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It’s Happening: Blazy to Chanel | | Behind the scenes of new Chanel designer and Lagerfeld heir Matthieu Blazy’s exit from Kering, plus the unexpected leading candidate to replace him. | The wheels are turning at Kering, although perhaps not in the direction that chairman and C.E.O. François-Henri Pinault and his deputy, Francesca Bellettini, had hoped. On December 16, Bottega Veneta creative director Matthieu Blazy—a standout talent in Pinault’s stable—is expected to be named the next creative director of Chanel, a historic appointment that will transform the industry, no matter how it plays out. No word on whether Blazy will design one final Bottega Veneta collection. A spokesperson for Kering did not comment. Nor did a spokesperson for Chanel.
Blazy, a rising star yet to reach his creative peak, was hardly at the top of any expert lists when they were debating who might be in the running to succeed Karl Lagerfeld. And yet, it’s all very real, and indicates, as I’ve said before, that Chanel is changing the way it operates as the Wertheimer family and global C.E.O. Leena Nair attempt to future-proof the business. In the early ’80s, Chanel wrote the modern luxury brand playbook by hiring Lagerfeld, a superstar stylist, designer, and marketer, to remake Chanel into a piece of pop culture. (The luxury pyramid—with couture on top, followed by ready-to-wear, then accessories, then fragrance and beauty—did not exist before Lagerfeld created it at Chanel.) Some four decades later, though, giving one person absolute control over something that has grown so exponentially, into several billion-dollar businesses housed under one roof, no longer makes sense. Blazy, a relatively young talent with a focus on precision and craftsmanship, will steer Chanel’s overall vision, but he will not be responsible for every piece of the puzzle, and there are few designers at his level who would accept that. The Chanel executive team have also made it clear that they would like the next designer to stick around for 10 or 20 more years; few in the running possessed the stamina.
Anyway, we have plenty of time to discuss what this appointment means for Blazy, for Chanel, and for the industry. Today, let’s consider how this all went down behind the scenes at Kering, Bottega Veneta’s parent company. | | Despite murmurs otherwise in the Kering offices, I’m told that Blazy’s resignation was definitive… and unexpected. All this would have been highly secretive. Typically, as part of the recruitment process, a prospective designer auditions for months. If Blazy did that, he would have had to make the time and mental space for that creative work on top of designing his most-praised collection to date at Bottega Veneta. (Remember, Simon Porte Jacquemus was said to have hired a team of something like eight people to work on his presentation for the job.)
This would all require an incredible amount of discretion and discipline, which the Wertheimers clearly value. As for whether Kering tempted him to stay, it appears that they probably had no choice but to let him go. There’s a lot of hullabaloo around non-competes in the fashion business, but the reality is that, in Italy, they can be bought out. It would have been more productive to simply wish Blazy the best and find a replacement.
I’m told that several names were bandied about as Kering began interviewing successors—including Jacquemus (poor guy can’t stay out of a creative director conversation) and Miu Miu’s Dario Vitale. However, I’m also told that the leading candidate, and likely appointee, is Louise Trotter, the current designer of Carven. Trotter, who previously worked at Lacoste and Joseph, collaborates closely with the stylist Suzanne Koller, and the Frankie Shop-meets-Old Céline aesthetic of Carven is their mind meld. She’s a grown-up commercial designer and can certainly handle managing a big team. But can she inspire the way Blazy did?
At Bottega Veneta, executives are already feeling melancholy about Blazy’s exit. After all, he is talented and professional, and designs things people want to buy. Bottega is also the only major Kering business that is growing at the moment. Alas, while the conversation over the next few weeks will be focused on Blazy’s exit and Trotter’s prospects, Bellettini and her team face other challenges, too. At Saint Laurent, new C.E.O. Cédric Charbit and creative director Anthony Vaccerello are grappling with the slowdown of that business—an inevitability with any longtime designer (what goes up must come down) but one that needs to be managed.
However, it’s the performance of Gucci, the group’s profit center, that determines how the entire thing runs. There is a hurry-up-and-wait feeling to the Gucci situation that will only be resolved by either a tremendous uptick in sales or a creative change, despite the green shoots as accessories ramp up and fresh ready-to-wear arrives in the stores. The business is significantly smaller than it was two years ago, and while everyone is sort of sick of talking about whether Sabato De Sarno will stay or go, they can’t stop talking about it, either. This is a case where money will fix everything. |
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