Paris:
Awkward! Chanel held its haute couture show on Tuesday, just three weeks after the sudden departure of creative director Virginie Viard, who had been with the brand for nearly 30 years.
Mr. Viard worked alongside the legendary Karl Lagerfeld for many years before taking over the reins after the latter’s death in 2019.
She achieved record sales of nearly $20 billion last year.
But a crisis had been brewing for months, including skeptical pouts in the front row and tweets that her show was becoming repetitive, leading to her being randomly ejected in early June. It became.
Viard, 62, didn’t even get a swansong on Tuesday.
The show notes didn’t mention her, but said the latest collection was created by 150 artisans in a workshop on Rue Cambon.
It was a typically sophisticated and theatrical collection, staged at the Opéra Garnier and featuring medieval capes, puff-sleeved evening dresses, matador outfits, and velvet tuxedos alongside the house’s classic tweeds, Lagerfeld A little wind vinyl was added.
Mr. Viard’s tenure seemed doomed in May, when his mid-season “Cruise” show in Marseille failed to impress fans, unaffected by unseasonably cold weather on the Côte d’Azur.
A month later, her departure was announced in a less-than-elegant manner, revealed to professional reporters in the middle of the night.
“Replacing one of the greatest and most beloved designers at the world’s biggest brand was literally an impossible task,” Paris-based designer Lutz Huell told AFP. .
A modest presence
Although Ms. Viard’s appointment was seen as a temporary appointment at the time, she became only the third creative director in Chanel’s 114-year history, following Mr. Lagerfeld and its founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel. It was nothing more than
Always dressed simply in a T-shirt and black pants, she is far more subdued than the famously provocative Kaiser, and her shows are less glamorous than Lagerfeld’s extravagant shows. Ta.
Although critics sometimes derided her cuts, buyers still flocked to Chanel stores, and ready-to-wear sales rose 23 percent during Viard’s tenure.
“This highlighted the fact that a brand is much stronger than an individual designer,” Business of Fashion magazine wrote.
The fashion world is now turning to its favorite pastime: speculating about who will make it.
Hedi Slimane (Celine), Sarah Burton, Marine Serres and Simon Porte Jacquemus are considered possible successors.
Dita Von Teese
No discretion was offered at another show on Tuesday, as France’s Alexis Mabille invited fans to drink champagne at the burlesque home of Lido 2 Paris.
It was a classic gala soiree wardrobe: sophisticated evening dresses with lots of sequins and flowing gold and silver. Some models had champagne glasses hanging from strings, like handbags.
And it culminated with striptease queen Dita Von Teese emerging from the ground in a giant champagne glass.
“The idea was to have a good time, have fun and forget for a while about everything going on around us,” Mabille told AFP after the show.
Also in the audience was actor Jean-Christophe Bouvet, who plays the tormented couturier in the Netflix hit “Emily in Paris.”
“I watched about 50 shows over three years,” he told AFP, adding that they “gave me a lot of inspiration” for working on the series.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
