Proenza Schouler founders Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez are stepping down

Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, once fashion darling newbies when they founded their brand in 2002, launched from their senior thesis project at Parsons School of Design, where they met in 1998.

Now, 23 years later and about three months after hiring new CEO Shira Suveyke Snyder, the brand has announced the design duo will step down on January 31.

They will continue to be company shareholders, serve on the board, and assist Suveyke Snyder in finding a new creative lead to assure “operations without interruption,” according to a statement released by the brand. While the move came as a surprise to many in the industry, it was noted the brand was absent from the upcoming New York Fashion Week calendar and showed off-schedule last season.

“We founded Proenza Schouler in our early 20s and have had an extraordinary journey that we could have only dreamed of back then. We feel fortunate to have had the freedom over the years to consistently push our creative boundaries and hone our craft while slowly building a solid and stable brand. Our twentieth anniversary was a moment of deep reflection for us. The time feels right to make the personal decision to step down from our day-to-day leadership role at the company and hand over the creative reins to someone new. We have always valued risk-taking and a sense of adventure and feel ready to open ourselves up to whatever comes next. Bringing on Shira Suveyke Snyder as the company’s CEO was a critical step in this ultimate direction. In her, we have complete faith and believe that through her leadership, Proenza Schouler will continue to evolve, develop, and grow into its full potential,” said the statement.

“Proenza Schouler has always been a deeply autobiographical story, one that has evolved, developed, and grown up alongside us, a reflection of our lives over the last two decades. While change is never easy, this decision – one we’ve carefully considered – feels like the right step at the right time, at this stage in our lives. We will miss working each and every day with the extraordinary teams that we have built at Proenza Schouler, who are like family to us. We could never have experienced the highs we have had over the years without their hard work and dedication to our vision, nor could we have sustained the more difficult moments without their unwavering support and faith in what we do. Proenza Schouler has been a huge team effort, and it brings us great comfort to know that the brand’s future is in capable hands, guided with grace, passion, and unwavering commitment,” added McCollough.

Founder, president, and chief investment officer of Mudrick Capital Management Jason Mudrick has been the brand’s investor since 2018. According to a source familiar with the matter, last October’s CEO change came suddenly and without ceremony. Since then, the brand has decided to move its store to Mercer Street, which will open in February, making the timing of the decision interesting.

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The move was reportedly fueled by positioning next to the Khaite brand store. The source also noted that the brand has been hemorrhaging funds amid a decrease in the lucrative handbag business and design innovation that plateaued. The company was said to be considering launching a men’s line. Since November, the brand has hosted two sample sales, one as this story is being written.

Hildun CEO Gary Wassner, fond of designers, felt the brand suffered from issues with many young brands.

“They just never got the traction everyone in the industry expected of them. They’ve been through several different investors,” he said, noting he loved the brand two years ago but got bored.

“So change is good.”

Also swirling about are the rumors that McCollough and Hernandez will be abandoning their ship to take Jonathan Anderson’s place at Loewe. These whispers were aided and abetted by HSBC (a bank whose U.S. operations have failed), making creative director predictions to solve Dior’s womenswear stalled performance by replacing Maria Grazia Chiuri with Anderson, who finally made Loewe a hit after Victor Alfaro and Stuart Vevers failed to, and has his own label.

It is true the brand has shown its collection in Paris several times, a move that is seen as an audition for European conglomerates, presuming Loewe speculation happens, it’s a tricky business synchronization mainly dependent on serendipity from several major fashion powers.

The change at Proenza Schouler comes at a frantic pace of change among European fashion houses. Chanel, Bottega Veneta, Givenchy, Lanvin, Celine, Dries Van Noten, Tom Ford, Missoni, Alberta Ferretti, Blumarine, and even the still-profitable Miu Miu have all named new creative directors. (See FashionNetwork.com’s cheat sheet on the creative director debuts.)

In New York, where replacing lead creatives is atypical, change is afoot too. Phillip Lim is stepping down from his namesake brand and his successor has yet to be named. Calvin Klein is seemingly rising from the designer fashion graveyard by naming Italian designer Veronica Leoni, designer of Quira, who will show the brand’s first ready-to-wear (and designer-level collection) this February at NYFW since Raf Simons left in 2018. Namesake founder Calvin Klein stepped down in 2000, but remained as a consulting creative director and was eventually replaced by Francisco Costa in 2003 (though there was some overlap), who held the position until 2016. Though it faltered until now, it remains to be seen if Leoni can get it off the ground again.

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Kate Spade has a similar post-founder story. In 2008, creative director Deborah Lloyd took the brand into even further success than Spade but departed in 2017. Replacements Nicola Glass, 2017 to 2021, and a design team since have not reached Lloyd’s success with the label. Halston is another story of unsuccessful successors with too many names to count, but all leave the brand not restored to its one-time glory.

It’s not an easy task by any means to succeed founding designers. Ask designer, creative director, burgeoning lifestyle expert, and cookbook author Peter Som. Circa 2008, Som became the fifth designer to succeed Bill Blass.

“When I look back, it’s a balancing act to absorb the brand DNA, what it stands for, and how to evolve that when coming in with my own creativity to mesh with theirs. It takes a designer who can get in the brand’s shoes, deeply understand it, and look with fresh eyes to envision the future and execute that in all areas. The person also has to understand the business and how to build it via product,” Som told FashionNetwork.com.

According to Som, where and who this leaves Proenza Schouler for the task at hand largely depends on the CEO’s vision for the brand.

“It’s a globally recognized brand, an incredible name they have built. It’s always a challenge when a founder leaves a brand in the U.S. or Europe. They established a strong, clean, luxurious minimal with an artistic sensibility, so it’s an exciting opportunity for them. Depending on what they want to achieve, the right candidate will want to grow the business, so it’s a matter of finding the right fit and understanding the brand. It’s a process,” he added. 

Perhaps the biggest elephant in the New York room is the fates of eponymous led brands Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors who seem ripe for handing over the reins. (Lauren is 85 and Kors presumably lost his ticket out when the FTC blocked the Capri Holdings acquisition by Tapestry Inc.)

The departure of McCollough and Hernandez also leaves an irreplaceable hole in NYFW that has had a dearth of major fashion players of late.