GERMANY. German sports giant Puma has appointed fashion designer Hussein Chalayan as creative director, effective immediately. At the same time, Puma has taken a majority stake in Chalayan’s London-based fashion business and the Hussein Chalayan brand.
Chalayan will be responsible for designing, creating and developing the sport fashion collections of the brand, while PPR-owned Puma’s acquisition of a majority stake in his business will allow it to expand into the fashion lifestyle sector.
“Hussein Chalayan is a proven visionary in the fashion, design and art industries,” said Puma CEO Jochen Zeitz. “As our creative director for our Sport Fashion business, Chalayan will bring his use of new technology, forward-thinking design and provocative point of view to Puma.
“Acquiring majority shares of the Hussein Chalayan brand is giving Puma the ability to move into a new space, expanding our reach to become the most desirable sport-lifestyle company in the world,” he said.
The deal will also allow Chalayan to grow his brand through the use of Puma parent PPR’s guidance, resources and infrastructure and give it a better opportunity to evolve in the retail environment.
“I feel that the collaboration with Puma both for the Puma Sport Fashion and Lifestyle lines as the creative director and on the existing Chalayan brand is a revolutionary model for a partnership,” said Chalayan.
“Combining Puma’s infrastructure and technological platform with PPR facilities, we will be able to turn experimental ideas into reality both for the Puma and the Chalayan lines. Hopefully, people will have the means to access real products evolving from our processes rather than only seeing them in shows and events,” he added.
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