Wolford creative director Grit Seymore resigns

The Austrian hosiery manufacturer Wolford has announced the departure of its creative director Grit Seymore, says a Fashion Network report. The development follows after the company revised its medium-term strategic planning and announced a sustainable financing structure with a focus on improving cost structures to make the company profitable again.

The report added that Seymore was appointed to the newly created position in October 2014 in a bid to reposition the brand for future development. She was handed over the responsibility of designing collections under Wolford while advising on developing the brand identity. The company launched her first collection for spring 2016.

Before taking up the new assignment at Wolford, Seymore was associated as a designer at international brands including Donna Karan and Max Mara. She also worked as an artistic director of Daniel Hechter in the late 1990s and then designed womenswear collections for Hugo Boss other than consulting for various labels as well as designing her own fashion line, Tape.

For the nine-months ending January 2017, the company generated revenue of 119.05 million euros (133 million dollars), a year-on-year decline of 7.5 percent. The company said, revenue drop equalled 6.2 percent when adjusted for currency effects, in particular the decrease in value of the British pound. Wolford attributed the decline in revenue to the weak first half-year, which was characterized by a difficult market environment as well as internal problems relating to demand and sales planning. The company added that it was not able to compensate for the revenue shortfall in the third quarter despite the 4 percent third-quarter year-on-year revenue increase driven by delayed delivery dates, a stable Christmas business and a slight upward revenue trend in January 2017.

Picture:Wolford website