Words by Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo are getting a new boss from the beauty business. Capri Holdings said Wednesday that Justin Boxford, a longtime Estée Lauder Companies executive, will become chief executive on Jan. 4, 2027, succeeding John D. Idol, who has run the company since 2003.
Idol is retiring as chairman and CEO and will stay on as a senior adviser through March 31, Capri said in its announcement. Robin Freestone, the board’s lead director, becomes independent chairman. Boxford will also join the board.
Who Boxford is
Boxford joined Estée Lauder in 2004 and most recently served as global president of its luxury beauty brands. Before that he was global brand president of Estée Lauder and Aerin Beauty, and he spent five years running La Mer, where Capri says he more than doubled the skincare brand’s size. He also held senior roles in Hong Kong, overseeing the Estée Lauder brand across China and Asia Pacific and expanding Tom Ford Beauty in the region, and earlier worked at LVMH, Unilever and L’Oréal.
He has a history with one of Capri’s labels already. Part of his travel retail and marketing work at Estée Lauder covered Michael Kors fragrances, which the beauty company makes under license. Idol said in the release that he worked with Boxford when Boxford “helped build the Michael Kors fragrance business.”
“Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo are iconic luxury houses, with distinct identities and tremendous potential,” Boxford said.
A company trying to grow again
Boxford takes over a group that has spent the last two years shrinking and reworking. Capri sold Versace last year for $1.4 billion, after its planned $8.5 billion merger with Coach owner Tapestry fell apart in 2024, Reuters reported via The Business of Fashion. Demand for Michael Kors handbags has been uneven as shoppers pull back on accessible luxury.
Last month the company raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts and said it expects sales to return to growth. Idol said in Wednesday’s release that Capri is “on the path to return to growth in the fourth quarter,” and called it the right time to hand over.
Investors were not fully sold. Capri’s shares fell about 3% in early trading Wednesday, Reuters reported. Morningstar analyst David Swartz said the company was in better shape than two years ago and called a new CEO “a positive move.” An eMarketer analyst pointed to Boxford’s time in Asia, which made up nearly 13% of Capri’s revenue in fiscal 2026, as a possible advantage.
Beauty to fashion
Boxford comes from beauty rather than fashion, and Capri’s pitch for him rests on brand turnarounds. The company credits him with restoring growth at the Estée Lauder brand, returning it to prestige fragrance with the Glimmer launch and moving it into new sales channels. Freestone said the board expects him to build on “the strengths of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo.”
Idol’s tenure covered nearly the whole modern life of the company. The company went public in December 2011, and under Idol it built Michael Kors into a multibillion-dollar brand, bought Jimmy Choo in 2017 and later added, then sold, Versace. The company’s earlier succession plan, which named insider Joshua Schulman as Idol’s successor in 2021, ended when Schulman left in 2022.
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