Repossi CEO Benjamin Comar Has Exited Label: Sources
PARIS — Repossi chief executive officer Benjamin Comar has left the Italian jewelry house, which belongs to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuittton, sources told WWD.
The information was confirmed by an LVMH spokesperson, who said the executive would soon be replaced.
Comar, a former Chanel executive, had taken the position in 2017 and steered the label’s expansion abroad over his three-year tenure. In 2018, the brand celebrated its launch at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, followed by a store in the Peninsula hotel in Hong Kong, and in Selfridges in London, as well as Dubai.
Comar was not immediately reachable for comment.
The label is known for the modern, minimalist approach of its designer Gaia Repossi, who has been creative director since 2007. She has built a niche for the label with multiband Berbère rings, which take inspiration from the tattoos of Tuareg nomads in North Africa, and ear cuffs. Her jewelry has been worn by celebrities including Isabelle Huppert, Emma Stone and Keira Knightley. Repossi cites Richard Serra and Cy Twombly as influences on her work, as well as the Brutalist movement. The brand sponsored a retrospective of work by Donald Judd at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, its first major arts sponsorship.
Repossi is known to have personal relations with LVMH executive committee member and second-in-command at Louis Vuitton Delphine Arnault, who was instrumental in forging an alliance with the French luxury group. LVMH took a minority stake in the Italian jeweler in 2015, and owned 69 percent at the end of last year.
LVMH’s watches and jewelry division, which includes Bulgari, Chaumet and Fred, has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, with sales down 38 percent in the first half of the year.
The high-end Italian jewelry house traces its origins to the Forties, and opened its first store in Monaco in 1977 and in Paris in 1986.
Repossi brought in star architect Rem Koolhaas to design futuristic interiors for a revamp of the Place Vendôme flagship that was unveiled in 2016.
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