Cunningham New Chaps President

NEW YORK – David Cunningham has joined The Warnaco Group Inc. as president its Chaps division. He will oversee all aspects of design, development, merchandising, marketing and sales for Chaps in North America and report to Frank Tworecke, president of Warnaco’s sportswear group.

Cunningham comes to Chaps from Paul Davril Inc. (PDI), where he served as group president for the Kenneth Cole men’s and women’s brands and Ecko Red. Kenneth Cole recently terminated its license with PDI for the Kenneth Cole New York brand, although its Kenneth Cole Reaction men’s wear license was extended by a year.

Prior to PDI, he was senior vice president of the apparel division of Timberland and senior vice president of Tommy Hilfiger Jeans.

Chaps has been in the midst of a successful transition to the mid-tier retail channel, which has already been marked by the separation of the brand from the Ralph Lauren name with which it was originally associated. It continues to be licensed by Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.

Warnaco didn’t identify Cunningham’s predecessor and Warnaco officials weren’t available for comment after the announcement was made on Monday evening. However, it is understood that Cunningham succeeds Kevin Mahoney. While never identified by Warnaco, sources said that Mahoney was one of three Chaps division officials who had been dismissed by or left the firm in August when Warnaco said it was restating some 2005 results due to accounting errors related to vendor allowances at Chaps.