Dior taps Fendi's fountain of youth in bid for future of luxury

Paris

AT luxury house Fendi, Pietro Beccari made Kendall Jenner walk on water. His next assignment: to make Christian Dior fly again.

Mr Beccari, chief executive officer of the Italian fur-and-leather purveyor, has been tapped by parent LVMH to take over leadership of Christian Dior Couture in early 2018.

Over the past five years, he's moved Fendi to the forefront of luxury branding, offering customers a full-immersion experience ranging from eye-popping stores and a whimsical e-commerce site to a boutique hotel and VIP suite in the Roman palazzo that houses its flagship store.

The Fendi chief also cemented the brand's ties to Rome, sponsoring art exhibits and cultural restoration projects and staging a runway show last year in which Jenner and other models traverse…