While most of the world is slowing down in the run-up to Christmas, the fashion industry has decided to step on the gas one last time. After months of speculation, the long mystery surrounding one of the most coveted positions in the fashion industry was finally solved on Thursday evening.
Matthieu Blazy, as of yesterday the former creative director of the Italian fashion brand Bottega Veneta, will take on the role of creative director at Chanel. This revelation answers one of the fashion world’s most frequently discussed questions, but also raises new questions. What does his appointment mean for the industry and what can we expect from the French luxury house’s new wonder boy?
The fashion industry’s biggest challenge?
To say that the weight of the fashion world is now on Blazy’s shoulders would be an understatement. There are few positions in fashion that have proven so difficult to fill due to Karl Lagerfeld’s enduring legacy. Speculation about who might one day succeed Lagerfeld began long before his death, which marked the end of his lifelong contract with the French brand. Although Chanel quickly found a successor for him after his death in 2019 and handed over the reins to his right-hand woman Virginie Viard, her appointment did not stop the rumor mill from continuing to circulate new names. Especially not after her sudden resignation at the beginning of June.
For some, Blazy will seem like a surprising choice. After all, his name has only recently been thrown into the ring, while others – Hedi Slimane, Haider Ackermann and Simone Porte Jacquemus, to name a few – have often been cited as Lagerfeld’s preferred choice to succeed him. Not surprisingly, many saw the future written in the stars when Slimane left Celine just weeks after Viard’s departure from Chanel. whose work Lagerfeld supported and for which, as is well known, he even lost weight. On the other hand, at that time there were hardly any designers who were not associated with the house and were said to have at least applied for the position.
Viard’s quiet commercial success
While the numerous rumors and speculations of the last few weeks point to the industry’s hunger for change at Chanel, they are no guarantee that things will be easy for Blazy. It may indicate a desire for change at the French fashion brand after Viard faithfully continued in Lagerfeld’s line, although she sometimes lacked imagination and imagination, which in turn led to a lukewarm reception to the vast majority of her creations. However, it also raises expectations for what will follow. In the Chanel history books, Viard might be placed – probably unfairly – between two greats, as a placeholder until the world was ready to move on from its idea of Emperor Charles and what his Chanel had always been.
However, a much more important question that the industry sometimes forgets in all its excitement is that of commercial success. While the press may not have been enthusiastic about everything Viard has accomplished over the past five years, from a financial perspective it has undoubtedly set the house on the road to success. However, this could make a transition to a new creative vision more complicated than some might think at first glance.
The reviews may have been lukewarm, but the results were the exact opposite. In 2023, the French luxury company’s sales rose to 18.17 billion euros. Compared to the also record-breaking figures from the previous year, the increase based on constant exchange rates was 15.8 percent. In the past five years, in which Viard played a key role, Chanel has doubled its sales from 9.8 billion euros in the 2018 financial year.
A success story that the brand would like to build on, and so a big question remains unanswered: The fashion world may be ready for a realignment of the traditional brand, but are customers also interested in changes?
A steady hand for the ‘market leader in luxury’
The French brand does not seem to have any doubts that Blazy, who will join the company in 2025 and present his first collection for spring/summer 2026, can lead Chanel into an equally successful, if not even more successful future.
“His vision and talent will further strengthen the energy of the brand and our position as a leading luxury company,” said Alain Wertheimer, global executive chairman, and Leena Nair, global CEO of Chanel, in a joint statement on Thursday. “We are confident that Matthieu Blazy under the leadership of Bruno Pavlovsky [Anm. d. Red.: Präsident von Chanel Fashion und Chanel SA] will continue to shape the future and write a new page in the history of Chanel.”
The ambition to remain “the leader in luxury” comes at a time when luxury fashion is facing a downturn – a downturn that Blazy at Bottega Veneta 2024 was most recently able to defy. While other brands within parent company Kering are currently struggling to maintain momentum – Gucci’s sales fell 26 percent to 1.64 billion euros in the third quarter of the current fiscal year, and Yves Saint Laurent’s sales fell 13 percent 670 million euros – Bottega Veneta has proven resilient. The Italian luxury brand’s sales not only remained stable, but even increased, albeit only slightly by four percent to 397 million euros.
While Bottega Veneta’s numbers don’t quite compare to what Chanel will expect from Blazy, they do reflect the appeal of his vision to customers. Additionally, Blazy is no stranger to the challenge of taking a successful brand and driving it to even greater heights. When he took over the creative role at Bottega Veneta, the brand was undergoing a remarkable turnaround, initiated by its former creative director Daniel Lee, who unexpectedly left in November 2021.
What could have been the end of the Italian brand’s rejuvenation instead became the beginning of a new chapter under Blazy’s leadership. After joining the house as design director a year earlier, he was entrusted with continuing the positive development. While Lee moved to Burberry and sought to replicate the transformative magic he had brought to Bottega Veneta, few could have predicted that it would be Blazy who would soon take the spotlight and be the talk of the town.
How much of Blazy’s signature will reappear on the Chanel runway?
It will take some time to gauge how much of the Italian brand’s Blazy-infused style will resurface on the Chanel runway. However, the uncertainty gives the industry ample opportunity to indulge in its favorite pastime: speculating.
Will the world see leather-crafted tweed reminiscent of Blazy’s first Bottega collection for fall 2020? In this collection, trompe l’oeil jeans and a white tank top, both made of leather, fooled the fashion world and sparked a frenzy over the quiet but groundbreaking reinterpretation of the everyday. Will the designer continue to find wonder in the most mundane, romanticize the simple and invite the industry to join him on a journey that transforms even the most ordinary moments – and garments – into something the world craves?
If so, he will likely do so by taking traditional craftsmanship into new and unexpected areas, much as he did at Bottega Veneta. His often whimsical designs have never alienated those seeking a sophisticated, streamlined aesthetic. Instead, he delivered garments that, upon closer inspection, revealed extraordinary attention to texture and form.
This approach could serve him extremely well at Chanel, where texture is embodied by tweed, and shape has long become synonymous with the jacket-skirt combination that has characterized the brand for generations. Although both elements have always been associated with Chanel, they could benefit from a modern, fashion-conscious reinterpretation.
Additionally, the fashion house’s calendar of six runway shows per year, spanning both ready-to-wear and haute couture, offers Blazy the opportunity to reinterpret the art of haute couture. He previously explored this area during his time at Maison Margiela, where he worked on the brand’s Artisanal line and honed his talent for craftsmanship and innovation.
Whatever Blazy does with Chanel, his appointment has already given the iconic French brand a breath of fresh air and new energy. Now all that remains is to see whether he can meet – and perhaps even exceed – the immense expectations that the industry has of him and his vision.