MILAN — Simon Whitehouse has left his role as chief executive officer of Modes, the Italian retailer which at the peak of its success logged yearly sales of 150 million euros, WWD has learned.
The executive had joined the company as CEO in March 2024.
Confirming the development, Modes’ president Aldo Carpinteri told WWD in a phone interview on Thursday that Whitehouse is to remain onboard in an adviser capacity as the company undergoes the so-called “compositions with creditors” procedures.
The company filed for the procedure with a Milan Court last May and has continued to operate its business since, trimming costs and tweaking its business model to align with the business plan it submitted.
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A new hearing is expected in early April, followed by a vote of confidence by creditors as per Italian law.
Carpinteri said the company — which had explored a sale of a minority stake a few years ago, tasking Jefferies to find investors — would again be open to investment. He acknowledged that Modes is now a different company, retooled as a pure, traditional retailer.
The president attributed Modes’ declining business leading to the judicial procedure to several factors in addition to the widespread slowdown in luxury and fashion consumption experienced in 2024.
Among the reasons he mentioned were Modes’ reliance on digital sales coming from its linkup with Farfetch, scuppered when the e-commerce giant’s business rapidly plunged; its dependence on the B2B channel, known as the gray market, increasingly nixed by fashion houses, as well as strong investments made for the Balenciaga brand.
Modes was the sole international retailer to operate Balenciaga monobrand stores as part of a deal with parent company Kering, Carpinteri explained. In the aftermath of the French brand’s 2022 crisis over advertising images that critics claimed condoned the exploitation of children, that business, too, collapsed.
“The company is currently focused solely on retail,” Carpinteri said.
Modes now operates four stores in Milan’s Piazza Risorgimento and Via Fiori Chiari, the latter under the Minimodes banner dedicated to childrenswear; in Saint Moritz, and Portofino, Italy. He forecast sales to hit 8 million euros in 2025 and plans to more than double that figure, to 20 million euros, in five years, as per the new business plan.
At the peak of its business, Modes operated 19 stores globally including units in Paris, Forte dei Marmi and Cagliari, Italy, and Gstaad, Switzerland. Fifteen of them have been closed over the past 10 months.
“We are here, bruised but in rebuilding mode,” Carpinteri said. “It’s time for us to go back to the old retail model, revamped for today. A place where people walk in and experience something unique, see your research, feel your point of view,” he said.
The current selection across its four boutiques is mainly comprised of niche and up-and-coming fashion brands. A strong season at its Saint Moritz boutique is giving Carpinteri confidence that the formula may win in-store customers back.
“That’s proof that people want something different. If Modes did that well in Saint Moritz, selling niche brands, it means that even the wealthy are tired of sameness.…They want to walk into a multibrand boutique and discover something fresh. That’s what we’re building, slowly, but with excitement,” he said.
As part of the new business plan, he lined up the opening of two new units in Rome and Venice. The Minimodes boutique in Milan’s Brera district is also to be repurposed as a hybrid store selling adult fashion, in addition to kidswear.
The Modes’ e-commerce site is currently undergoing a restock to align with the new product mix.
Modes was established in 1971 by Carpinteri as a multibrand boutique in Trapani, on Italy’s Sicily Island.
