Catherine Morrissey Takes Over as CEO of White & Warren

White & Warren has named Catherine Morrissey chief executive officer, handing day-to-day control of the New York cashmere brand from its cofounder Susan White Morrissey to her daughter after eight years as president.

The founder is not exiting fully. White Morrissey remains co-owner and an adviser, but she steps back from operations as Morrissey accelerates a channel shift that has already remade the company's revenue base.

What does the numbers say about the business?

The most concrete shift is channel mix. E-commerce now accounts for roughly 55 percent of the business, with wholesale at the remainder — a reversal from a 78-28 split favoring wholesale a decade ago. Morrissey said e-commerce has grown about two-and-a-half times since 2018, when she became president and made digital her first priority.

"I evolved the business from what was really a wholesale business into an omnichannel business," she said. The company also converted a more-seasonal cashmere cycle into a year-round business.

For sourcing and merchandising teams, the strategy matters: growing both channels in tandem is her stated position. "They work hand-in-hand and it's really hard to grow one without the other," she said. "But both have to grow in tandem."

Which categories are carrying growth?

Category expansion is doing measurable work:

• Knit outerwear, launched last year, already contributes about 15 percent of e-commerce sales.
• An athleisure capsule introduced earlier this year has reached 15 percent of direct-to-consumer (DTC, the brand's own e-commerce channel) business.
• Menswear launched last month; 20 percent of sales so far have gone to men.

Morrissey set expectations low for the men's launch. "I'm not looking for quick wins with the men's business," she said. "That's something that is going to grow over time." Woven outerwear is the next planned category move.

Why did she join in the first place?

Morrissey was working in design and merchandising at Calvin Klein in 2010 when her father, Kevin Morrissey, a Macy's menswear executive, died suddenly. Barbara Warren, the other cofounder, exited the business that same year. "It was not until that point that this had been a consideration for me at all," she recalled. "But I saw that my mom needed me on some level in the business."

She joined on the argument that the brand needed a merchant, and spent years building breadth: design, creative, development, production, buying and planning. An email she sent her mother in 2016, uncovered recently, already signaled her ambition to run the company.

Under her tenure the brand also rebranded from White + Warren to White & Warren and updated its digital platform.

What changes and what doesn't?

Morrissey's stated vision is to build White & Warren into a leading luxury knitwear brand rooted in New York, with cashmere remaining central while the customer base broadens. "Cashmere will always be central to who we are," she said, "but as we continue to grow and expand this business, [we'll work to bring along] our core customers who have been with us from the start and continuing to broaden our reach to attract more customers."

Her mother's continued ownership removes any succession-sale speculation. "She's going to be my mom forever and will be an adviser to me, and she will always be co-owner of this business, so that won't change," Morrissey said.

The company disclosed no revenue figures, headcount or margin data alongside the transition — a gap trade readers will note. With menswear, wovens and athleisure all in early innings, the test of the new CEO's tenure will be whether category momentum can sustain growth across both channels without diluting the cashmere positioning the brand was built on in 1997.