A Look Back At Virginie Viard's Time At Chanel
The first woman at the helm of Chanel (after its eponymous founder) steps down after nearly 30 years with the French maison.
By now, most would have heard that the announcement yesterday that Virginie Viard has stepped down after five years as artistic director of Chanel's fashion collections. According to trade publication WWD, Viard, 62, first joined the French luxury house in 1987, as an intern. She eventually became an indispensable part of Karl Lagerfeld's design team, before being selected to be his successor when he passed in 2019.
"Chanel confirms the departure of Virginie Viard after a rich collaboration of five years as artistic director of fashion collections, during which she was able to renew the codes of the house while respecting the creative heritage of the brand, and almost thirty years within the house," reads a press statement from the house.
Virginie Viard posed on the runway during the Chanel Metiers d'Art 2019/2020 show at Le Grand Palais on December 4, 2019 in Paris, France
"Chanel would like to thank Virginie Viard for her remarkable contribution to the house's fashion, creativity and vitality."
While the house's next collection (couture Fall Winter 2024) will still take place as planned on June 25th at the Opera Garnier, and no successor has officially been named, here, we'd like to take a moment to look back at Viard's indelible contributions to Chanel.
As some have pointed out, while her tenure as artistic director was five years, Viard has been instrumental in shaping the house a lot longer; she is the woman Karl Lagerfeld called his "left and right hand" after all.
VIARD IS FAMOUSLY DOWN-TO-EARTH
The French designer prefers to stay out of the spotlight and rarely spoke publicly, but she granted FEMALE a rare interview in 2013, back when she was studio director at Chanel and the right-hand woman to Karl Lagerfeld.
At that point in time, when asked on the possibility of succeeding her mentor Lagerfeld, this is what she had to say: “Oh no, never. I don’t see myself doing that at all. I wouldn’t be capable of that and it’s not at all what I would want to do. I hate being in the spotlight. What I like about my job is being a duo with Karl, working with someone I love. If I weren’t doing this, I would rather do something completely different. I would never want to stay where I ended with him. I mean, maybe I would find another job at Chanel, but not doing what I am doing — not in creation.”
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SHE WAS THE FIRST FEMALE DESIGNER AT THE HELM OF CHANEL SINCE FOUNDER GABRIELLE CHANEL HERSELF
Viard admittedly had to step into the very large shoes left behind by Lagerfeld, but she's steadily woven in her own brand of magic at Chanel; one that's more measured and intuitive than what came before. "Virginie’s a woman creating clothes for fellow women – she knows what we want to wear and what she herself wants to wear. One should find her collections very feminine. Virginie has her own touch, but she also likes to play with the house codes. What I can say is that she has a very natural way of working," says Amanda Sanchez (pictured), the in-house fit model at Chanel for more than 20 years.
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VIARD ADDED A MORE YOUTHFUL, INSOUCIANT ENERGY TO CHANEL
We saw hints of it from Viard's debut solo collection at Chanel (that would be Cruise 2020, pictured here), where oversized bows splashed across poplin bandeau tops and flirty evening dresses were a prominent motif. FEMALE editor-in-chief Noelle Loh attended that historic show, in which she observed that Viard had added a certain breezy hipness to Chanel's classic tweed skirt suits and jackets.
"The former were shrunken and made more relaxed; while the latter boasted softer shoulders, Day-Glo shades and multiple pockets for a utilitarian edge, worn with metallic-print tights. If younger customers had previously not been compelled to own these signatures, your rendition would have likely changed their minds. To give all that modern elegance a carefree ease, every look was grounded by low, two-toned pointed pumps, booties or ballet flats. You complemented them with overnight duffels and versatile mini bags, including a “wallets-on-belt” style, in playful pop and ice cream colours. Just like that – for the first time in a good while – the word “cool” became a part of the Chanel vocabulary again."
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VIARD ADDED A MORE YOUTHFUL, INSOUCIANT ENERGY TO CHANEL: PART 2
If you need more evidence of Viard's contemporary eye, how about the Chanel 22 bag? The buttery hobo number debuted at the maison's Spring Summer 2022 show and was evidently made for the today's constantly moving consumers; a person who needs an effortlessly stylish bag that’ll actually fit the things that people carry around on a day-to-day basis. Case in point: see how these four Gen Z models (pictured) wear the Chanel 22.
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SHE'S BROUGHT EVEN MORE SPOTLIGHT TO FRANCE'S TIME-HONOURED CRAFTS
Metiers d’Art (French for “art professions”) is Chanel's annual collection where the unparalleled skill of traditional French ateliers (some of which date as far back as 1858) specialising in various crafts such as embroidery, shoe making and millinery, are highlighted. A quick history lesson: Chanel started purchasing these craft companies and suppliers starting in 1985 as a way to protect France’s artisanal specialists.
In 2021, Chanel unveiled Le19M, a nearly 270,000 square feet state-of-the-art-complex that became the headquarters to 11 of these ateliers. Le19M was undoubtedly a major project many years in the making, and Viard was the first artistic director to stage a show there (the Metiers d’Art 2021/2022 collection, pictured here). Metiers d’Art collections hold personal meaning for Viard; for the longest time, she was a liaison between the various ateliers responsible for Chanel’s collections and Karl Lagerfeld when the latter was the guardian of the French house.
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SHE'S HELPED TO EXPAND CHANEL'S REPTUATION AS A CULTURE POWERHOUSE
December 2022 saw Virginie showing the 2022/23 Metiers d’Art collection (pictured here) at Dakar, Senegal, and in doing so, Chanel became the first European luxury house to hold a fashion show in sub-Saharan Africa. But don’t mistake it for yet another of the industry's flashy destination show though: the brand has installed several initiatives in place in order to build an enduring and meaningful relationship with Senegal’s culture and artistic community.
This has likely plenty to do with Viard, who has leaned towards a more lateral and collaborative modus operandi since taking over the reins at Chanel in 2019. “Real dialogues nourished over the long term – it is this human and warm dimension that motivates my work and that I try to re-transcribe,” she states in the collection’s press notes. “I put all my soul into it. These marvellous encounters from which artistic adventures like this one are born – that’s what drives me.”
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SHE'S HELPED TO EXPAND CHANEL'S REPTUATION AS A CULTURE POWERHOUSE: PART 2
Chanel's most recent show was the jaunty Cruise 2024/2025 collection, shown at the French seaside city of Marseilles. Taken by the city’s seaside locale and gusty climate, artistic director Virginie Viard has also whipped up tweed jackets with removable hoods that draw reference to those worn by divers; a delightful rainbow-hued illustrated motif of fishes that makes a splash on breezy cotton dresses and separates; and sleeveless wetsuits with a pretty twist (a super cute one in particular is adorned with her signature bow along its hooded neckline), writes FEMALE editor-in-chief Noelle Loh, who attended the show.
Beyond the runway show, this Marseilles outing by Chanel also built on the existing ties between the French luxury maison and the coastal city, which date back to 1989 when Chanel staged the inaugural exhibition – shot by then-creative director Karl Lagerfeld – at the city's Maison Mode Mediterranee. The institution had been established to support local fashion professionals and emerging designers as well as run the fashion museum housed in Chateau Borely, which conserves around 200 looks from Chanel in its archives. Till today, the brand remains a partner.
Continuing this exchange in conjunction with Chanel’s Cruise 2024/2025 show is La Galerie du 19M Marseille, an ephemeral gallery spotlighting Marseillais artists that runs at Fort Saint-Jean, a seaside monument that’s one of the sites of Mucem (short for Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations), till May 26. Organised by Le19M – the Paris-based hub started by Chanel to house all of its metiers d’Art and preserve their craft and know-how – the exhibition marks its second out-of-home programme (the first was in Dakar) and features works created in collaboration with its ateliers (among them, the jeweller Goossens and the embroidery workshops Lesage and Montex) as well as independently.
The main idea here is two-prong: connect talents from lesser-known creative communities in the world with Le19M’s resources to expand their repertoire, and give them the visibility they deserve. After all, Chanel has long been a cultural custodian as much as it is a luxury powerhouse.
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