Felipe Oliveira Baptista has been named the new creative director of Kenzo.
Felipe Oliveira Baptista
LVMH have announced that the 44-year-old fashion designer will be taking over from Carol Lim and Humberto Leon as head of the French luxury fashion house, six days after the pair presented their final collection as co-creative directors of the brand.
Baptista recently stepped down from French clothing company Lacoste, where he served as creative director from 2010 to 2018 and will be taking the reins as head of Kenzo on July 1.
Kenzo's CEO Sylie Colin told WWD: "What made us choose Felipe above other candidates is the fact that he has a global artistic approach.
"He has a 360-degree creative vision and will oversee artistic direction globally, dealing both with collections and communication."
During his time at Lacoste, Baptista was responsible for organising several successful collaborations including the Lacoste x Supreme drop which sold out in 16 minutes - helping the brand connect to a millennial audience - as well as this year's Endangered Species collection with the International Union for Conservation of Nature which saw the iconic crocodile logo replaced by animals on the brink of extinction, with the number of individual shirts correlating to the number of the species left in the wild.
Announcing his departure last year, Baptista thanked all the people who helped make his tenure a success.
Posting his announcement to Instagram, he wrote: "THE END OF AN ERA, LACOSTE_FOB, 2010 - 2018, Eight incredible years made possible with the talent & support of everyone at Lacoste, specially the great Design studio. Also, all the amazing pattern cutters, machinists, artists, photographers, stylists, stylists assistants, producers, set designers, sound designers, musicians, film directors, casting directors, hair stylists, makeup artists, models, PR's, creative directors, graphic designers, fashion designers, Brands, advertising agencies, journalists, writers, actors, choreographers, dancers, athletes and most of all my partner in crime and everything else: Sévi [sic]"