Updated May 8 5:23 p.m. ET
David Savman is stepping in as global brand president at Calvin Klein in a surprise shake up.
The H&M veteran joined PVH in 2022 and has been global head of operations and chief supply chain officer. Last year, he also became interim chief executive officer of PVH Europe.
Eva Serrano, who has led Calvin Klein since March 2023, will serve as an adviser through the end of the year.
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The brand has seen a steady churn of leadership over the last four years. Trish Donnelly left Urban Outfitters Inc. in 2021 to lead Calvin Klein and PVH Americas, but ended up exiting the company the following year.
Investors weren’t fazed by the C-suite switch at Calvin Klein, however, and traded shares of PVH up 6.1 percent to $75.56 on Thursday.
Serrano left her mark in just two short years, giving Calvin Klein a higher profile with a series of ad campaigns featuring Bad Bunny, Jennie Kim and Jeremy Allen White.
She also set the brand back on the runway after six and half years, establishing Calvin Klein Collection under Veronica Leoni. Calvin Klein himself sat front row for the show in February and gave the collection an early stamp of approval, saying, “For a start, it was quite extraordinary.”
But while she laid a lot of the groundwork for the transformation of the Calvin Klein brand, not everything has gone to plan.
Under Serrano, the brand has been centralizing its product development with a “global product kitchen” in New York that produces looks for markets around the world.
But PVH CEO Stefan Larsson described it to analysts last month as “a significant undertaking given the highly fragmented and decentralized legacy model we had before.
“As we brought this first season to life, the team had to work through a number of complexities, including centralizing disparate systems and processes that existed around the world,” he said. “This initial transition took longer than we expected, and led to extended product development timelines, constrained sourcing and shipping options and pressure production costs for the season, which we decided not to pass on to partners or the consumer.”
PVH said higher freight costs and discounts attributed to Calvin Klein product delays and costs to operate the North American wholesale business in house would lead first-quarter gross margins to a 250 basis point decline.
The North American women’s wholesale business was previously handled by G-III Apparel Group, but PVH reclaimed the license at the end of last year as part of a broader effort to have more direct control over its brands.
Now Savman will get his chance to offer his take on the storied fashion name.
In a statement, Larsson said: “As an integral part of the wider PVH+ Plan, and through Eva’s leadership, Calvin Klein has been aligned as one brand under a global vision, plan and team, with a strong foundation for future growth. We are thankful for Eva’s critical contributions on this journey.
“With this foundation in place, we are now taking the next step in our growth journey as we further tap into Calvin Klein’s iconic DNA,” Larsson added. “David — with the Calvin Klein team around the world, including Jonathan Bottomley who has led the brand to unprecedented levels of consumer engagement, and Veronica Leoni, who creates the aspirational halo for the brand — will further build out our product, marketing and marketplace strength to bring our brand vision to life.
“David is a people-focused leader with a proven ability to elevate brands, execute with a robust operating engine and deliver PVH+ Plan performance, all of which will be critical as we take Calvin Klein into this next chapter.”
Savman added that, “Together with our global partners, we have a powerful opportunity to build on the strong momentum underway by tapping into the brand’s iconic DNA to drive even greater desirability as we shape Calvin Klein for future generations.”
And Serrano said, “I’m incredibly proud to have been a part of this extraordinary brand journey where we have built the global foundation to unlock future growth, and I look forward to seeing the team take this forward.”
