Why Chanel Is Poaching Matthieu Blazy From Bottega Veneta

Chanel, arguably the most famous luxury fashion house in the world, has a new artistic director, marking its first major designer hire in 40 years. In the new year, Matthieu Blazy, 40, will join the French megabrand following his resignation from his role as creative director of Kering’s Bottega Veneta. He will present his first collection for Chanel sometime in the second half of 2025, the brand said.

Chanel has been searching for a new design head since Virginie Viard exited the business in June. Viard was the longtime studio manager at Chanel under Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s top designer from 1983 until his death in 2019. When Viard was chosen as his first successor, the promotion was seen as a logical choice in the spirit of continuity and stability at a fashion house known for its sense of caution and long-term vision. However, Viard’s tenure at Chanel after Lagerfeld’s death was widely regarded as underwhelming. “Viard’s work on the whole lacked surprise and innovation but above all authority,” wrote Cathy Horyn this summer.

The bar for design is especially high at Chanel, a privately owned brand with revenues of $20 billion built on the legacy of Coco Chanel’s groundbreaking designs, which first changed the silhouette of women’s fashion in the 1920s. When Lagerfeld arrived at Chanel in the early 1980s, the brand was respected but considered old-fashioned, on the verge of fading into irrelevance. He mined the house’s archives and reimagined them with a softer, youthful sensibility. Under his leadership, Chanel became a global juggernaut known for its interlocking C’s logos, bouclé jackets, theatrical runway shows everywhere from Dallas to the Grand Palais in Paris, and cinematic commercials directed by the likes of Baz Luhrmann and Martin Scorsese. Over the past decade, Chanel’s revenues have more than doubled, as have the prices of its signature quilted flap bags.

Blazy’s appointment has been an open secret in the fashion industry over the past month as news spread that he had emerged as the front-runner in the competitive field for a job so coveted Marc Jacob even went so far as to say publicly that he wanted it. Other rumored candidates included Simon Porte Jacquemus, Hedi Slimane, John Galliano, and Daniel Roseberry. Chanel was out headhunting just as many of its competitors were also looking for new talent during a turbulent time for the luxury fashion business. After several years of unusually high growth coming out of the pandemic, when luxury labels hiked their prices, many high-end brands are seeing sales slump.

At Bottega Veneta, Blazy proved he has the talent and mettle to lead a major luxury house after a career largely spent working behind the scenes for other influential designers, namely Phoebe Philo and Raf Simons. His 2024 collections marked a turning point for Cathy Horyn, who praised them for their new restraint and allure. “Blazy has made a fetish of craft, especially embellishments like thick fringe,” she wrote in February. (For another example, see his leather pants that look exactly like jeans.) But in toning down those craft techniques, Blazy’s newer collections have delivered a more clarified vision, full of “thoughtful touches” and “a sense of wonder,” that has established him as one of the best designers working today. Kering said Bottega saw record-breaking revenue in 2024 as the small brand defied the luxury slump dogging its corporate siblings.

Blazy’s Andiamo bag debuted in the spring 2023 collection.
Photo: Jeremy Moeller/Getty Images

A decade ago, we dubbed Blazy “the most famous designer you’ve never heard of.” Back then, the French-Belgian designer was only 30 years old and quietly leading design at Maison Martin Margiela. Blazy grew up in Paris and studied fashion in Brussels at La Cambre. Raf Simons hired him out of school at his namesake menswear label, and Blazy began a longtime friendship with Simons and his right-hand designer, Pieter Mulier, who became Blazy’s romantic partner. In 2014, Blazy left Margiela and joined Phoebe Philo’s Celine as a senior designer before reuniting with Simons and Mulier at Calvin Klein in New York in 2016. After Simons was fired in 2019, the three designers eventually came back to Europe: Simons joined Prada in 2020; Blazy joined Bottega Veneta, first as design director under then-creative director Daniel Lee the same year; and Mulier took over Alaïa in 2021. Throughout it all, Blazy has maintained a reputation as one of fashion’s nicest nice guys. (In 2023, after several years of long distance, he and Mulier said they broke up.)

At Bottega Veneta, an Italian brand known for its leather goods, craftsmanship, and intertwined bags, Blazy has focused on creating the kind of carefully crafted, highly desirable clothes that don’t always translate on social media. “When I took over the job, I sat with the team — designers, but also people at the company for 20 years — and asked ourselves a simple question: ‘What is Bottega?’” he told Vogue in 2022. “‘What is craft, and where does it sit in tradition? How can we bring modernity?’ We didn’t talk about shape. We didn’t talk about image. It was the feeling of the brand.”

Chanel’s president of fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky, told WWD that the brand had three finalists for the coveted artistic-director role. Blazy stood out because “he has a track record, a vision of Chanel, and a modernity that seduced us,” he said. Pavlovsky also pointed to Blazy’s hit handbag lines at Bottega. “The way he did such an exceptional job of reenergizing the product at Bottega Veneta, over a very short period of time, demonstrates that this is truly his signature.”

Blazy will be replaced at Bottega Veneta by British designer Louise Trotter, the creative director at Carven since early 2023. She will begin her new role in January, the company said.

A model wears leather jeans during Bottega Veneta’s fall 2022 runway show, Matthieu Blazy’s debut as creative director.
Photo: Swan Gallet/Penske Media via Getty Images

A look from Bottega Veneta’s fall 2024 collection.
Photo: Giovanni Giannoni/WWD via Getty Images

A look from Bottega Veneta’s spring 2024 collection.
Photo: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

A look from Bottega Veneta’s spring 2025 collection.
Photo: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images