How Mytheresa CEO Francis Belin Got the Job
Belin took over as chief executive following Mytheresa’s acquisition of Yoox Net-a-Porter, at a turbulent time for online luxury. Now, six months in, his strategy is coming together.
Francis Belin is a fashion outsider. That was, in part, what made former Mytheresa CEO Michael Kliger select him as his successor. Kliger himself was ascending to lead LuxExperience, the newly formed parent company created following Mytheresa’s acquisition of competitor Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP).
Stakes were high amid the transition. YNAP had toiled for years under the ownership of Richemont, the luxury group that seemed not to know what to do with a fully online retailer. And Mytheresa was in a rare position: as others of its ilk faced fire sales and bankruptcies, Mytheresa continued to see growth, reporting a 9% increase to just over $1 billion in annual sales for 2025. Maintaining that positioning, while reaching into untapped opportunities, is Belin’s main imperative as CEO of Mytheresa as it and YNAP settle into their post-merger era. He joined Mytheresa in January after spending nearly 10 years at auction house Christie’s, where he worked most recently as the president of Asia-Pacific.
Belin joined the Vogue Business Global Summit in Chantilly, France, on May 12 to discuss the interview that landed him the role, the first six months on the job, his outlook on physical retail, and what he’s learned about catering to VICs. Mytheresa is known for its robust clienteling calendar, which typically involves partnering with brands to bring customers to fabulous locations, for the experience and, maybe, to shop. Already, Belin is embracing this modus operandi: just after the summit, he left for a VIC event with Brioni on the Amalfi Coast.
Vogue: I’m sure you’re fully immersed at Mytheresa now, but I’d like to go back to your interview. Why did you want to take this job?
Francis Belin: I think it went OK. Interestingly, it was very quick. I actually only had three interviews: two with Michael Kliger and one with the board. And it was a fascinating process, because I don’t have a fashion background, and I don’t have an e-commerce background. So it was a journey of discovery of what the industry is all about, what’s happening, and what changes we can see.
You were referring to the challenges multi-brand retail is facing. There’s tremendous demand for multi-brand, but I also think there’s been confusion on what clients are looking for. But I think, one, we have a clear view of who that is, and we make sure we provide this customer exactly what they’re looking for in terms of curation and brand assortment. We don’t buy everything. We don’t buy what the brands want us to buy. We buy what we think our customer wants. In terms of service, we want to make sure that when you order at Mytheresa, you get the package as fast as possible, and returns are as fast as possible. Being able to execute this perfectly is the least we have to do. And then we have a third one, which is very distinctive for us, is that we invest more into the relationship, the emotional connection.
Vogue: You came from Christie’s. We’ve seen other fashion companies hiring executives from outside the industry. What vantage point do you think that background brings to your role and to the company?
Francis: My take is when I look at how we operate our business, e-commerce usually means fewer people, more algorithms, a screen just to click, to make everything simple. We take a different approach to this because of the importance of our relationship with our brands. We want to be top of mind when it comes to multi-brand retailing, and this is how we manage to get pre-launch exclusives, amazing events, and all these collaborations, because we have that relationship with brands.
It’s also about the relationship with our customers. I met a lot of customers in the past four months. I talk with them. I ask, why do you shop at Mytheresa? What is it that we don’t have that you wish we had? And if you don’t buy at Mytheresa, where do you shop? So at the end of the day, it looks like it’s an e-commerce business, but in reality, my CEO role is in the relationship business. Now, if you look at this and you compare it to what I was doing for 10 years at Christie’s, serving some of the top collectors in Asia, it was the same thing. It was all about the relationship with the sellers and the relationship with the buyers.
Vogue: Luxury VICs are among the most sought-after for the luxury industry. You have other retailers and other brands wanting their wallet share. How do you make sure that Mytheresa is their shopping destination?
Francis: What we care deeply about is first looking at who we want to serve and what is this customer looking for? As simple as, which brand do they want? We have 250 brands. Every season, we add a few, we take out a few. You don’t have 750 brands on Mytheresa. Are you looking for a black dress? We give you the best 20 dresses we think we have on the market today. We don’t have a thousand dresses. We don’t want you to be scrolling all the time. So we want to make things very simple and be very spot on with what you’re looking for. We also serve you the best way we can. And at the end, we don’t want this relationship to be just transactional.
There’s no loyalty program at Mytheresa. Even if you’re a top customer, we don’t give you a 10% discount because we can’t give you a 10% discount, by the way. Our economic model does not allow us. It’s probably why some actually got carried away and ended up running out of cash. But people don’t want discounts. They want a great assortment, great curation. They want access to brands that are difficult to find. They want convenience because they have three different locations, or they are busy businesswomen traveling the world and wanting to have a dress shipped here and then there. And at the end, they want flawless service and an emotional connection to what we do. And I think this is the equation of how we’re trying to win in that space. And again, we’re not going to send our top customer a monthly statement of where they stand on qualifying for the next year or whatnot. That is not us.
Vogue: How do you resist pulling such common retail levers like loyalty programs and discounts, especially as I’m sure you have growth goals? How do you grow with restraint?
Francis: First and foremost, we started in Germany many years ago. We expanded in Europe, quite strong in the UK, Italy, France, and Switzerland. Then we started to really invest in the US about four years ago. The US is a phenomenal market for us today. We’re growing very fast, and it’s already our top market. What I find interesting is that the recipe for success needs a few tricks and a few local adaptations, but it’s fundamentally the same [anywhere]. We don’t have to change our DNA to grow in Romania, Poland, Greece, Hong Kong, or Singapore. It’s pretty much the same. So I think first and foremost, we want to continue to be who we’ve been, continue to do the best we can, make sure we have the best brands, the best edits, flawless service, which we constantly monitor, and that we’re able to engage with meaningful interactions and relationships with our clients. And geographic expansion is a big opportunity for us.
Francis Belin discussed his role at Mytheresa on stage in a fireside chat hosted by Hilary Milnes.
Vogue: What are your top categories right now? Where is there opportunity on the assortment front?
Francis: Ready-to-wear for women is about 60%, 65% of what we sell. We have shoes; we have bags and accessories; we have fashion jewelry. We have a men’s business. We do slightly less than 10% of our business with men. And we started fine jewelry two years ago, and it’s still a relatively small part of our business, but we believe that in that field, we have all the cards to be successful. It’s a category that our top client wants. Back to what I was saying before, we don’t sell things that our clients don’t want. We look for what they’re actually looking for, but there is no solid multi-brand jewelry offering online today.
Over time, we’ve also been able to prove that we execute logistically at the right level of service for our clients. So moving a transaction in the $4,000 realm, that these clients have been buying almost three, four times a year for 10 years, into a relationship where we say, “What about this necklace at $15,0000?” It’s fairly easy.
Vogue: How do you create this type of frequent shopping habit with your customer?
