Chanel would start a bright new chapter with Blazy
Matthieu Blazy, the French-Belgian talent behind the surge in popularity of Bottega Veneta, has beaten out all rivals to clinch the top job in fashion: designer of Chanel and heir to Karl Lagerfeld. That’s what senior industry sources told Miss Tweed this week.
If confirmed as Chanel’s new creative director, which is expected to happen shortly, Blazy will infuse new life into the French powerhouse and help it recoup some of the relevance and fashion edge it has lost in recent years under the aegis of Lagerfeld’s former right hand, Virginie Viard, who stepped into the role after the maestro died in 2019, on the cusp of the pandemic.
The appointment of Blazy, who’s been creative director of Bottega Veneta since 2021, should be announced mid-December, several industry sources said. “I understand the contract has already been signed,” one senior industry source said. “Chanel’s new designer is young, French and is running something smaller,” a person close to Chanel told Miss Tweed, all but confirming Blazy was the person the brand had chosen to lead its next creative chapter. WWD followed Miss Tweed on Friday also reporting Blazy had emerged as the top contender for the job.
Chanel and Kering, parent of Bottega Veneta, did not reply to requests for comment.
In 2019, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, who own Chanel together with their half-brother Charles Heilbronn, replaced the brand’s long-standing designer Karl Lagerfeld at his death with Viard. “It was an easy solution but really Chanel should have started looking for a proper replacement for Karl 15 years ago but they did nothing about it,” one veteran fashion CEO told Miss Tweed a few months ago. “Now the Wertheimers are in a difficult position because they have to find someone fast.”
After Viard left six months ago, following a disastrous show, Chanel and the Wertheimers finally were forced to move and things moved relatively quickly with Blazy, sources said.
Still, the timing of Blazy’s arrival at Chanel remains under wraps. It will be tough for Kering to see him go. Under his creative leadership, Bottega Veneta has become Kering’s best-performing label, not only in terms of sales growth but also in terms of fashion authority and news flow.
This week, Blazy presented in Venice the brand’s first fine jewelry collection, which includes huge 18-karat-gold teardrop earrings, a chain bracelet and a twig-inspired necklace – all produced in Vicenza, Italy’s fine jewelry-making capital, and the traditional manufacturing headquarters of Bottega Veneta.
Usually, a non-competition clause in his contract would prevent a designer from joining a competing house immediately. That said, Chanel could pay Kering a certain amount to compensate for poaching the French group’s most popular designer.
In any case, Blazy’s departure is a heavy blow to Kering, which is already weighed down by big sister brand Gucci’s turnaround. Blazy has been building out Bottega Veneta to make it a bigger brand counterweight to Gucci. It comes after Blazy launched Bottega’s first perfume collection in September. They are the first fragrances designed and produced in-house - small building blocks part of Kering’s ambition to build a beauty division from scratch. In the spring Bottega launched its first candle collection. During his three-year tenure at Bottega, Blazy has made the brand more closely associated with high craftsmanship, something Chanel values and appreciates.
Chanel is France’s champion of arts and crafts. It financially supports a wide range of training programs and schools and has invested in many companies with unique savoir faire in areas such as embroidery, lace, feathers, hats, shoes and gloves. Two years ago, President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte inaugurated Chanel’s 19M building, which regroups 700 artisans from 12 different specialized suppliers as well as the high-end swimwear provider Eres. The triangular building located on the periphery of Paris appears to have been woven in concrete threads. Designed by starchitect Rudy Ricciotti, it’s inspired by a vertical textile weft.
KERING
Kering is not as vertically integrated as Chanel. It relies on a wide network of different suppliers, many of them located in Italy. Bottega Veneta is the only fashion brand within the group that’s growing right now. In the three months to Sept. 30, its sales were up 5 percent, while those of Gucci and Saint Laurent were down 25 percent and 12 percent respectively. The group’s “other” division, which includes Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, saw revenue fall 14 percent. “It’s going to be hard for Kering to lose Blazy,” one person close to Kering said. “He really brought positive energy to the brand and to the group more generally.”
But if Blazy really does join Chanel, Kering will get credit for having spotted his talent and given him the means to express and deploy it successfully at Bottega Veneta.
Chanel interviewed many design stars for the job, industry sources say. Pieter Mulier at Alaïa, Marc Jacobs, Hedi Slimane and Simon Porte Jacquemus among them. None of these fitted the bill, they said. “Blazy is great for Chanel,” one industry source said. “Slimane would have broken Chanel and turned it into his own brand, Jacobs would have failed to bring something new and I know that with Pieter, it did not work out,” the source said.
Alaïa renewed Mulier’s contract last spring, a source with first-hand knowledge of the matter told Miss Tweed on condition of anonymity. Mulier, who was Blazy’s boyfriend until last year, is doing a great job at Alaïa and helping the brand’s sales continue to grow in spite of the downturn. Alaïa may be generating less than €100 million in annual sales, it is the strongest growing fashion brand at Swiss group Richemont, owner of Chloé and leather goods maker Delvaux.
Jacquemus has been remarkably open and candid about having been interviewed at Chanel, spreading himself the rumour that he could get the job, industry sources said. It looked like a tactic to make himself and his brand more desirable as he was beginning talks with potential investors to raise funds to finance his brand’s international expansion.
Citing industry sources, WWD said Bottega had already initiated a search for Blazy’s successor, “reaching out to second-in-command talents, as is the custom of brand parent Kering.”
YOUNG DESIGNER
Blazy is a smart choice for Chanel. He’s young for a top designer at just 40 years old. Karl Lagerfeld was designing until his death aged 85. Beyond his fashion design talent, Blazy has a lot of things to say more broadly about culture, which is crucial in our social media-driven age. It’s the right time for him to join Chanel. He has enough experience to be regarded as a safe pair of hands and many years of creativity ahead of him.
Matthieu Blazy’s world is light, witty and joyful - exactly what consumers need in these dark times. His latest collection presented in Milan in September was full of audacious, colorful and playful silhouettes. He has also produced original and refreshing ad campaigns that used nature as a backdrop.
Blazy’s ascent is an acknowledgment of the influence of the creative cauldron that is Belgium, home to great designers such as Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, who just left his brand. There is also Anthony Vaccarello, who is still at Saint Laurent and Raf Simon, who co-designer at Milanese powerhouse Prada with Miuccia Prada. And a new generation is rising, on which Miss Tweed reported in 2021, led by designers such as Mulier but also Ester Manas, Meryll Rogge, Tom Van der Borght and Jan-Jan Van Essche.
Blazy today lives between Antwerp and Milan. He is a graduate of La Cambre in Brussels. Blazy started his fashion career as men’s designer for Raf Simons, another habitue of Antwerp’s creative scene. Blazy then joined Maison Margiela, founded by Martin Margiela, to design the ‘Artisanal’ line and the women’s ready-to-wear show. In 2014, he became senior designer at Céline, before working again with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein from 2016 to 2019. He was appointed ready-to-wear design director at Bottega Veneta in 2021 but started showing his work only in 2022.