Two years after appointing Charles de Vilmorin as its creative director of Rochas, the company today announced the 26 year old’s exit.
A gifted and imaginative illustrator capable of transmitting vivid moods and character, De Vilmorin was widely hailed a wunderkind when Rochas handed him the gig in February 2021. That was only three weeks after the recent graduate of the École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Parisienne had shown his buzzy debut couture collection—back in the dog days of COVID-enforced digital presentations—with the backing of Jean Paul Gaultier, winning positive reviews. That same year he was named an LVMH Prize finalist.
However the hoopla that surrounded his appointment to Rochas generated a weight of expectation that proved too heavy to handle. Despite then being, at 24, one year older that founder Marcel Rochas was when he launched the house in 1925, De Vilmorin failed convincingly to gel his exuberant design identity with the opaque, ultra-feminine house codes of Rochas. Possibly in part because the Rochas design studio is based in Milan, the patrician-seeming Parisian and the house he was charged with reigniting generated little spark.
Rochas was acquired by fragrance group Interparfums for $108 million in 2015, and its ready to wear is manufactured under license by HIM Co Spa in Italy.
Today Philippe Benacin, CEO of Interparfums SA, said: “We would like to thank Charles for his contribution to the legacy of Rochas. His creative vision will have a long lasting impact on the brand’s universe.” De Vilmorin was recently named president of the fashion jury for this October’s edition of the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Fashion Accessories. An announcement about Rochas’s future creative direction will be made at a later date.
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