Sergio Rossi has recruited a seasoned shoe designer as its new creative director.
Paul Andrew is joining the Italian luxury footwear label in the role this week and will unveil his first collection for Sergio Rossi for the fall 2025 season.
“Paul Andrew is a remarkable and exciting talent to lead the creative direction of our legendary Sergio Rossi brand,” said Helen Wright, chief executive officer of Sergio Rossi. “He is admired across the world for his innovative footwear design and technical fluency. He brings a deep respect for our brand heritage, an instinctive understanding of our diverse audiences, and above all a vibrant creativity that will capture the imagination of the Sergio Rossi woman of today and tomorrow,” she offered.
Andrew will oversee all the footwear ranges within the Sergio Rossi brand, including the men’s collection.
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The Sì Rossi by Sergio Rossi lineup catering to a younger audience and debuted with the spring 2021 season will be discontinued starting from spring 2025 with key styles and carryovers folded in the main line.
Boasting a longstanding experience in the shoe world, Andrew is best known for his top creative roles at Salvatore Ferragamo. He joined the Florence-based brand in 2016 as its design director of women’s footwear and was appointed creative director of womenswear the following year. In 2019 he was promoted to the role of creative director of the brand with oversight on all categories. He exited Ferragamo in 2021.
Andrew first landed on the scene in 2013 when he introduced his namesake footwear label which won him the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund a year later. The Paul Andrew footwear brand was paused upon taking on the creative director role at Ferragamo and relaunched it in 2022. Since then, he has presented new collections in New York, where he is based.
Sergio Rossi said that the designer’s namesake brand will continue to operate.
“I am honored and delighted to join Sergio Rossi as creative director, a world-renowned house of shoemaking whose roots and legacy speak to the lasting power of Italian savoir-faire. And I look forward to building upon Sergio Rossi’s own unique spirit of innovation and high craft as we propose a bright new vision for the brand today,” Andrew said of his appointment.
The brand has not had a creative director since 2016 when former design director Angelo Ruggeri exited the company. He had joined the shoemaker in 2013, succeeding Francesco Russo. The latter replaced Edmundo Castillo, the first to hold the role after the brand’s late founder Sergio Rossi, who died in 2020.
In January 2022, Sergio Rossi recruited from the digital creative realm Evangelie Smyrniotaki, best known online as Style Heroine, naming her artistic director, overseeing the brand image and identity but not the collections. The brand parted ways with her last January.
Andrew’s appointment comes at a time of transformation for the brand based in San Mauro Pascoli, a key footwear district in Italy, and owned by Lanvin Group, which named Wright to the CEO role seven months ago, tasked with spearheading a “strategic transformation of the house,” Sergio Rossi said at the time.
In 2023 Sergio Rossi’s sales amounted to 59.5 million euros, down 4 percent compared to a year earlier.
“With his creative design expertise and forward-thinking approach, Paul [Andrew] is set to lead Sergio Rossi into a new era of success. This new direction for the brand aligns seamlessly with our mission to uphold its rich heritage while catering to the evolving tastes of our clientele,” said Eric Chan, CEO of Lanvin Group.
The appointment of Andrew aligns with the recent designation of Peter Copping – also a veteran designer – to the artistic director role at Lanvin, the group’s star brand.
“Celebrating seven decades of unmatched craftsmanship and artisanal excellence, Sergio Rossi has established itself as a distinguished name in the luxury footwear market worldwide. Sergio Rossi is a treasured member of our family, merging tradition with innovation. With the appointment of Paul Andrew, we are excited for the brand’s ongoing evolution and prosperity,” said Zhen Huang, chairman of Lanvin Group.
Lanvin Group, then known as Fosun Fashion Group, took control of the shoemaker in the summer of 2021 from Absolute Luxury Holding Srl, an independently managed subsidiary of European investment house Investindustrial, its former owner. The latter acquired Sergio Rossi from Kering in December 2015.
In December 2021, the footwear brand was revealed as among the tenants of Milan’s Spiga 26 real estate project, a move in sync with the new owner’s commitment to invest in store openings. Sergio Rossi has a worldwide distribution network of 57 stores between directly operated units and franchising stores.
In addition to the footwear label, the Shanghai-based Lanvin Group, which debuted on the New York Stock Exchange last December, comprises the flagship Lanvin brand as well as Austrian hosiery specialist Wolford, Italian menswear company Caruso and American fashion brand St. John.
