Previously At Jil Sander, Keller Takes Over The Role At The Belgian Label Following The Departure Of Previous CEO
Axel Keller has been appointed president of the Belgian label Dries Van Noten. A manager with over thirty years of experience in the luxury sector, Keller most recently served as the CEO of Jil Sander in Milan. Keller stepped down from that role in September, following corporate reshuffling after Italian fashion group OTB acquired the label.
Before that move, Keller had forged a career in sales, working as sales director at Maison Margiela for thirteen years, then taking over as commercial director of Balenciaga, where he worked for fifteen years until 2017.
Keller takes over the role at Dries Van Noten from Matteo de Rosa, who is heading to LVMH to lead the luxury group’s Métiers d’Art division. In parallel, Dries Van Noten has appointed Sabine Fandino Fineau as vice-president. Fineau had previously been working as managing director for the label, where she has worked for over twenty-five years.
Dries Van Noten was founded in 1986 by the eponymous designer, who remains the label’s creative director to this day. The brand has restructured its business since the pandemic, streamlining its collections – which for the past several seasons have been presented digitally – and refocusing its online retail platform and physical retail concept, the latter of which is exemplified by the interdisciplinary Los Angeles storefront opened last year.
