At a time when control of the supply chain has become a strategic asset for the luxury industry, Dior has created its own industrial division. The goal is to “strengthen [Dior’s] overall production capacity for the long term, and ensure the continuity of its know-how,” stated Christian Dior Couture in a press release. To head the new division, the LVMH group’s key label has poached Giorgio Striano from EssilorLuxottica, where he was the COO.

Striano will start in the role of chief industrial officer at Dior on January 2 2025, and will also join the label’s executive committee. He will be based in Milan and will oversee all of the label’s industrial operations, reporting to CEO Delphine Arnault.

Striano is a highly experienced international industrial operations executive, with a focus on the production of high-quality goods. He began his career at Procter & Gamble, then worked for Italian industrial group Manuli Rubber, and subsequently joined eyewear and optics giant EssilorLuxottica, where he spent the bulk of his career, taking charge of major facilities, notably in Asia and the USA. He was named COO in 2021, overseeing manufacturing plants and their staff in locations all over the world.

In setting up the new industrial division, Dior has also hired Nicolas Carré, who was previously in charge of the Italy-based leather goods and accessories manufacturing operations for Louis Vuitton, another top label owned by LVMH, where he has worked for 23 years. He will join Dior on December 1, assuming the post of industrial director for leather goods, footwear and fashion jewellery. Carré will be based in Florence, and he too will join the label’s executive committee.

He succeeds Patrice Guillemin, who has in the meantime been appointed head of industrial projects. Both Carré and Guillemin will report to Striano.

Carré is a leather goods production expert and has worked for his entire career at Louis Vuitton, where he held various positions in the operations departments, in France, the USA and eventually in Italy, where he took charge of industrial operations for leather goods and accessories in 2020. He was notably tasked with developing Louis Vuitton’s women’s leather goods, and has also been the director of the label’s long-established atelier in Asnières, France.

“It is more important than ever to sustainably support our various production processes at each stage of manufacturing, respecting the ethical regulations in force, overseeing all the house’s activities, while preserving and promoting Dior’s creativity, craftsmanship and exceptional savoir-faire,” said Delphine Arnault, commenting on the appointments of Striano and Carré, whose expertise will be “a major asset in Dior’s constant pursuit of excellence, creating products of extremely high quality.”

Dior has reorganised its operations department, putting a strong leadership team at the helm, shortly after its Italian subsidiary, alongside the Giorgio Armani group, was targeted in summer by an investigation by Italy’s competition regulator, which suspected the two groups of being less than scrupulous with regards to working conditions at some of their sub-contractors. Dior was informed by the Italian authorities that illegal practices had been discovered at two of its suppliers in charge of the partial assembly of some men’s leather goods.

At the time, Dior had castigated the suppliers’ behaviour, cutting off all ties with them and pledging to “continue to transform its artisanal manufacturing operations, notably by integrating them within its own workshops.”