Donna Karan‘s youthful offshoot line, DKNY, has tapped two new creative directors: Public School‘s Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne.
The New York-based designers have been rising forces on New York’s fashion scene since their launch in 2008 and have since captured the industry’s attention. In 2013, they won the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund award.
Chow and Osborne will serve as DKNY’s creative team effective immediately, reports Vogue, while still spearheading their own label.
The brand has also created a new position, chief image officer, for Hector Muelas, who was previously at Apple. He will handle all marketing and branding for Donna Karan International, which is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
“We both grew up in New York, and DKNY has always been part of the landscape of this city,” Chow and Osborne wrote in a statement. “It is one of the brands that helped change the game for us and for American fashion. It evokes everything our city was always about — energy, disruption, new thinking and transcending all boundaries.”
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Said Donna Karan: “I started DKNY with the goal of creating a brand that captured the very best of New York and could bring that great energy to the world. Now is the right moment for its evolution, and I am so excited for the next chapter of this company working together with this new creative team.”
What will the move mean for DKNY’s footwear offering?
Undoubtedly, the brand has tapped Chow and Osborne to revive its fading status as an “it” brand, something the two designers have achieved with their own label in an incredibly short period of time. How that will translate to DKNY’s accessories collections will likely be a bolder offering, something the brand has tried to do with recent collaborations, such as its all-white collab with PONY.
