PARIS — Carven on Thursday revealed the departure of creative director Louise Trotter.
“On January 24, Louise Trotter will close this chapter with us,” the fashion brand said on Instagram. “Every ending is a new beginning. Best wishes to all of our creative peers.”
The announcement of her departure comes after WWD reported that Bottega Veneta has selected Trotter to succeed Matthieu Blazy, himself a top contender for the top job as Chanel’s new fashion creative director. At the time, the Italian luxury company and its parent, Kering Group, had no comment on the speculation.
The British designer joined Carven, which is owned by Shanghai and Paris-based fashion company ICCF Group, in February 2023.
At the time, Carven’s chief executive officer Shawna Tao described Trotter as the “perfect candidate to revive the house.”
“We intend to change everything — the stores, the logo, everything,” Trotter told WWD in a preview ahead of her debut show. Raring as she was to get going on this new chapter, “the point of view is that I want to build this quite carefully and slowly,” she said.
Her first collection for the brand bowed in September last year during Paris Fashion Week, reigniting the label with her quietly sensual designs.
The spring 2025 collection, shown in September in the label’s studio above its historic boutique at the foot of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris, is her last runway for the brand.
Her final Carven collection is pre-fall 2025, set to be shown in January.
Trotter’s successor at Carven could not be immediately learned, as the brand seems set to make deeper changes.
Crediting Trotter for leading “the team that successfully brought Carven back to the fashion stage and [that] she achieved important milestones,” Tao said the brand was primed for “the next stage of growth.”
“In this phase, we start to create a new model to drive the development of the brand,” she continued. “This model will invoke the spirit of [Madame] Carven to truly build ‘an excellent French fashion house with a democratic spirit.’ Further details will be released in 2025,” the Carven CEO continued.
The brand said its fall 2025 fashion show would go ahead during March’s Paris Fashion Week, with “a concise and focused collection to leave room for deeper exploration of these ideas” centered on the codes it will take forward in following seasons.
Before Carven, Trotter held the same position for four years at Lacoste.
Trotter studied fashion design at Newcastle University and worked at contemporary British label Whistles before moving Stateside to design for Calvin Klein, and later Gap and Tommy Hilfiger.
She returned to London for a stint at Jigsaw and then served as creative director of Joseph from 2009 to 2018, a period of product diversification and international expansion for the brand.
