The hottest job in fashion has finally been filled. After six months without an artistic director, Chanel, the second largest luxury fashion brand in the world and the only couture house in the top three, has named a new designer: Matthieu Blazy. Most recently the man behind Bottega Veneta, Mr. Blazy will be in charge of all fashion, couture and accessories for Chanel, creating 10 collections a year. He will make his debut next October during the Paris shows.
The appointment represents the biggest change in what has been the most disruptive year in fashion in decades, with seven other fashion houses naming new designers. Aside from Mr. Blazy, there will be debuts in 2025 at Celine, Givenchy, Lanvin, Calvin Klein, Tom Ford, Alberta Ferretti, Dries Van Noten — and now, presumably, Bottega Veneta. Especially because it is clear that Mr. Blazy has been charged with sending Chanel, with its enormous reach and influence, in a new direction.
“We have a lot of confidence in Matthieu’s capacity to bring modernity and a different approach to Chanel,” Bruno Pavlovsky, Chanel’s president for fashion, said during a video interview.
“Matthieu has respect for the heritage but also a very specific design for ready-to-wear, for silhouettes, for bags, and we like it quite a lot. We want him to push, to test, to go where he feels is right. We don’t want to give the feeling that the brand is stuck.”
Chanel needs to be “pertinent,” Mr. Pavlovsky said. And Mr. Blazy, he said, “is a talent for tomorrow. For sure, he is a talent today, but he’ll be bigger tomorrow.”
Chanel, which reported revenues of almost $20 billion in 2023, is the rare luxury brand known for its clothing as well as its leather goods, fragrance and beauty lines, and is the only one of the top 10 fashion houses that remains in private hands. As such, it has powerful brand recognition and a semiology (camellias, pearls, bouclé, quilting, double C’s) that is practically synonymous with French chic. And without the need to offer quarterly public reports, it has the benefit of time to make change pay off — which makes the job as lead designer a luxury in itself.
