J.Hilburn recently announced design leader Simon Kneen has joined the company as chief creative officer.
In this newly created role, Kneen will ensure creative vision across all customer touchpoints from collection design, styling and showroom presentations to retail stores.
“Simon is an innovative and experienced leader of men’s design and is a perfect fit for our disruptive brand,” said J.Hilburn Chief Executive Officer Andy Janowski. “I am excited to have his creative vision and leadership as we build the future of custom-made total lifestyle fashion.”
Kneen previously served as creative design director for the Retail Brand Alliance setting the direction for Brooks Brothers and Adrienne Vittadini and as executive vice president of design and creative director for Banana Republic. Kneen’s early work in Europe included luxury designer brands, and he was head designer for the French pret-a-porter house, Balmain in the late 1990s.
“I’m thrilled to be joining the leadership at J.Hilburn with their modern approach to servicing the customer through one-on-one tailoring experts,” said Kneen. “I was attracted to J.Hilburn’s unique direct-to-consumer business model that provides a very high-quality and customized product at a much more accessible price point. This marries to one of my own philosophies around design that everyone should be able to wear beautiful pieces without breaking the bank and that can be worn well beyond one season.”
Kneen also will continue in his role as creative director of his own brand Grey New York Grey New England, a luxury accessories collection exclusively made in Italy.
