Dior is Adding a RTW Expert to its Management Committee

Dior has recruited Michela Kalb, a merchandising wizard from Louis Vuitton, to become its director of haute couture, women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, women’s shoes, and baby, effective Oct. 1, WWD has learned.

Dior confirmed her appointment and said Kalb would join the management committee.

It marks a return to the French house for Kalb, who was director of women’s ready-to-wear at Christian Dior Couture from 2006 until 2017, when she moved over to Vuitton to work in the same capacity under Nicolas Ghesquière, the brand’s artistic director of women’s collections.

“I am delighted that Michela and Dior’s paths are crossing once again,” Delphine Arnault, chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture, said in an internal announcement seen by WWD.

“I am convinced she will draw on her vision and knowledge of the house, as well as on her extensive product expertise, to develop ever more desirable collections, working in close collaboration with the creative direction.”

Kalb officially starts on the day Jonathan Anderson stages his first women’s runway show since he was officially named creative director of women’s, men’s and haute couture collections last June.

The Northern Irish designer, 40, becomes Dior’s eighth couturier, and made his debut at Dior menswear with a show in Paris last June.

Calling Kalb “a leading expert in ready-to-wear,” Dior noted that she started her career as a women’s rtw buyer at Italian department store La Rinascente, later working in merchandising roles at Prada and Miu Miu ahead of her long stints at Dior and Vuitton, the star brands of luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Dior and Anderson are in the midst of reinforcing and rejiggering teams. Recent additions include Peter Utz, global public relations director, men and women, and responsible for celebrity relations; and Alberto Dalla Colletta, who followed Anderson to Dior from Loewe, where he was most recently design director of rtw.