Chanel creative director departs

Chanel's 2023 sales increased with double-digit growth in each region, marking $19.7 billion, up 16% from 2022 at constant currency. Over these dozen months, Chanel's operating profit increased 10.9% to $6.4 billion.

The company's artistic director of fashion collections left as of June 5, 2024, ending a five year stint at the helm and 30 years with the brand. Virginie Viard's presentations garnered mostly confusion and derision from fashion critics. I have noted the kitchy motifs, dowdy fit, and questionable styling. Viard never transcended her repeated choice of white tights on the runway; it never got bad enough to redeem itself.

The house issued a self-congratulatory, anodyne statement, saying “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 Chanel, and almost 30 years within the house."

It maintained a cordial stance, "Chanel would like to thank Virginie Viard for her remarkable contribution to Chanel’s fashion, creativity and vitality.”

“A new creative organisation will be announced in due course,” Chanel added, and I'm reading that to mean the exit was not planned, especially given that the next couture presentation is about three weeks away. Perhaps contract renewal negotiations went as well as walking into a boutique without an appointment.

In the last few years, chatter about Chanel has been focused on price increases, quality decreases, and the dearth of stock. People have been clamoring for the Classic Flap and paying for defective bags with more and more money. The medium Classic Flap was $4,900 in 2014, and it's nearly double today: $10,800.