Stacy Van Praagh, a world vogue govt who was beforehand president of Alexander McQueen Americas, died at house in New York Sunday. She was 52.
Van Praagh succumbed to most cancers after a four-year battle, in line with her husband, Giles Van Praagh.
Having held management roles at vogue corporations resembling Alexander McQueen, Fendi, Oscar de la Renta, Kate Spade and Chanel, Stacy Van Praagh was extremely thought to be a passionate, optimistic and extremely engaged chief and staff builder. She was identified for her large, energetic persona and was described by colleagues as a go-getter who liked luxurious merchandise.
Born in Washington, D.C., Van Praagh was raised in Wilton, Conn., and graduated from Rollins School with a Bachelor of Arts in worldwide relations and affairs in 1993.
She started her profession at Chanel and shortly rose by way of the ranks throughout her eight-and-a-half years there, beginning because the ready-to-wear workplace assistant and rising to account govt, gross sales supervisor and finally gross sales director of rtw.
Stacy van Praagh
courtesy shot.
“I gave Stacy her first job in vogue. I had the privilege of watching this tall, enthusiastic woman with a mile-wide smile and hair, which had a lifetime of its personal flip into this stylish, consummate skilled,” mentioned Mary-Adair Macaire, a former senior vp of ready-to-wear at Chanel.
“Stacy was a kind of people who make our trade a pleasure. You may belief her to do what wanted to be finished, she was a passionate lover of creation and the method and its tales. She was a beneficiant staff participant. We labored collectively for eight years, and I adored having her on my staff,” Macaire mentioned.
She mentioned that Van Praagh was additionally “a cut-up.”
“She didn’t have any inhibitions about making herself look as foolish as doable, and but she was completely inspiring. We have been associates all through her profession as she moved onto her numerous jobs, we stayed shut. I’d watch her along with her personal staff. She was an inspiring chief who was very approachable. I noticed gross sales folks coming as much as her on the gross sales ground, and she or he knew everyone’s title and simply had a smile for everybody and had a second for his or her points.”
Van Praagh left Chanel to affix Kate Spade as vp of gross sales earlier than touchdown at Oscar de la Renta the place she was international vp of gross sales. In that function, she doubled the model’s wholesale gross sales from 2005 to 2008 and considerably grew worldwide enterprise.
“Stacy joined Oscar de la Renta in 2005 with a mandate to modernize our gross sales group as we pursued fast, worthwhile wholesale progress each domestically and internationally. She achieved her mission properly, whereas balancing the necessity to keep our legacy trunk present companies. Although she ultimately moved on to different manufacturers, her contribution to at the moment’s Oscar de la Renta is super,” mentioned Alex Bolen, chief govt officer of Oscar de la Renta on Monday.
After leaving de la Renta, Van Praagh joined Fendi as president of the Americas, the place she drove important income progress by way of retail and wholesale channels over her four-year tenure. When Van Praagh was employed at Fendi in 2009, Michael Burke, then Fendi’s CEO, informed WWD: “She’s charismatic, dynamic and optimistic. We needed to search for the suitable one that may proceed to develop {our relationships} with our wholesale companions.”
Following Fendi, Van Praagh went briefly to Reed Krakoff as president, later grew to become an working accomplice at Marvin Traub Associates (now known as Traub). She then established her personal consultancy enterprise advising each luxurious and modern manufacturers on technique and progress.
Her final full-time place was at Alexander McQueen, the place she was president of the Americas from 2017 to 2022, creating the Americas enterprise and elevating the model’s visibility and desirability.
“Stacy was an unbelievable one that devoted her power and fervour to the whole lot she did. She was a real accomplice in enterprise and integral to the event and repositioning of Alexander McQueen within the Americas. My deepest energy and condolences are along with her household, significantly her husband and her son,” mentioned Emmanuel Gintzburger, former CEO of Alexander McQueen and present CEO of Versace.
Mortimer Singer, managing accomplice of Traub Capital Companions, mentioned, “Stacy was passionate in regards to the luxurious trade and an absolute skilled. She was each strategic and inventive and was thriving at what was probably a dream job for her at McQueen. She shall be dearly missed.”
Robert Burke, founder and CEO of Robert Burke Associates, a New York-based international consulting agency, has identified Van Praagh for a few years and mentioned he admired her work ethic.
“I first met Stacy when she was in wholesale at Chanel and I used to be the style director of Bergdorf. She was educated by the perfect within the trade, and when she moved to Oscar, Fendi and McQueen she understood how one can construct partnerships and what it takes to develop a model. At every home she constructed and educated a loyal staff, simply the way in which she had been taught. Most significantly, she was a pleasure to work with as a result of she had excessive integrity, uncompromising values and ethics and her phrase was bankable. She shall be missed,” Burke mentioned.
“She completely liked the manufacturers and liked all the homes she was with over time,” mentioned her husband. “She was fully and completely devoted to whichever one she was with. Her wardrobe she would fully flip over to that model. We now have tons and much and plenty of high-end vogue,” mentioned her husband, Giles, who met his spouse in New York Metropolis after they each graduated from Rollins School.
He famous that his spouse mentored innumerable folks and labored with college students at NYU Stern to assist them with the style side of their graduate program. “She would inform them along with loving the enterprise of vogue, she really liked vogue general and was fully motivated and excited by it,” he mentioned. “She was all in, passionate in regards to the trade and the manufacturers she represented, would put on them solely whereas within the roles and was a tremendous model ambassador within the greatest definition doable,” Giles mentioned.
In her spare time, Van Praagh was keen about sports activities and was a lifelong tennis participant. As an enormous Yankees fan, alongside along with her household, she was very happy with all of the stats she knew, her husband mentioned. “She actually loved spending time with our household, particularly along with her nieces and nephews and 6 godchildren. She was all the time the one who made household gatherings enjoyable and thrilling.
“She was a mentor, a pacesetter, a instructor and a lifelong pupil, all the time seeking to study day by day,” Giles added. She had served on the Rollins School board for a decade.
Along with her husband Giles, Van Praagh is survived by their 19-year-old son Sam, a pupil at Emory College; her mom, Mary Dunning; her sister, Christine Mullen, and stepbrother, Ben Dunning.
A memorial service shall be held at a later date.
