Introduction
Susana Clayton is a fashion designer whose career before Joseph included senior experience at Givenchy, Chloé, Gap and Rag & Bone. Joseph appointed her Creative Director effective 1 October 2018, following Louise Trotter’s departure after nine years at the house. Clayton was given responsibility for both womenswear and menswear from the Paris atelier, placing her at the centre of the first post-Trotter creative reset.
Her Joseph tenure opened with Autumn/Winter 2019 and lasted until the company moved to a paired internal leadership model in 2020. The appointment sat alongside a wider executive restructuring and preceded the closure of the global mainline menswear operation in 2019. Clayton’s period is therefore a short but distinct chapter between Trotter’s expansionary mandate and the co-creative direction of Anna Lundbäck Dyhr and Frederik Dyhr.
Design ethos
Clayton’s Joseph remit was broad, covering both women’s and men’s collections from the Paris atelier at a point when the company was reassessing the scale and structure of its fashion offer. Her role inherited a house language based on luxury essentials, tailoring and knitwear and carried responsibility for a complete seasonal wardrobe across the two main clothing categories.
The brevity of the tenure supports a narrow reading of Clayton’s authorship and avoids assigning her a long-term house code. Her importance at Joseph lies in maintaining authored creative direction through the immediate post-Trotter transition and handing a coherent studio to the internal team that followed in 2020.
Disclaimer
Career history
2018
Susana Clayton began as Creative Director on 1 October 2018, succeeding Louise Trotter and taking responsibility for womenswear and menswear from the Paris atelier. Autumn/Winter 2019 was her debut season; her tenure ended before the Dyhrs’ appointment in October 2020.
You’re in
When the archive opens, you’ll be among the first to know.
That’s all.
