Andrea Grilli, former CEO of Off-White and Pharrell’s skincare brand Humanrace, has joined Los Angeles-based Gallery Dept. to take on the same role. The seasoned executive will work alongside founder Josué Thomas to expand the brand’s practice of what Grilli calls “cultural clothing” into international markets while also growing its US business.
“What we can do here is endless,” Grilli said this weekend during Gallery Dept.’s Fall/Winter 2026 presentation in Paris.
Grilli brings extensive experience in cultivating growth at founder-led fashion businesses. He joined Off-White shortly after its founding in 2013, holding a series of senior roles before becoming CEO in 2019, not long after Farfetch paid $675 million to acquire its licensee, New Guards Group. He departed in 2023, around 18 months after the death of founder Virgil Abloh. Grilli was appointed in 2024 by Pharrell Williams as CEO of his beauty and skincare brand Humanrace and exited the company last November.
Gallery Dept. was founded in 2016 by Thomas, now 41, as a vehicle to combine his interests in painting and fashion. Early work centered on reworking vintage garments for made-to-order clients, layering them with paint and other decorative interventions. The brand grew from a studio-gallery-store hybrid space on Beverly Boulevard, serving as a single site of conception, production, display, and sale.
Gallery Dept. now counts more than 60 wholesale accounts globally. However, the majority of its revenue is generated in the US through direct-to-consumer sales, both online and through its own stores. Thomas has also pursued multiple successful collaborations with brands such as Vans and Chrome Hearts.
The brand’s Paris presentation was staged above a public-facing exhibition and retail space that hosted listening parties and a bar. It took place across three floors of a prime site on the corner of Rue de Castiglione and Rue du Mont Thabor, until recently, the Paris flagship of Off-White. “I knew the landlord,” Grilli explained.
Abloh was himself a client of Gallery Dept. and, in 2020, told The New York Times: “I see Josué as making a new canon of his own, showcasing what Black design can do.” Discussing a Thomas-designed silhouette named the LA Flare, crafted from deadstock Levi’s and Carhartt, Abloh described it as “the most important new cut of denim in the last decade since the skinny jean.”
Grilli said he and Thomas were first introduced in 2023 by Miami Design District’s co-owner Craig Robins, and remained in touch as friends. “Josué is a super creative artist, but he’s very pragmatic when he talks about business,” Grilli said. “He produces clothes, music, painting, craft… I don’t know if this is even fashion. It’s cultural clothing.”
Thomas added, “What’s important is to understand our meaning and our purpose. And it’s an interesting moment, because the old ways seem to have hit a wall. So while I can’t say what route is next, I hope that what we are writing together will be something a little different.”
