Chanel Cruise 2025 Marseille

[LadyJunon]

The best part about this show is seeing Daniel Roseberry liking posts throwing shade on Chanel:

 

[Nimsay]

So Chanel is doing the same financial sleight of hand as Gucci… any time a company starts messing w revenues and projections that DOES mean theyre down bad.

Gucci said they were doing amazing bc revenues were up. Thats bc they were selling things like hoodies with huge margins. Now look at Gucci. I mean I saw that coming years ago bc I know what companies - companies with sales divisions - do to cook the books.

Valuation sort of means nothing. If i mis bill a client overcharging them then that warps my valuation. A 3500 mischarge can be somewhere in the millions after companies do their manipulations to get their “valuation”.

 

[PDFSD]

^^^ I wonder how much of that profit is based purely from price increases. The prices of the bags have basically doubled, and even tripled in the post-Karl period, which could artificially inflate those figures too. Ditto the RTW.

We always talk about profit in terms of $$ but it would interesting to see the break down of actual units sold and categories sold.

These financial reports are often nothing more than good PR for these brands looking to get more investors, lets be real...

To be real Chanel is privately owned they don't need investors.
Last Bloomberg interview CEO mentioned 23% (if i remember well )are new clients/ first time buyers, if thats year on year basis this works well in favour of higher sales regardless of price increases.

be fair all brands have clients with questionable taste in regards to style, name one brand where clients dress all well or are the hope of taste

mindless of customers is at least 75 % of the world consuming population look around the waste of leftover sold or unsold junk that is left expensive or not let's get of the high horse guys!!

 

[Street_a_Licious]

It's crazy (actually not) the amount of negativity this collection has gathered from social media. Not many times people are so united and so loud about a show. I wonder if this has any impact on the HQs at Chanel. I guess a little bit for sure. I've been at brands that celebrate the hype from press and social media with a Teams meeting, so maybe they don't go as far as doing a Teams but somehow they will address it on some levels and departments...

I got a feeling that no one from their teams really pays attention to what is said about them on social media…

 

[yslforever]

^^^ I wonder how much of that profit is based purely from price increases. The prices of the bags have basically doubled, and even tripled in the post-Karl period, which could artificially inflate those figures too. Ditto the RTW.

We always talk about profit in terms of $$ but it would interesting to see the break down of actual units sold and categories sold.

These financial reports are often nothing more than good PR for these brands looking to get more investors, lets be real...

I have heard it's the case in hand, they aren't selling more pieces... they have trouble selling that $12,000 Flap bag.

 

[Alquimista]

Take a look at the comments. It's over for VV.

 

[Urban Stylin]

I did actually like the idea of denim stitching in the Chanel logo. The collection was somewhat tolerable in motion with the windblown hair but in pictures it does unfortunately look dead. I didn't mind that 1960s mod vibe with the flat shoes but the sandals look extremely cheap like what tourists buy for one day usage at the beach. She probably wont be going anywhere though because she knows where the money is, separates. Those insta influencers and KPop stars are going to be wearing those tweed hooded jackets with their denim and expensive shoes. I think the presentation always adds that frumpy factor but some of her pieces translate well in the real world and in editorials. I love the brutalist setting hopefully they'll have a campaign shoot in that set up.
In backstage shots where the models are more relaxed and less severe the clothes look less frumpy and more modern. Her biggest issue is how she presents the collections and styling.

vogue/nl

 

[Alquimista]

^^^^^ I find so funny how there is no rhyme or reason between those pieces. It's just a incoherent group of clothes that don't communicate anything - individually or in group.

 

[Nimsay]

yes 12k for machine made middling quality is staggering. Chanel is trying to sell less though to make sure they have supply for when their vip clients need it.

Those clothes look actually quite fabulous and desirable. That grey car coat, the beige knit set. I see Largerfeld-isms: that waist coat and shorts with the stitching lining up is couture detailing. Karl loved making his stitches line up. Still some atrocious computer made Chanel prints and the holey knits are very Ms Roper.

 

[PDFSD]

Take a look at the comments. It's over for VV.

lets say all 444 comments where negative still 33,196 likes so what does it mean in the end ? 🔮 🙈🙉🙊

 

[PDFSD]

I have heard it's the case in hand, they aren't selling more pieces... they have trouble selling that $12,000 Flap bag.

get ready to cry :-) ....wait till end of May for new annual results of 2023 “a third exceptional year in a row since the lifting of the pandemic.”

May 3, 2024
us.fashionnetwork.com

Chanel traditionally releases its annual results at the end of May, which Pavlovsky predicts will show that the house has enjoyed “a third exceptional year in a row since the lifting of the pandemic.”

In 2022, Chanel scored a 17% increase in annual sales to €17.2 billion, and grew operating profit by 6% to €5.8 billion. In a word, when it comes to luxury fashion, Chanel is the most successful brand in the world, ever. Period.

That said, Pavlovsky is cautious about the near future, arguing that the luxury industry has just “ended a cycle and is about to enter a new period where there will be growth but in a far more complicated market.”

“We see that the economy is trickier. Since 2023 other brands have had problems. Luxury is losing a certain clientele -- the comfortably off middle class -- who come into boutiques occasionally to buy a bag. Now, they are more careful and maybe instead of a bag they take a vacation. Inflation also doesn’t help. Purchasing power is still not great. Yes, Chanel today is very strong. So, it’s normal that things slow down,” he reasons.

Asked about social commentary on Chanel raising its prices, Pavlovsky is diplomatic. The house upped the price of its largest classic matelassé flap bag by some 6% to nearly €10,000. The latest of multiple price rises in the past half decade.

“It’s normal that people react. But the important point is when people talk about raising prices – it’s our bag. The rise in prices in Chanel fashion and accessories -- and we create eight collections a year -- is not that strong.

 

[Caffeine]

1. Fiscal stimulus works
2. Chanel, along with Prada and other brands are now buying Fifth Avenue prime retail properties. This only means that the windfall money has nowhere to go but to park with real assets - instead of re-investing in the business.
3. If you had told me that the collection was Zara I would have believed you 100%.

 

[Nimsay]

Mmm yes but its once in a lifetime prices in NYC real estate. Probably next year they will bottom out.

 

[Alquimista]

lets say all 444 comments where negative still 33,196 likes so what does it mean in the end ? 🔮 🙈🙉🙊

Yes we can't look at social media comments isolated from other factors, but still it's not a good sign

 

[fenty]

the hooded bathing suit.... virginie is a MENACE LMFAO

 

[LoveFashion25]

Karl was the magic Chanel needed after Coco Chanel passed away. In my opinion, 90s Chanel is my favorite and never be surpassable.

 

[Tchi]

"It's really La France". I'm deceased ☠️.

It's look like not even she is believing in anything that she just said. Marion girl blinks twice if you're being held hostage.

She isn’t the sharpest knife in the cupboard to be fair

 

[Tchi]

The best part about this show is seeing Daniel Roseberry liking posts throwing shade on Chanel:
View attachment 1267870

Cringe

 

[Olaffo]

Fashionistas scoff at Chanel’s cruise collection

The public display of hostility towards Chanel's cruise collection raises the question of whether Virginie Viard should leave the brand.

misstweed.com

Ooopsie

 

[PDFSD]

Fashionistas scoff at Chanel’s cruise collection
Astrid Wendlandt /MISSTWEED
05/05/24

What is going on at Chanel? The brand's cruise collection unveiled on Thursday on the roof of the Le Corbusier building La Cité Radieuse in Marseille in the south of France triggered a barrage of negative comments on social media never seen for such a major luxury brand. The public display of hostility makes more urgent the question of whether the time has come for Chanel to part ways with designer Virginie Viard and to consider who might replace her.


Chanel's last cruise collection was applauded by those fashion critics whose media outlets depend on the brand's advertising budgets. However, on its official Instagram account, on which anyone can write a comment, it was vehemently booed. Among the comments: "Horrible!"; "Awful, no concept;" "A catastrophe;" "A boring seen-it-all-before show;" "A collection from Zara;" "It makes me so sad;" "We really miss Karl."


One person even wrote: "If Chanel does not change its artistic direction, it's going to flounder. Before, Chanel was about joy. Now it's over." Another said: "Please get rid of her (referring to Viard). It's no longer possible to watch this." And someone asked: "When is Hedi Slimane arriving?"


The mighty Chanel has never been attacked in such a manner. However, there were clearly some issues with this cruise show. First, Marseille was not the right location for Chanel. The Phocaean city has many charms, but it is also known for its grubby and gangster-dominated neighborhoods. These hardly suit the glam and exclusive aura associated with Chanel. The aerial views of lines of concrete buildings, filmed by drones for the video that the brand showed about the cruise collection, evoked a vision of a third-rate suburb.


Viard tried to bring the brand down to earth to mingle with the plebs. That was a mistake. Chanel's DNA is about sophistication, refinement and craftsmanship. As many observers noted on the brand's Instagram account, Viard's predecessor Karl Lagerfeld - the designer who understood everything about luxury and turned Chanel one of the world's most desirable brands - would have never allowed this to happen.


About the clothes. Many outfits - not all of them - lacked the positive energy and timeless elegance expected from Chanel. There were lots of tangy green and yellow outfits that matched the dots of color adorning the Corbusier building, but that aesthetic connection looked odd and did not feel right for Chanel. Le Corbusier helped redefine collective living at a time of massive urbanization in France in the early 20th century. La Cité Radieuse in Marseille was one of his buildings aimed at democratizing comfort, something that until then was reserved for the elite.


Chanel is not about the masses. It is about the lucky few who can afford its wares and status symbols. How could Chanel's image directors fail to see that Le Corbusier was not right for the brand?


The collection featured several printed dresses and all-white silhouettes that were wearable, but nothing to brag about and, most important, they did not ooze luxury. There were a few cardigans in a perforated fabric, perhaps meant to recall a fishnet - Marseille is a major fishing port - but they looked like something grandmothers might


Not only did this collection lack sophistication, it lacked good ideas. One new element introduced was a grey hoodie attached to some tweed jackets. It produced a "trying too hard to be cool" effect and looked strange. When designer Pierpaolo Piccioli put hoodies on beautiful jackets for his last Haute Couture Valentino collection presented in January, it gave couture a modern twist. He lined the hoodie with tiny floating feathers that made them pass the chic test. Chanel's hoodies, on the other hand, looked like fashion heresy. Here, the brand flirted with streetwear but it is a style that is in decline, fashion critics say. Quiet luxury and effortless elegance are what luxury shoppers seek today. Streetwear works at Louis Vuitton menswear under designer Pharrell Williams who makes it legitimate. It does not work for Chanel, however.


Cruise collections, often presented in early May before the Cannes Film Festival, represent a way for major fashion brands such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Dior to create a buzz and generate traffic in stores. They usually show them in exotic locations to which they fly social media influencers, top clients and journalists. For years, they tried to outbid each other with the most spectacular, far-flung locations until it became "environmentally incorrect" in terms of carbon footprint to fly half way across the planet to see a fashion show.


TURBULENT TIMES


This major fashion faux pas is a sign that Chanel is going through turbulent times. Cracks are clearly starting to appear in the beautiful castle that is the storied French brand. In January, Miss Tweed reported that Chanel was in the grip of a revolution. Its Indian-born executive CEO Leena Nair, who had never worked in luxury before joining the brand two years ago, had ousted more than a dozen key executives and senior managers, shocking staff and industry partners. Even CFO Philippe Blondiaux was planning to leave in 2026. At the time, Chanel declined to comment and would not deny this on the record.


When Nair started as CEO in January 2022, many of Chanel's powerful bosses believed she would be more of a super human resources and chief operating officer than a real CEO, since Alain Wertheimer, who owns the brand with his brother Gerard and half-brother Charles Heilbronn, ultimately remained the company's main decision-maker. Chanel's managers did not expect her to radically change things. As the months went by, they began to realize they had to obey her orders, since she had Wertheimer's backing.


Company executives resented being told how they should run their business by someone who knew so little about luxury and many left as a result. To explain the exodus, the brand said many departing managers were close to retirement.


Chanel told Miss Tweed the departures were "part of the natural cycle of succession".


However, this cruise show means that those who understood what Chanel was about are no longer in charge or there to prevent such PR disasters from happening.


Chanel is the world's No. 2 luxury brand in terms of sales, just behind Louis Vuitton. In 2022, it made an operating profit of $5.77 billion on revenue of $17.2 billion. The company employs more than 35,000 people.


Under the creative stewardship of Viard, the brand has become more girly, feminist and intellectual. Its shows have become a much less grandiose affair than when the Kaiser was in charge. We remember Lagerfeld's mind-blowing settings inside the cavernous Grand Palais which one day featured a gigantic supermarket, then a huge rocket or a reconstituted beach complete with waves lapping sandy shores. Lagerfeld asked for the impossible and got it every time.


OUT OF TUNE


When in 2019 the Wertheimer family appointed Viard as Lagerfeld's former right-hand woman, their objective was continuity. She has fulfilled her mission, producing collections season after season that remained faithful to the maison's codes: the tweed, the double C, the pearls and the camellia. However, now it seems people have grown tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. Chanel's shows are no longer as stunning and awe inspiring as they once were. They seem to be out of tune with the times.


In a clear blow to Viard, veteran fashion critic Suzy Menkes wrote on her Instagram account in October, after Viard's last ready-to-wear collection, that the only designer who made clothes that were in tune with the times was Lagerfeld.


"The truth is that the late designer is the only person who could produce, season after season, designs that fitted fashion of the moment... The problem with the current collections by Virginie Viard is that there is no sense of a changing world: the male/female power; violence on the streets; flooded homes; different versions of beauty - and so much more that the modern world has thrown upon us." Menkes described Viard's fashion for Chanel as "politely pretty" but not much more.


PRICE INCREASES


Adding to the market's disenchantment with the brand from a fashion point of view, the French luxury giant has irked consumers by massively raising prices. The price of some of its best-selling products, such as the famous 2.55 quilted bag with a chain, has been increased by more 90 percent in the past four years. It now costs nearly €11,000. Even the most loyal clients find that excessive.


Late last month, Nair said in an interview with Bloomberg that the increase reflected the craftsmanship and quality of materials, as well as inflation. "We use exquisite raw materials and our production is very rigorous, laborious, hand-made - so we raise our prices according to the inflation that we see," Nair told Bloomberg in a TV interview with Francine Lacqua.


It is time Alain Wertheimer had a serious conversation with Nair and Chanel's executives about what to do next. It has become urgent to think about the post-Viard era and what story Chanel wants to tell us over the next decade. Many fashionistas see Celine's outgoing Hedi Slimane replacing Viard at Chanel, particularly since his last fashion show in March was very Chanel-like. Such a scenario has been evoked for more than a decade, but it is far from clear that the Wertheimers would be ready to put up with Slimane's antics. Miss Tweed was the first to report last month that Slimane planned to leave LVMH's Celine. Stay tuned.


(Edited by Andrew Dobbie)


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