After six months, and endless weeks of speculation, the vacant chair at the head of Chanel’s fashion shows has been filled: Matthieu Blazy has been named the new creative director of all ten Chanel’s collections, from Haute Couture to accessories, debuting next October in Paris. To accept the role, he announced this morning his resignation as Bottega Veneta’s creative director—with a bouquet of his iconic crocheted flowers. His place at the Italian brand has been promptly occupied by Louise Trotter, who officially will begin working at Bottega Veneta starting at the end of January.
Chanel needs a refresh. After Karl Lagerfeld’s leadership and death in 2019, the brand has weakened under Virginie Viard, “the Kaiser’s” right-hand person, while maintaining sales of nearly $20 billion in 2023. “We have a lot of confidence in Matthieu’s capacity to bring modernity and a different approach to Chanel,” the company’s president for fashion Bruno Pavlovsky, said during a video interview in the New York Times. “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.”
Blazy has a stellar resume. His career began with Raf Simons in 2007. Then, in 2011 he became designer at Maison Margiela, joined Phoebe Philo at Céline in November 2023, and finally became creative director of Bottega Veneta in 2021, after reuniting with Raf Simons for a time at Calvin Klein.
The year 2024, which is not yet over, has been an earth-shaking one for fashion houses. Seven other brands have changed creative directors: at Céline Michael Rider will replace Hedi Slimane as of 2025; Givenchy appointed Sarah Burton after Matthew Williams stepped down in early January; from June, Lanvin will have Peter Copping at the helm; after four years under Jessica Lomax, Calvin Klein chose Veronica Leoni; Tom Ford, Alberta Ferretti, and Dries Van Noten left the creative directorships of their namesake brands to Haider Ackermann, Lorenzo Serafini (former head designer for Philosophy), and Julian Klausner, respectively.
