Introduction
Richard Lambertson is an American accessories designer and merchant associated with the reconstruction of Gucci in the early 1990s. After working with Dawn Mello at Bergdorf Goodman and as an accessories buyer at Barneys New York, he joined Gucci in 1990 as design director.
At Gucci, Lambertson coordinated product development and merchandising across categories with particular responsibility for accessories and archive-led renewal. He left in 1992 to become chief executive of Geoffrey Beene; Tom Ford succeeded him as Gucci design director. Lambertson later co-founded the accessories label Lambertson Truex.
Design ethos
Lambertson’s practice joins design to merchandising. Proportion, material, hardware and function are considered in relation to assortment and use, making accessories the organising core of a wider brand system.
At Gucci, this method supported the return of Bamboo and Horsebit products while giving Dawn Mello’s restructuring a workable studio structure. His authorship belongs to collaborative product development, not sole credit for the period’s runway collections.
Disclaimer
Career history
1990
Richard Lambertson joined as design director in 1990, coordinating product development and merchandising with particular attention to accessories. He left in 1992, when Tom Ford was promoted into the role.
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