After a 30-year career, Virginie Viard leaves the artistic direction of Chanel

It’s official, Chanel is changing her mind. The house announced the departure of Virginia Viard, its artistic director for the past 5 years, to the magazine. Vogue Business , June 5: “Chanel confirms Virginie Viard’s departure after a rich five-year partnership as artistic director of the couture collections, during which she was able to update the house’s codes while respecting Chanel’s creative heritage, and almost thirty years within the house,” it said. in a home press release. Before thanking the French designer “for his remarkable contribution to fashion, creativity and the vitality of Chanel”, the brand noted that “the new creative organization will be announced in due course”.

Chanel’s legacy

So we do not know the name of the person who will replace Virginia Viard at this time, but we will always remember the name of her successor. In 2019, at the age of 57, he succeeded the timeless Karl Lagerfeld, who died on February 19, 2019. He then accepted the difficult task of taking over the helm of Chanel after Kaiser’s 36-year reign. For his first show at the head of the house, he chose to pay homage to Karl Lagerfeld, but also to Coco Chanel, putting their heritage at the heart of the wardrobe presented at the time. So we found house codes like black and white, tweed, nautical inspiration, Bert’s collar, camellia or two-tone shoes. A trouser suit silhouette with a white blouse and black bow, an outfit that could have been worn by the label’s former artistic director with two Cs, even made it onto the catwalk.

It must be said that if the years spent by Virginia Viard as artistic director at Chanel can be counted on the fingers, then in fact it is about life at Chanel. Because before taking the helm, he had already been working there since 1987, where he also collaborated with Kaiser. Then she engaged in needlework. After following Lagerfeld at Chloe from 1992 to 1997, they got back together and never left each other’s side.

While we wait to see who will replace Virginia Viard, the fall-winter 2024-2025 haute couture collection is on hold and will be presented as scheduled on June 25 at the Opéra Garnier.