MILAN — The Prada Group will reveal Wednesday it has promoted Christopher Bugg to chief communication officer.
This is a new role at the company, and a new development as it gears up to complete the Versace acquisition. Bugg will be responsible for overseeing the global communication strategies of the group and its brands, comprising Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s and Car Shoe, in addition to Versace.
He reports to Lorenzo Bertelli, chief marketing officer and head of corporate social responsibility of the group.
Bugg joined the company in January 2020 as marketing and communication director for Asia and, a few months later, was appointed group communication director. “Over the years, his work has played a key role in strengthening the positioning of the group and its brands,” the company said in a statement.
Before joining the Prada Group, he rose through the ranks at Louis Vuitton in Paris in the 2016-19 period becoming the global digital communication director. Prior to Louis Vuitton, he was based in New York working at Calvin Klein from 2008 to 2016, becoming global vice president of digital marketing.
He holds a degree in marketing and digital communication from the University of Evansville in Indiana.
In April, the Prada group revealed the acquisition of Versace from Capri Holdings for an enterprise value of 1.25 billion euros and the transaction is expected to close in the second half of the year. Commenting on first-half results last week, Prada Group chief executive officer Andrea Guerra said the closing is expected between September and November.
“At the beginning of 2026 we will be able to share much more information regarding what we’re going to do. I think that when we signed the agreement, we said that it will take time, which means that we need to do things carefully. It’s important not to kill the baby while you cure it. So we will go as fast as we can and as prudent as we can in terms of branding and identity positioning,” Guerra told analysts during a call on July 30.
What is known so far is that the first collection for Versace designed by Dario Vitale will not be presented through a runway fashion show, but the house will host “an intimate event, honoring the past and envisioning the future,” scheduled on Sept. 26 in Milan. The city’s fashion week is expected to run Sept. 23 to 29.
The spring collection will be unveiled through a presentation and, according to sources, there is a video component.
In March, Donatella Versace was named chief brand ambassador of the fashion house she has helped grow on her own for the past 28 years, following the death of her brother Gianni. The designer was succeeded by Vitale, named chief creative officer, on April 1.
Vitale was previously Miu Miu’s ready-to-wear design director and left the company in January.
The Prada Group is weathering the current challenges, reporting rising sales and steady profitability in the first half ended June 30. Revenues rose 8 percent to 2.74 billion euros compared with 2.55 billion euros in the same period last year. Group net profit amounted to 386 million euros compared with 383 million euros in the same period last year.
