Dries Van Noten appoints former Jil Sander CEO Axel Keller as President

Dries Van Noten has appointed former Jil Sander CEO Axel Keller, as its new president. He will replace Matteo De Rosa, who is leaving mid December to head up LVMH Métiers d'Art.

Keller joins the Belgium fashion label having held the role as commercial director for a number of leading design brands in France, including Balenciaga, where he served for 14 years, and later at Maison Margiela, where he held that role for 13 years.

He moved to Jil Sanders in 2018 as chief commercial officer and was promoted to CEO later that year.

The appointment represents Dries Van Noten’s first major business development following the sale of a majority stake to Spanish luxury group, Puig in 2018. Van Noten remains a minority shareholder of the company, and holds the titles of chief creative officer and chairman of the board.

According to WWD, Sabine Fandino Fineau has been named vice president in tandem with Keller's appointment.

Van Noten was an original member of the Antwerp Six, the group of Belgians who transformed the city into a locus of avant-garde fashion in the mid-1980s. The Royal Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts graduate comes from a family of tailors and founded his menswear label in 1986.