In a day of big announcements for the retail industry, Barneys New York fashion director Amanda Brooks is leaving the company, while Harper's Bazaar UK editor-in-chief Lucy Yeomans is heading to Net-a-Porter.
Brooks has only held her post at Barneys for a little over a year, having been installed by Mark Lee in early 2011 as part of an overall shakeup at the retailer that also displaced longtime Barneys fixture Julie Gilhart and also moved Simon Doonan into a new "ambassador at large" position.
At the time, Brooks described her new gig as her "dream job," but now WWD now reports that she's leaving the company to move to London and to pursue "other opportunities":
"To be the fashion director of a store with such a unique and inspiring vision has always been a dream job,” Brooks said. “I have had the pleasure of working with an incredibly talented team but have resigned to temporarily relocate to England with my husband and children in the interest of further pursuing other opportunities. It is a personal decision and I will miss working with the Barneys team."
Brooks' husband, Christopher Brooks, is an English artist, so the move does make sense on that front. In terms of "other opportunities," Vogue UK points out that the top buying gig at Harvey Nichols is currently vacant, but who knows what Brooks may have up her designer sleeves.
Meanwhile, e-commerce giant Net-a-Porter snagged a very big win in landing respected Harper's Bazaar UK editor Lucy Yeomans to lead the editorial direction of the site in a role created just for her: editor-in-chief of Net-a-Porter. The retailer told WWD that Net-a-Porter is planning to become the "ultimate fashion magazine, merging content and commerce on a global scale." Considering the new talent, we're betting they're at least on a good path to meet that goal.
