Fear of God drops CEO role as Bastien Daguzan exits after brief tenure

Fear of God just made its clearest power move yet: the brand removed the CEO role from its organizational structure, and Bastien Daguzan is out after less than two years in the job. This is not a routine executive reshuffle. It is Jerry Lorenzo tightening his grip on a label that has grown from a cult Los Angeles streetwear proposition into a full luxury business with womenswear, premium accessories, Essentials and Athletics.

The company told WWD it had “made the decision to remove the office of the CEO from its organizational structure,” which reads like a founder pulling the decision-making back to center. Daguzan had been brought in as chief executive officer in September 2024, effective immediately, with Lorenzo saying he was excited to have him lead the brand’s “new chapter.” That chapter closed fast. Daguzan came to Fear of God from Jacquemus, where he had been CEO, after earlier management roles at Kris Van Assche, Lemaire and Puig’s Rabanne. Jacquemus later named a new CEO after Daguzan left, while Simon Porte Jacquemus had been doing double duty as creative director and CEO.

For Fear of God, the stakes are bigger than one exit. Lorenzo has built the label on a very specific kind of American luxury: boxy tailoring, elongated proportions, neutral palettes, and the kind of elevated sportswear that made Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar and the late Virgil Abloh part of the brand’s orbit early on. Removing the CEO layer suggests Lorenzo wants a faster, cleaner operating model as the company keeps scaling across categories that can easily get messy if the creative message gets diluted.

That matters because Fear of God is no longer just the brand that reshaped men’s wardrobes with oversized sweats and crisp layers. It is now a business with multiple lanes, and those lanes need discipline. Lorenzo’s standing in the industry only sharpens the signal. He received the CFDA’s fourth annual Innovation Award in 2025 coverage, a reminder that he is not just another designer with hype, but one of modern American fashion’s defining operators. Daguzan’s exit had no public comment attached to it, which only makes the move feel more final. Fear of God is betting that the cleanest way to protect its next phase is to put the founder, not a CEO, at the top of the pyramid.