Truth be told I could envision Hedi at Chanel, as an inevitability rather than an immediate thing. At the end of the day his strengths as a designer -- line, proportion, cut...tailoring in a nutshell -- as well as his strengths as an image maker -- directness, conviction, an ability to create a fully realized "universe" -- are the fundamentals of the house of Chanel as laid down by Coco herself. Her most lasting designs were her simplest, and her daring/inventive moments had more to do with her sensibility and ability to buck the rules than they did from some otherworldly realm of artistic creativity. Same with Hedi.
Then there's the fact that he shares with Karl a certain gutsy irreverence. Neither of them have ever been overly reverential with the archives of the houses they've each worked in. There's an awareness and I suspect a certain admiration (even if its not apparent on the surface) for them shown by each, but they're not particularly respectful about the way they interpret them. I mean Karl has sent biker jackets, hip hop-inspired jewelry, micro minis and bikini tops made of pasties down his Chanel runways, which had less to do with the house's heritage than they did the times he was designing for, and in some cases actively bucked the very things Coco herself stood for (unimpeachable elegance, wearer-friendliness, simplicity). That's only a hop skip and a jump from the sort of stuff Slimane has been doing at Saint Laurent -- beautifully made takes on basic pieces with a sense of flashy youthfulness built in for flavor/shock value.
I for one would be terribly curious to see what he could and would do with the Chanel jacket if nothing else.
