It’s been a year full of sudden announcements and changes in the fashion industry. Kim Jones left Fendi, Pierpaolo Piccoli left Valentino, Hedi Sliman left Celine, and most shocking of all, Chanel parted ways with Virginie Viard after five years of her reign, leaving one of fashion’s highest ranking jobs vacant.
Without much detail, Chanel stated that “a new creative organization will be announced in due course. Chanel would like to thank Virginie Viard for her remarkable contribution to Chanel’s fashion, creativity and vitality.” Viard has been Lagerfeld’s right hand woman since the late ’80s, starting out as an intern at Chanel in 1987 and following him to Chloé, and then back to Chanel in 2000 to take charge of its ready-to-wear. She took over his Creative Director position when he passed in 2019. Lagerfeld had been with Chanel for 36 years compared to Viard’s five.
Since her first season taking charge, Viard’s vision of Chanel was not received well among the industry. Cathy Horyn, the Fashion Critic-at-Large for The Cut, wrote in her review of Chanel’s Cruise 2023 show that “the problem was the clothes.”
Season after season, Viard’s collections were met with more criticism. General consensus was that her clothes were boring, ill-fitting, and not up to par with Lagerfeld’s grand vision. Despite this, Chanel’s sales numbers increased year over year. In 2023, the Parisian house saw a 16-percent overall growth in sales—but this was partially driven by the brand’s record price increases as well as by consumers returning to pre-Covid shopping patterns.
Viard’s last collection for Chanel was Cruise ‘24/25. The following Fall ‘24 couture show was put together by the label’s collective design team, returning to its house codes: classic tweed suiting, femininity, and a generally more reserved tone than Viard’s attempt at inserting more casual youthfulness to the brand.
Chanel is taking its time to choose its next captain. Below are six designers who are either rumored for the role, or who we’d simply like to see fill it. We break down each of their track records and what we could expect them to bring to the maison, should they be elected.
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