St. John Appoints New Retail EVP
St. John Knits International Inc. has appointed Ralph Polese as its new executive vice president of retail. He joined the Irvine, Calif.–based luxury brand in March as the chief executive of its Asia division.
In his new post, Polese is charged with overseeing all retail functions and merchandising at the $400 million company’s 33 boutiques and 11 company store outlets. He will report to interim chief executive Philip Miller and will sit on St. John’s executive committee.
Polese replaces Lowell Breving, who was promoted to executive vice president, chief merchant. Polese has worked in the industry for years, spending 18 years at Gucci, where he was the managing director of Gucci Group in Seoul, South Korea.
“St. John is fortunate to have an executive of Mr. Polese’s broad expertise in luxury goods, merchandising and store management in the U.S. and Asian markets,” Miller said in a statement. “We look forward to the future growth of the brand with this new appointment.”
There is no word yet on who will replace Polese as chief executive of St. John’s Asia division. —Erin Barajas
