CEO Graziano de Boni got the Diane von Furstenberg (DVF) job by way of a recommendation from Domenico De Sole. De Sole told von Furstenberg that she needed a CEO, and that she should talk to de Boni. So she did.
This was September 2023, three years after von Furstenberg had outsourced the brand’s management to Chinese licensee Glamel. Under Glamel, Gabby Hirata was CEO of the brand until June 2023. But von Furstenberg was beginning to think seriously about the brand’s legacy beyond Glamel, says de Boni, whose CV includes stints as the US CEO of Valentino, Prada, and Giorgio Armani. In late 2023, de Boni went to China to get the lay of the land. (He was working with DVF in a consulting capacity at the time, before coming on board full time shortly after.) By January 2024, the pair decided to take operations back in-house, a move that was completed in August 2024 following over six months of negotiations.
“To me, it was simple: our decision to bring operations back was fundamentally driven by the idea of how to set something like this up for longevity, for legacy,” the CEO says. He frequently jokes that he’s ‘CEO number 75’, referencing the brand’s “revolving doors” history of both top leadership and creative. (He’s the fourth CEO in the last 10 years, over which period designers including Nathan Jenden and Jonathan Saunders have passed through in the respective chief design officer and creative officer roles; the title flip-flopped throughout the years.)
DVF’s rocky recent history means the business behind the brand was in need of refocusing, de Boni says. Though DVF’s name recognition looms large — as does von Furstenberg herself, who in 2024 was the subject of the documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge — the brand itself has lost some of the limelight. “I’m dealing with a heritage brand, an incredible 54-year-old brand that is alive and still super well known,” de Boni says. “[Von Furstenberg] has a brand that is loved and known, and a business that is tiny and irrelevant. How do we work to build back the business to match the level of awareness that the brand name has?”
Graziano de Boni and Henry Zankov.
Photo: Courtesy of DVF
The answer, it turned out, was a new, front-facing creative director to inject a fresh approach into the brand. In May, DVF announced the appointment of designer Zankov as artistic director. Zankov has fast established his eponymous label as one of New York’s most exciting independent brands, first with knitwear, and in recent seasons, as a fuller wardrobe offering.
De Boni is confident that, under Zankov, the DVF brand can reclaim its place in New York fashion. “The desirability, the appeal that we needed was not there,” de Boni says. “Hence why Henry is here, plain and simple.”
