Joanna Sykes Leaves as Creative Director of British Retailer Jigsaw
LONDON — Joanna Sykes is leaving Jigsaw as creative director amid changes in management and strategy at the premium high-street brand.
Sykes joined the brand in June 2019 and helped to elevate Jigsaw’s market positioning and enhance its style quotient. Jigsaw said the spring 2024 collection will be her final one for the brand as she embarks on new opportunities.
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Hash Ladha, Jigsaw’s chief executive officer, said Sykes had an important impact on the brand.
“Her creative leadership, combined with her determination and drive, has been a significant factor in elevating our brand,” said Ladha.
“She has shown dedication and passion and played a major role in bringing Jigsaw back to being a brand with a strong visual handwriting and a product proposition with a distinctive point of view. Jo will be missed, and I want to take this opportunity on behalf of us all to wish her the very best for the future,” he added.
Sykes said leading the Jigsaw team has been a highlight of her career, “and I’m extremely proud of how we have elevated the creativity, sustainability and diversity within our collections and the brand. I would like to thank our owners for this incredible opportunity. Jigsaw will forever hold a special place in my heart.”
The designer breathed fresh life into the retail brand, which was founded in 1970 and is a major high-street name in the U.K. She gave the collections a luxury edge and helped to restore the brand to its origins in collaborating with architects, photographers and artisan mills, makers and creators.
Most recently, she worked with Roksanda and Collagerie on special collections, and held Jigsaw’s fall 2023 collection presentation at the ICA, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London.
The collaboration with designer Roksanda Ilinčić resulted in a colorful 27-piece collection that fused the the designer brand’s exaggerated lengths, volumes and textures with Jigsaw’s more minimal, straightforward silhouettes.
With Collagerie, Sykes said she and the brand’s cofounder Lucinda Chambers aimed to create a “perfect wardrobe of iconic British classics, such as the duffle coat, the kilt, and the guernsey sweater, with amplified detailing and extravagant modern touches.”
Jigsaw also returned to profitability during Sykes’ tenure.
The company said sales have been growing in the double digits on the back of strong demand for tailoring and dresses. Jigsaw reported a 28.6 percent rise in EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to 3.6 million pounds in the year to Jan. 28.
Before joining Jigsaw, Sykes served as creative director of Nicole Farhi and design director at Aquascutum.
She has also worked in the design studios at Giorgio Armani and Alberta Ferretti, and had her own label, Sykes, which focused on silk separates.
Her exit follows the arrival of the British high street veteran Ladha as CEO earlier this month.
Ladha, who has been working as an industry consultant, was formerly group CEO of the Oasis and Warehouse brands. Those brands fell into administration during the early days of the pandemic in 2020.
Two months later, British retailer Boohoo purchased the online operations and all associated intellectual property for 5.25 million pounds in cash from Hilco Capital Ltd.
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