Endeavor has tapped a fashion expert to lead its fashion portfolio, WME Fashion.
Susan Plagemann has been named President of WME Fashion at the helm of Art + Commerce, IMG Fashion Events and Properties, IMG Models and The Wall Group. Essentially, she is overseeing a portfolio that encompasses elements including imaging, exposure, sponsorships, cross-promotions, and more.
Most recently, Plagemann was the commercial director of Condé Nast’s style division. Before that, she was the editor of American Vogue. Last September, during New York Fashion Week, she left the company after more than a decade.
Plagemann was not available Friday to discuss his plans, according to a WME spokesman.
He will be based in New York when he begins his new role later this month. Enhancing synergies between Endeavor’s fashion, sports and entertainment businesses will be a priority. Given the merging of all those areas and the enthusiasm of models, athletes, creatives and other influencers to expand their business activities, there are many crossover opportunities for the new hire at WME Fashion. In addition, WME’s fashion portfolio covers a variety of services including talent representation, event ownership and production, consulting and original content creation.
News of his appointment comes days after Endeavor, which also owns the UFC as well as WME and IMG, posted solid second-quarter profits, boosted by its sports, live events and talent management operations, according to reports. Variety on August 11. The year-over-year revenue earned in your key units. Strong demand for sports and events helped Endeavor post net income of $42.2 million on revenue of $1.3 billion, which represented a gain of about 18 percent compared to the prior year.
Plagemann first joined Condé Nast in January 2010 as Vice President and Editor of Vogue. In 2018, she was promoted to the position of commercial director of the style division. In that role, she oversaw fashion, beauty, luxury and retail revenue for all of Condé Nast. The executive also led the commercial areas of Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, Allure and Glamour. She left Condé Nast during one of the publisher’s corporate reorganizations aimed at cutting costs as she seeks to make her operations less reliant on print revenue and grow her digital businesses.
Early in his career, Plagemann worked at Hearst Magazines. At different points in her career, she has served as Vice President and Editor of Marie Claire, Vice President and Editor of Lifetime, Editor of Cosmopolitan, and Associate Advertising Editor at Esquire.
Plagemann had a brush with controversy in December 2020. At the time, The New York Times reported that Plagemann, who is white, criticized Vanity Fair covers under editor-in-chief Radhika Jones, with two people alleging that she had said that the magazine should feature “more people who look like us.” However, a company spokesman denied this to The Times.
Source: wwd.com