Okay, so the other day, I got this thought stuck in my head: who’s actually running the show at Chanel now, creatively speaking? You know, after Karl Lagerfeld passed. It just popped into my mind while I was having coffee.
So, I did what anyone does, I guess. Fired up my computer, opened a browser. Didn’t do anything fancy, just typed in something simple like “chanel creative director now”. Pretty straightforward.
Right away, the name Virginie Viard popped up everywhere. Seemed pretty clear she was the one. The search results were all pointing to her.
But just knowing the name wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to know who she is. You know, get a feel for the person behind the title. So I started digging a bit more. Changed my search terms. Looked for stuff like “Virginie Viard background”, “Virginie Viard career chanel”, “how long Virginie Viard work with Karl”.
Turns out, she’s not exactly new to the scene. Far from it. I found out she’d been working super closely with Karl for, like, decades. Seriously, a long time. Read somewhere she started as an intern way back when, worked on embroidery. Then she basically worked her way all the way up. She was his right-hand woman, the studio director. Basically ran the day-to-day operations of the creative studio for him.
Then I got curious about her style, her vision for Chanel. Is it just Karl 2.0 or something different? Started looking at pictures from recent Chanel shows since she took over. Tried to find articles talking about her collections, maybe comparing her approach to Karl’s. Just scanned headlines and read a few bits here and there.
My Take:
- From what I saw, her stuff feels maybe a bit softer? Perhaps more focused on being wearable day-to-day, less intensely theatrical than some of Karl’s massive runway productions.
- It’s still very Chanel, don’t get me wrong. The tweed, the pearls, the camellias, the classic codes are all there. You instantly know it’s Chanel.
- But maybe it feels a bit more… grounded? Less about the huge, over-the-top sets and more focused just on the clothes themselves. That’s the vibe I got, anyway.
So, what’s the takeaway?
Well, my little deep dive satisfied my curiosity for the afternoon. It wasn’t some random outsider they just parachuted in. It was someone deeply embedded in Chanel’s DNA, someone who learned directly from Karl for ages and knew the house inside out. Makes sense, really. It’s a way to keep the continuity going. It’s definitely interesting to watch how she’s steering the ship now, respecting the massive legacy but clearly adding her own, maybe quieter, touch. Just my observation from poking around online and looking at some pictures.
