A New Dawn

As the first woman at the helm since its founder, Gabrielle Chanel, creative director Virginie Viard sets a tone of ease with her debut solo runway, cruise ’20

- Andrea Sim

Last May, outside a large cruise ship and within Chanel’s stomping grounds, the Grand Palais in Paris, was where most would’ve gotten their first glimpse of Virginie Viard. The brunette was right beside Karl Lagerfeld on the steps of the brand’s custom vessel during the finale of its Cruise ’19 runway, flanked by models kitted in the Kaiser’s seafaring best. At SS’19, Viard took another bow. And another at couture Spring ’19, albeit alone.

In recent years that the now late Lagerfeld’s age and declining health became increasingly apparent, it sparked rumours on the grapevine as to who his successor would be. There were industry whispers about Hedi Slimane during his recess post-Saint Laurent and pre-Celine, who seemed like a probable candidate given that Lagerfeld held his work for Dior Homme in high regard; the latter went on a diet to fit into the razor-thin silhouettes Slimane popularised.

But it is Viard — having spent over 30 years working with the man, beginning with an internship at Chanel in 1987, and whom he often refers to as his left and right hands — who knows the soul of the over a century-old house better than any of the living. After all, her role prior as the director of Chanel’s Fashion Creation studio was to essentially bring Lagerfeld’s vision to life. With the spotlight increasingly trained on her the year before his passing, her appointment to manage the house was a little less surprising. Though not any less monumental: Chanel is under female leadership for the first time since Gabrielle Chanel herself, with Viard joining the likes of women designers at the helm of legacy names such as Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller.