While De Meo is the first automotive executive to take over a fashion group, there is precedent for leaders from other consumer industries like hospitality and mass market beauty stepping in to help ease luxury leaders' succession woes. Prada's recent outperformance — including a spectacular turnaround at sister brand Miu Miu — has been catalysed by the arrival of group chief executive Andrea Guerra, the former CEO of food retailer Eataly and sunglass giant Luxottica. Chanel's global CEO is Leena Nair, a human resources and organisational development specialist hired from Unilever. Louis Vuitton CEO Pietro Beccari and Ralph Lauren CEO Patrice Louvet also got their starts in consumer goods.