Chanel à la mer: fashion house goes back to its boardwalk roots

IT FELT poignant for Virginie Viard, artistic director of Chanel since 2019 following Karl Lagerfeld's death, to look back to the origins of the house at a time when its provenance is front and centre of a cultural evaluation the V&A's blockbuster exhibition will close on Sunday, while Juliette Binoche is currently portraying Coco Chanel on the AppleTV+ show The New Look.

- Victoria Moss

More than a hundred years since it was founded, Chanel is one of the world's best-known brands. Its financial results remain in rude health; in 2022 the company reported revenues of $17.2 billion, up 17 per cent on the previous year.

This is in spite of, or perhaps because of, its steady increase in prices. Amy Odell recently reported in her Back Row newsletter that a medium classic flap bag has increased 104 per cent since 2019 to around an eye-watering $11,850.