Ulla Johnson CEO Thibaut Perrin-Faivre Talks About His Careful Approach to Growth
Thibaut Perrin-Faivre, chief executive officer of Ulla Johnson, looks to take the apparel brand to greater heights.
Since assuming the CEO role in April, 2024, Perrin-Faivre has been strengthening what was already a very healthy women’s apparel business. The president of Burberry Americas took over the role from Donata Minelli Yirmiyahu, who joined the brand in 2018 as a consultant and became CEO the following year.
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Perrin-Faivre, 47, sat down with WWD to talk about his first year at the company and what his priorities have been. As Ulla Johnson prepares for its spring fashion show on Sunday, he discussed ways in which he seeks to expand the women’s apparel brand that is known for its bohemian, free-spirited and feminine styles.
Tapping Into Burberry Experience
Perrin-Faivre is based at Johnson’s spacious, beautifully appointed New York headquarters — a calm oasis at 270 Lafayette Street. He reports to Ulla Johnson, chairwoman, founder and creative director.
Perrin-Faivre initially joined Burberry’s beauty division in its London headquarters, before moving to the Americas region where he led the transformation of its wholesale business. He then moved to the retail division in 2020. In 2021, he was named president of Burberry Americas.
Perrin-Faivre said he had spent five years in London and six years in New York and knew the American market. “And I knew I wanted to stay in America,” said the French-born executive. “My partner is American.”
A top reason for him wanting to join Ulla Johnson was to work closer to creativity. He said his previous post as president of Burberry Americas “is a great role, but you are a little bit far from the product.” With Johnson’s firm, he is close to both creativity and the product. “I have always loved to surround myself with very creative people. And when I met Ulla, I think I can say it was love at first sight,” said Perrin-Faivre.
Another factor that entered into the decision is that he believes that Johnson “is one of the most genuinely creative creative directors in America.” For 25 years, she has developed her contemporary brand without concern about the trends. He also said he loves the fact that Johnson and everyone in the company is obsessed with the client, the customer and the product.
Every physical expression of the brand, including the headquarters, always has a residential touch, he said. The Bleecker Street store, for example, is a town house that resembles a cottage. The Los Angeles store spans 3,000 square feet and features a 16-foot Brachychiton tree and a solarium filled with plants from Malibu nurseries.
What impressed Perrin-Faivre was just how strong the reaction is to the brand. From the onset, he noticed on social media that Ulla Johnson’s followers are “full of passion and love for the brand and her. There’s an element of love and passion and trust, and I believe in what Ulla is doing, and I want to help her in the next phase of growth for the company.”
Perrin-Faivre’s Top Priorities
One of his first orders of business was elevating the product. “I think the first thing we worked together on was probably the elevation of the product proposition. The brand was already in a trajectory of proposing to customers some higher-price-point items. And I think that was the first thing we did together, both in ready-to-wear and in accessories. He said it wasn’t raising prices, but proposing different products, different fabrics and different fits for the customer. They started with denim two years ago, and now knit is a very important category for them. Also, the price-value of the product was very important to them, he said.
For example, they are offering knit dresses that are much closer to the body. “That’s a new element of femininity. Comfort is very important to her [Johnson] and ease of use. She’s a woman designer designing for a woman. That’s very specific. It’s very unique. She knows how women want to feel when they wear clothes. She knows what they want to show and what they want to hide. She is very close to the customer and understands how they want to feel at night, during the day or at a party,” he said.
Perrin-Faivre said they are taking a measured approach to expansion.
“The company has always been profitable, which is fantastic. The biggest impact for me is the very careful expansion. That’s important because everybody wants to grow, but you need to grow with care, you need to be very careful how you expand,” he said.
In a separate interview, Johnson told WWD, “Thibaut and I are very much aligned in our expansive vision for the brand which has been immensely exciting and inspiring. He has brought a high level of expertise in retail, leather goods, international expansion and beauty, which are key areas of growth for us in the near term.”
Sizing Up Growth Opportunities
For Johnson’s company, growth is both geographic and physical through stores. Currently, they have three stores on Bleecker Street in New York, Amagansett, N.Y. and Los Angeles (Beverly Boulevard), and will open another store on Madison Avenue in the 70s in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Internationally, they have a strong wholesale presence with distribution in 75 countries. Johnson is opening Lane Crawford in March and Harrods in June. The brand is already in Bon Marché in Paris, and it plans to expand in Paris, London and Southeast Asia. Johnson presents the collection in New York and Paris four times a year. With the U.K. and the Middle East, it’s direct-selling and in Southeast Asia, Germany and Northern Europe, they have agents.
Mostly everything is manufactured in-house. They have a close relationship (a license-like relationship) for shoes with Himco SpA, a global leader in the manufacturing and distribution of premium fashion and leather goods. Jewelry, handbags and accessories are designed in-house. Their jewelry is made with a partner in Kenya. Some of their dresses are made in Peru, and they also have a relationship with craftsmen in India.
While he declined to reveal Johnson’s overall volume, Perrin-Faivre said, “We crossed the nine-figures mark in 2022. DTC is growing nicely over the past two years. We are pleased with our wholesale booking, pre-fall is up by double digits versus last year.”
Johnson’s Significant Digital Play
Direct-to-consumer is a growing and important aspect of Johnson’s business. In 2024, the business was evenly divided between DTC and wholesale. For 2025, it will be 55 percent DTC and 45 percent wholesale. Over the next 10 years, the goal is to be 75 percent DTC and 25 percent wholesale, said Perrin-Faivre. He cited the overarching need to build closer relationships with their clients and have direct contact with them.
The company has invested heavily in their digital business, in people, and in recruiting great talent. “It was already a very healthy business. We look at CRMs (customer relationship management) very carefully. We look at how we outreach to customers, how we bring them back,” he said. They already have close to 60 percent of returning customers. “This is very high, which is normal for a ready-to-wear brand compared to an accessories brand. You have much more returning customers. When a woman or man find a great ready-to-wear brand, usually they go back,” he said.
Perrin-Faivre explained that on the website, they show the clothes in movement, which he believes is rare for the industry. “We also explain a lot of how it fits and the size of the model. Because the clients return [to shop], they are used to the silhouettes as well. The magic of the brand is every launch that we have, I see a spike of sell immediately. Because our buy is quite tight. We do not have outlets. We are very careful how we buy. Selling full-price very quickly and not having too much inventory is paramount because as you know, we do not destroy inventory. We absolutely need to sell this product,” he said.
Obviously they have returns, but “we try to minimize it as much as possible.”
Ulla Johnson’s biggest wholesale accounts are Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Shopbop, Nordstrom and Saks. Shopbop, he said, brings in a younger clientele, “which is interesting for us.”
“You need to be very careful how you expand. The moment you are a little bit too distributed, then you lose the magic of discovery. One of the reasons of the strength of the brand is that we’re not everywhere,” he said.
As for new categories, Perrin-Faivre said the brand by itself has a lifestyle connection to Ulla herself. “The art is very important,” he said, noting that they just did a collaboration with abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner for spring. In the past, they have done collaborations with Cabana for homeware, Garrett Leight for eyewear, Bobbi Brown for cosmetics and Miranda Brooks for a garden project. Perrin-Faivre pointed out there is an appetite for more categories. They are looking into beauty, including candles and fragrance.
Building on a Strong Culture
Perrin-Faivre said the company, which employs close to 100 people, has a low attrition rate. “I’m happily surprised that people care a lot for what they do,” he said. He attributed that to the values of the company, embodied by Johnson and himself, which are kindness and purpose. “We do something for a reason, and everybody in the company has a purpose,” he said.
Johnson launched her own brand soon after graduating from the University of Michigan and has been running it for 25 years. He noted that she’s as creative as she is a strong businesswoman. In his opinion, Johnson is very modern and European in her approach. She developed the brand with long-term vision. He said European because in Europe brands are like 150 to 200 years. “If you really care about product and developing the right product with a great price-value for the customer, you need time. You need to grow very carefully and mindfully with purpose,” he said.
He said his working relationship with Johnson is based on “openness, trust and an authentic relationship.” He built on Yirmiyahu’s success. “They absolutely built a great company and great structure.” He said every CEO arrives with a change in mind and opportunity, “but the fundamentals were really strong, it was a great handover,” he said.
Asked what he’s most excited about this year in terms of growth, Perrin-Faivre said, “Development of new categories, particularly knitwear and bags. We know have a great design team. We are looking at the category with a little bit more professionalism. The product is there, and the appetite of the customer is there. That is where the magic happens. Beautiful product and a great client.”
He said there are three pillars in handbags: Leather, natural fibers (such as raffia), and textile (printed cotton for travel using prints from rtw).
While one might think that Ulla Johnson’s business is stronger in the spring that the fall, Perrin-Faivre said that’s not the case. “There was this idea that Ulla was more of a spring brand, but it’s not true. We did great in Q4, which is October, November and December, was a best quarter this year, and outerwear performed very strongly.” They also did some suiting. “The customer is ready. They want everything Ulla, from denim to coats to shoes, they are interested.”
Ulla Johnson is active on Instagram, and does both print advertising and out-of-home. Viviane Sassen, the Dutch photographer, shot the company’s spring campaign, which included the Krasner pieces.
Discussing the key challenges for 2025, the CEO said, “The challenge is that the more you plan, the more you are wrong. Things change overnight. You need to stay very agile. We used to do a three-year plan, four-year plan, five-year plan, 10-year plan and you used to follow the plan. That doesn’t exist anymore. We had a great conversation with my team yesterday and we were looking at the full-year 2025. Web numbers, it’s fantastic, but maybe next month we’re going to change all those numbers. Because you never know, that to me is the biggest challenge. The world is changing very fast. The consumer is changing very fast.”
He said they’ve been very careful with their pricing strategy to make sure the value is right. The average retail price is $600. The product ranges from $250 for its entry-price top to $3,000 for a beautiful gown that’s handmade, he said.
Keeping abreast of the younger generation is paramount. Two years ago, Perrin-Faivre opened a personal TikTok account and enjoyed using it. “Some of my friends said I was too old for that. But you have to. You need to understand how the new client evolves. People coming from fashion school, their perspective on the job is very different from you and me. They have a different perspective of what they’re looking for in that job, the sense of purpose and importance of values from the company are really dear to their heart. You need to keep the conversation going with your employees as well as your customer.
“The are no more walls between a brand and the customer,” he continued. “Everything is out there. You need to listen to your client, as well as your employees, and you need to be very open-minded. You have to not have too many certainties, and collaborate and listen.”
Johnson’s Connection to Art
Perrin-Fairve said that the art world is very important to Johnson. “She collects, she discovers and she travels a lot and brings back objects and ideas. Lee Krasner, wife of Jackson Pollock, was in the shadow of her husband. The beauty of Ulla collaborating with Krasner is two creative women giving something beautiful to the world. That’s tied to their values of women empowerment, and making sure women artists have a voice,” he said. Krasner’s artwork was reinterpreted into gowns, silks and georgette and represents 15 percent of the spring collection.
With 10 months under his belt, Perrin-Faivre has settled in well to the role. “Not only do I love it, I knew that my next phase of my career, I needed to find a company very tied to my values. I loved the values at Burberry. I needed that next place be a company with great values. There’s not one single day that I regret my decision, which is very rare. Sometimes I joke with Ulla that I lost 20 pounds on the job. I’m so happy, it’s such an amazing brand with great people. I don’t need to stress eat anymore,” he said.
His partner, Alan Lee, was a tableware designer who had his own company. He’s also very creative. They met seven years ago. “He’s part of the reason I want to stay in America,” he said.
“Being a CEO and being gay, I find that important to say it. In the context of a lot of movement politically in America, you can be gay, you can be a CEO. I led the LGBTQ chair at Burberry. You need more voices to be loud. The young gays and trans of this generation, what hope are we offering them today in the world?”
Asked how he feels the Donald Trump presidency will impact business, he said, “Ulla expressed herself [on Instagram] during the campaign. Of course some clients will not like it, but others will like it. She’s been very vocal during the campaign. Making sure you are true to yourself and your values, and that you fight for freedom and for the basic human rights of people is very important.”
“It’s a moment that I don’t believe you should hide. You need to stay true to your values. That’s one of the reasons I love what I’m doing,” he said.
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