MILAN – Rodrigo Bazan is exiting his role as chief executive officer of Thom Browne at the end of August, WWD has learned. According to sources, he is stepping down to pursue other opportunities and will be succeeded by Sam Lobban.
Lobban is currently serving as executive vice president and general merchandising manager for Apparel & Designer at Nordstrom. He was named to that position, a new one for the Seattle-based retailer, in August 2022. He has since curated collaborations with leading brands, including Thom Browne.
He joined Nordstrom in 2018 as vice president of men’s fashion to support merchandising and worked on marketing, content development, store environment and the shopping experience for menswear through his brainchild, New Concepts@Nordstrom.
During his tenure, he launched 17 New Concept shops for brands including Dior, Fear of God, Black_Space, Union, Noah and Thom Browne. He was promoted to senior vice president of designer and New Concepts in 2020, leading all designer merchandising strategies and campaign creative across men’s, women’s and children’s categories.
Lobban started his retail career on the sales floor at Selfridges, where he was promoted to merchant roles before joining Mr Porter. There, he led the designer capsule collection strategy.
Bazan joined Thom Browne in the spring of 2016 from Alexander Wang and previously held executive roles at Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen.
He has led Thom Browne through major developments, from the acquisition by the Ermenegildo Zegna Group in 2018 to its public listing in New York in Dec. 2021. Bazan has expanded the retail network around the world, slashing wholesale accounts, and shown women’s collections in Paris from 2017 to elevate their visibility, through to the launch of the first official haute couture collection in 2023.
Thom Browne has been impacted by the slowdown in China and the streamlining of its wholesale channel, which contributed to declining sales in the past quarters. As reported, revenues in the three months ended March 31 fell 18.9 percent to 64.2 million euros.
