Tapestry’s chief didn’t think she was the ‘CEO type.’ Now she’s doubling her company’s revenue with a record acquisition

Today, Crevoiserat is the CEO of Tapestry, the company behind Coach and Kate Spade. Under her watch, Tapestry announced in August an $8.5 billion plan to acquire Capri Holdings, the parent of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. The deal would double Tapestry’s revenue to $12 billion and is the largest fashion industry merger since the mid-2000s.

So how did Crevoiserat go from publicity-shy C-suite exec to a CEO architecting an undeniably bold deal? She redefined her definition of “CEO,” she tells Coins2Day senior writer Phil Wahba in a new feature story.

Courtesy of Tapestry

Crevoiserat came up as a finance exec, working at Walmart and Kohl’s before Tapestry. She thought of CEOs as “larger than life” and didn’t see herself that way. Rather than change who she was, she changed her perception of the top job.

Crevoiserat is still not the loudest CEO in the room. She shies away from the flashy, even skipping flagship brand Coach’s star-studded fashion show last month in favor of nosebleed seats at the U.S. Open. She sees her version of CEO not as a wallflower, but a “behind-the-scenes player who provides direction and cohesion and comes up with the strategy around which the company will coalesce,” Phil writes. That job description especially applies to a portfolio company like Tapestry, where other leaders and creatives are the faces of individual brands.

Tapestry will need that steadying force as it seeks to pull off the integration of Capri, which analysts have said comes with a major “execution risk.” Capri is in need of a turnaround, and its addition will make Tapestry a much more complex business.

Read more about what lies ahead for Crevoiserat and Tapestry in Phil’s feature.

Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe

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PARTING WORDS

"To see it in the context that I have carried in my heart and in my mind, and it’s sustained me—that’s overwhelming, completely overwhelming."

—Feminist artist Judy Chicago on "Herstory," her new exhibition of female artists at New York City's New Museum