Billy Reid names Gary Muto CEO, backed by Newtimes investment

Gary Muto, an apparel veteran whose career spans Ascena, Ann Taylor, Gap and Banana Republic, has taken over as chief executive of menswear brand Billy Reid. He succeeds Jeff Zens, who left the Florence, Alabama company last week. Muto joins after several years spent consulting.

The appointment comes with new money. Newtimes Group, the Hong Kong product development and sourcing firm that also owns Robert Talbott, has made a strategic investment in Billy Reid. Terms were not disclosed, and Alex Angelchik, Newtimes' group managing director, did not respond to requests for comment.

Newtimes has been Billy Reid's production partner for several years, and the relationship has deepened recently. "They're now a full-on strategic partner and invested in the business, which is truly exciting," Reid said. The stake, he added, brings opportunities in product development and production.

Muto framed the sourcing reach as the defining edge. "We now have a partner who has sourcing capabilities worldwide," he said. "There isn't a place we can't go because they have expertise on the ground, which in today's world is a great strategic advantage."

The arrangement also lets the brand move quickly when needed, Muto said, describing a business able to be "nimble and change on a dime." Newtimes has shown that capability through the years, he added, and it is the first advantage he wants to use in the role.

A founder's brand, twice built

Reid founded his first label, William Reid, in New York in 1998, opening at Stanley Korshak and Fred Segal. In 2010 he won GQ/CFDA's Best New Menswear Designer and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award, then took Menswear Designer of the Year in 2012.

The self-funded business was still unsteady, and after 9/11 dried up sales, Reid shut William Reid down and moved back to Alabama. He returned in 2004 with Billy Reid, a Southern-flavoured, Americana line built around his fabric development work.

Under Zens, a former Levi Strauss executive who joined in 2019, the brand concentrated on its own 16 stores and acquired the direct-to-consumer arm of Knot Standard, the AI-powered made-to-measure firm that had been producing Billy Reid's custom suits. Knot Standard became a minority shareholder in the combined company.

Kemmons Wilson Companies, the Memphis investment firm run by descendants of the Holiday Inn founders, has long been the brand's primary backer. Reid credited Zens with a "wonderful job," particularly on the structural side and the Knot Standard purchase, but said he "needed a break."

"We also needed some new energy," Reid said. "And with Newtimes coming on as a strategic partner, and Gary's relationship with them, we need to take a few more big steps." Muto will also advise Robert Talbott, though Billy Reid is his main focus.

Custom, knitwear and the founder's voice

Muto left Ascena as its CEO in 2021 and took time off, working mainly as a consultant. "I had many opportunities, but this was the one that interested me the most," he said, "first and foremost, because of the man who's sitting next to me." Reid, he said, is the soul of the brand.

"Every garment has a story," Muto said, praising a collection that is "very considered" and rooted in its founder. "So all the ingredients are there, now it's just stepping back and saying, how do we want to go to market in a way that's relevant for today?"

He listed the fleet of stores, e-commerce, the custom capabilities from the Knot Standard acquisition and wholesale penetration as the brand's strengths. "I have a history of repositioning and growing vertically integrated brands," Muto said, adding he wanted work he felt passionate about.

The company survived the pandemic only by cutting roughly half its categories, Reid said. Since then it has been rebuilding "slowly and smartly," and he believes that phase is passed. The spring 2024 Knot Standard deal added one-off custom pieces for musicians, actors and other clients.

Plans call for extending those custom capabilities from tailored clothing into knitwear and leather outerwear. Reid pointed to the Bond peacoat, the brand's top-selling outerwear piece, which can now be made in 100 percent Loro Piana cashmere, or in sizes not ordinarily produced off-the-rack.

Muto wants to lean on the fact that the label has a living founder at its heart, telling the brand's story through Reid's Alabama roots. "Great products exist at every price point," he said, "but how do we take what we do well and communicate that to the world?"

The craftsmanship has struck him directly. "We've been going through the line, detail by detail, and it's extremely considered," Muto said. "I've been doing this a long time and I've never seen anything like it." He will stay based in New York but visit Alabama often.

On direction, Muto was clear: the brand will not return to womenswear for now, focusing on menswear instead. "I never say never," he said. There is no rush back to New York Fashion Week either, and he suggested showing up through Shindig instead.

Shindig, the designer's festival begun in 2009 as a press junket and now a consumer-facing event in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, has been held only sporadically in recent years, but Reid hopes to revive it. "It's such an integral part of the brand," he said.

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Images: Billy Reid