Jane Reeve

Jane Reeve was appointed as the first chief executive of the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, the governing body of Italian fashion, in September 2013. She was charged with reaffirming Italian fashion’s place in the global industry and in the process, reenergising Milan Fashion Week. She held the role for a year and a half before stepping down in June 2015. Her duties have been assumed by Carlo Capasa , who took over from Mario Boselli as president of the Italian Fashion Chamber in 2014.

One of Reeve’s most challenging tasks was managing a significant change in the guard at Milan Fashion Week, promoting and supporting the presence of younger, emerging designers at the fashion week in addition to the heavy hitting global family brands, such as Giorgio Armani and Versace, that have come to exemplify Italian fashion. It is a development that Capasa intends to build upon.

“Coming into this business from the outside, you think it's going to be all fabulous," Reeve told The Daily Telegraph. "But everyone inside it is saying, 'No, Milan has to get back on track.' There is a lot we can do." Previously an advertising executive at JWT in Milan, where her clients included Vodafone, Campari and Nestlé Italia, Reeve told the Financial Times that she sees her role as, “really helping brand the entire Italian fashion ecosystem.” Traditionally the country’s strength as a manufacturing centre has failed to be marketed effectively on a global scale.

On the occasion of her welcome brunch at Milan’s Spring Summer 2014 Fashion Week in February 2014, Reeve told the The Daily Telegraph, "I am very pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be all a bit diva, but it isn't. What I found very satisfying is that they are all entrepreneurs. Years ago their businesses were small and they have made them into what they are. That's why I feel very at home here in fashion — it's not full of esoteric people. They are dynamic, have their feet on the ground, they understand problems and they want to get things done."

Regarding claims that an Italian should have been appointed to the role of chief executive of Camera della Moda, Reeve told press, “I have a global perspective. I’m an English person but I’ve lived here for 26 years and all my English friends think I’m Italian.”