Manolo Blahnik names Elodie Bougenault Chief Commercial Officer

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Jun 20, 2023

Fresh from news of debuting its first men’s shoe store in London, luxury footwear and accessories brand Manolo Blahnik has now announced the appointment of high achiever Elodie Bougenault as Chief Commercial Officer, effective 26 June.

She’s been hired to drive the brand’s strategic plan globally with a particular focus on the important Asian market and joins the brand with over 20 years’ experience in the luxury fashion and fine jewellery industries.

She’ll be responsible for delivering and executing the global commercial direction of the brand across wholesale, retail and digital channels. Establishing a strong voice in new and existing markets, she’ll lead its ambitious expansion plans, in particular using her wealth of experience in the Asian market. Despite the Asia focus, she’ll be based at the Manolo Blahnik London HQ.

Andrew Wright, the brand’s current CCO, who took on the additional role of President of the Americas in 2019 for its relaunch, will now focus permanently on delivering the “significant long-term growth plans for the Americas”. These include new stores in both the East and West Coasts of its largest market —  the US — as well as exploring future opportunities in Central and South America.

Kristina Blahnik, CEO of Manolo Blahnik, said Bougenault’s “knowledge of the Asia market will help us explore and plan the exciting new opportunities that winning our 22 year IP court case in the Supreme People’s Court of China last year has opened up. With Elodie's global commercial view on the Manolo Blahnik business and Andrew’s focus on the Americas we now have the solid foundations in place to continue to deliver our long-term commercial strategic plan.”

So what is it about Bougenault’s track record that’s so appealing to the company?
 
Specialising in “brand building, omnichannel business development and retail excellence”, she was previously MD of EMEA & Head of Retail Operations Worldwide for Italian luxury lingerie brand La Perla. There she helped “create a true omnichannel service at the brand, restructured the company and brought the EMEA region back into profitability”. 

Prior to this, she was the Asia Pacific MD at luxury jewellery and watch house Boucheron in Hong Kong and was “instrumental in piloting the China and Asia Pacific strategy for retail, travel retail, wholesale and digital, during a global turnaround plan”. 

Overall, she spent over a decade in the APAC market with Boucheron, Kate Spade and Marc Jacobs “driving high growth expansion plans after moving from Paris where she worked with Louis Vuitton and LVMH Holdings”.