LONDON – Casablanca, the fashion label founded by Charaf Tajer, has named Didier Nguyen as its new chief executive officer with immediate effect.
Nguyen succeeds Frederick Lukoff, CEO for the past three years, who will move into a senior advisory role.
Prior to joining Casablanca, Nguyen has been freelancing as a strategic consultant for the past two years helping fashion brands on business development, positioning, organizational structure, operations, product strategy, and market expansion.
Over the past 20 years, he has held various positions at Saint Laurent, Dior, Givenchy, and Amiri, where he played a vital role in growing the OTB-backed brand from a start-up into a commercial success.
“I have long admired Nguyen’s career trajectory and how he is a curator of product fused with sharp business acumen,” said Tajer, who launched the brand in 2018.
“He shares the same passion for beauty, craft and storytelling that sits at the heart of everything we do and are. We connect on so many different levels of culture and values, there is a genuine respect and I am excited to build the next chapter of Casablanca together,” he added.
Nguyen described Casablanca as “a house unlike any other.”
“Tajer has built something truly rare, a brand so alive with its own identity that you feel it before you even see the name. That kind of soul doesn’t get manufactured; it gets earned,” said Nguyen.
Casablanca has been in expansion mode since taking a fresh round of investment in 2023.
Last year, the brand opened its first standalone store at 62 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris and unveiled another location at 469 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.
The brand, which has around 300 stockists worldwide, including Selfridges, Harrods, Galeries Lafayette and Saks, is hoping to open further stores in cities including New York, Miami, London, Milan and Dubai.
