John Targon

Born in Chicago and raised in Las Vegas, Targon moved to New York in 2002 where he studied at Parsons School of Design and graduated with a BBA. He started his career as an intern at a luxury footwear start-up. This enlisted his entrepreneurial spirit and provided exposure to all aspects of running a new business. With no sales background, and in just 3 months, he grew the distribution from 0 to 30 stores. Word traveled, Prada recruited him to manage their men's footwear business before graduating. Benchmarks in his career include the double-digit growth of the men's and women's wholesale business at Givenchy and the turn around strategy for Celine. It was there that he managed both wholesale and retail, including the closure and re-launch of all distribution channels and flagship boutiques. At Burberry, he was instrumental in the brand's repositioning, developing strategy and overseeing the men's division, a $250 million dollar business he lead. Targon has strong leadership skills and inspires his team to work towards the goals and targets ahead of them with passion. Targon is the co-founder and creative director of Baja East. Baja East is a globally inspired luxury brand based in New York city, established in October, 2013 by Scott Studenberg and John Targon. Embodying a "go anywhere" attitude, the duo combines west coast laid-back cool with a city street edge in pieces that are as elegant as they are effortless, pioneering a new kind of fashion and lifestyle concept they call "loose luxury." The brand built a name for itself effortlessly blurring the lines between men's and women's with its core concept of ambisexual dressing that continues to thrive. Over the course of 12 seasons they have developed new layers of red-carpet-ready to off-duty dressing, specifically targeted to women.