Lemaire names Clarisse Godbillon managing director after CEO exit

Lemaire has appointed Clarisse Godbillon as its managing director. The former chief operations officer of the French brand rejoined the company in October, returning after a year spent elsewhere in the industry. She steps into the top role left open when chief executive Laetitia Mergui departed in February.

Godbillon succeeds Mergui, who held the chief executive title for almost four years before her exit earlier this year. The gap between February and October left Lemaire without a named chief for most of 2026, until the brand pulled its former operations director back in.

The executive spent her year away at Jacquemus, the French label known for its oversized straw hats and social-media-ready shows. Before that, she was chief operating officer at Lemaire from 2023, having joined the house in 2020 as its chief financial officer.

A graduate of HEC Paris and Sciences Po Paris, Godbillon began her career in fusion acquisition and business development. She later moved towards strategic development advisory work in fashion, building the background that preceded her finance role at Lemaire.

Artistic directors Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran, who are also the majority shareholders, welcomed the appointment in a joint statement. They framed the house's independence as resting on the economic strength of the company and the careful management of its development, arguing that growth must fund better creation and production rather than become an end in itself.

"Clarisse Godbillon embodies the house's purpose and carries its fundamental principles with conviction," the pair declared. Godbillon answered with a statement of her own, describing a new chapter aimed at ensuring the label's vitality, longevity and independence, both cultural and economic.

She also named what she intends to protect: the quality and design of the products, the power of the brand's spaces to inspire, and the attention given to the experience of clients and collaborators. The phrasing reads less like a growth agenda than a mandate to keep the house's identity intact.

A fast-expanding footprint

The appointment comes as Lemaire builds its international presence. In January the brand opened its largest flagship to date in Shanghai, a milestone for the label's retail network and the biggest store it has opened so far.

A third Parisian store followed, set in the Galerie de Montpensier arcade that borders the Palais-Royal garden. Last week the house opened a new corner at Shinsegae Daegu in South Korea, carrying both its women's and men's lines under one roof.

The brand has also been investing in its cultural positioning at home. Its Elzévir outpost in the Marais now hosts an exhibition devoted to French illustrator and cartoonist Roland Topor, accompanied by a capsule of clothing and accessories featuring his works.

The Shanghai flagship and the Daegu corner point to Asia as a focus of the company's next phase of retail growth, while the Paris openings and the Topor exhibition keep the house anchored in its home market and its own spaces.

The house also wrapped a collaboration in August, when the final Uniqlo U collection signed by Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran landed in stores for fall 2026. It closes a chapter for the two designers as the house turns to its own network.

What the succession settles

Godbillon returns to a company she knows from the inside, having spent years there as finance chief and then operations chief before her Jacquemus spell. Her path runs through the numbers and the operations of the house.

The succession also closes a leadership gap. Mergui's February departure left the house without a named chief executive for eight months, while the retail openings in Shanghai, Paris and Daegu went ahead.

Godbillon's line about nurturing what makes the brand unique matches the founders' statement. Both put independence first, and both tie growth to the quality of what the house makes and the experience of those who buy it and work with it.

Lemaire has not disclosed the terms of the appointment, nor whether the managing director title carries the same remit as the chief executive role Mergui held. The founders remain artistic directors and majority shareholders.

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Image: Clarisse Godbillon Courtesy of Lemaire