly after founder Cassandra Gray purchased again Violet Gray from Coupang-owned Farfetch in September with the assistance of personal fairness investor Sherif Guirgis.
Monetary phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed, although Gray advised WWD on the time: “There was by no means any query if I might have purchased again Violet Gray, even three months after the acquisition, I’d’ve. It wasn’t on the market till now.”
As a part of the deal, Gray turned chairman and creative director of Violet Lab. “We’ve been in a position to get behind manufacturers over time,” Gray stated. “However we’ve by no means had that infrastructure. That is about organizing that core competency and with the ability to finest serve them by way of incubation and acceleration.”
The Los Angeles-based firm started as a magnificence weblog in 2012 and moved into e-commerce in 2014. Among the many skincare, make-up, perfume and hair care manufacturers it carries at present are Eighth Day, Victoria Beckham Magnificence, Dr. Barbara Sturm, Dyson and Augustinus Bader, which was a breakout success at Violet Gray when it launched in 2018.
Violet Gray has lengthy operated a stand-alone L.A. boutique, and this month added a second brick-and-mortar level of sale at Hirshleifers, the family-owned division retailer in Manhasset, N.Y. Along with providing a curated assortment of merchandise bought at Violet Gray, the shop-in-shop encompasses a vary of Goop merchandise, too — a Violet Gray first.
Marci Hirshleifer, Cassandra Gray and Lori Hirshleifer.
Courtesy of Violet Gray/Ben Hassett
The eastward enlargement marked Gray’s first massive transfer since shopping for the corporate again from Farfetch, which had acquired Violet Gray in January 2022 for $49.4 million in money, $1.3 million in reverse vesting shares and $5 million of restricted inventory models because it ready a luxurious magnificence foray of its personal.
Farfetch Magnificence debuted that April with greater than 100 manufacturers, and wound down simply over a 12 months later. Shortly after, dad or mum Farfetch was acquired by South Korea-based Coupang for $500 million.
Different luxurious retailers, too, have confronted headwinds of late: Web-a-porter confirmed in September it will shutter its magnificence enterprise and pivot to an affiliate mannequin in 2025 and a month later the struggling e-tailer was bought to rival Mytheresa. Matches, however, was positioned into administration by Frasers Group in March, simply two months after the group bought the e-tailer from Apax Companions for 52 million kilos. Frasers subsequently purchased Matches’ IP.
However Gray and Guirgis seem decided to buck the development. “We simply must useful resource the corporate with the distinctive execution-oriented individuals and technique to ship,” Guirgis advised WWD in September.