Matthieu Blazy - Designer, Creative Director of Chanel

[Caffeine]

They are taking down the industry but not rebuilding a new one

Yes. In a way very much like the communism approach. Step one, destroy everything. Step two ?
It just feels that the people behind all these are all on anti-depressants.

 

[Lola701]

Lola, I think thetl average customer has changed a lot throughout the years that they are not satisfied of buying beauty products and business managers know that so they are targeting people with entry-level products like bags, shoes or sweaters like you said. I know those kinds of people who are saving up for those products like investments because at the end of the day everybody knows beauty products is just cheap merchs and not like those signature products that can be shown off to create some basic looks. The business will not be so big without those people's contribution.

The majority of the people in the world have more easiness having access to beauty. Chanel, Dior, Celine, Tom Ford and others have stand alone beauty stores.

But you have to think that 20% of the people will represent 40% of the sales in fashion/luxury. There are a lot of people who represents a few of the population who can spend 100K on a blink of an eye, in an afternoon. The very rich today consume in a very grand way. I have been to Asia, to the Middle East, it’s no joke there.

I have disposal income, I love fashion but for me spending 4500€ on a Phoebe Philo jacket is still a luxury treat. Even more spending more at Vuitton or others. I’m very much conscious of what I pay and how I spend my money (even more when I can’t have a good discount).

But for some people, it’s a commodity. The majority of the people who buys fashion and who will represent 60% of the sales want the hot new thing. And so yes the average customer has changed. Back then, RTW was seen as hard to reach. Today you can buy a Chanel cashmere sweater, that will stay forever, that you can pass to your daughter and that will get you the same level of status symbol as the very expensive bag.

Beauty is really a « for yourself » product and people don’t buy a lot of beauty products for themselves, except for maybe skincare.

I happen to buy Chanel beauty stuff. I would buy a fragrance once a year, I would buy nail polish regularly, a hand cream and the rest is maybe gifts.
Christmas is really the season when the mass is splurging on fragrances.

And because Chanel is not the brand that pump up newness, the average customer is less solicited. That average customer, in beauty, is likely a returning customer.

File under: NEVER FORGET! Karl had some fun moments in the US with several cruise/metiers d'art shows....also the Dallas show in 2013 at the rodeo.



I'm curious to see what MB will bring but after watching that Gondry film I'm not exactly hopeful he has a great sense of humor...

MB has humor. From his interviews and some few things I can sense that. Maybe not Karl’s humor or you don’t simply get his humor…

However, Karl was a provocateur. Karl enjoy being a provocateur and often used a lot of humor to provoke. He was aware of the effect of his provocations because they came from him (This high cultural pop figure) and even more when attached to Chanel (The Grande Dame of French fashion).

Karl was far less of a provocateur at Fendi. His work at Fendi was fashion at it most cerebral.

Humor doesn’t go well with a lot of designers when it comes to their work. Karl was a legend. Insane knowledge of culture, knowledge of class dynamic too, history of fashion and technique. He was high society and pop culture.

I like to see a glimpse of humor and lightness in designer’s work but I wouldn’t advise anybody to go on Karl’s territory because it could look like Jeremy Scott. And we don’t want that (I hope for Chanel).

The supermarket setting was happy though. The BV settings above were all sad.

I love Karl but the campaign for the supermarket collection, who ended up being at a boxing club was kind of lackluster.

He had a lot of terrible campaigns with Carine to some of his most iconic collections.

I take any campaign by Blazy over the campaign for the supermarket or the one for the globe collection (FW2013).

I still don’t get how they messed it up. The campaign for the Art Gallery, the season before, was fabulous.

 

[PDFSD]

The supermarket setting was happy though. The BV settings above were all sad.

yes sad is the word and so one note every time a raw or gritty backdrop like don't you have art directors with better concepts ...or are you afraid the only way your stuff looks modern is if you surround it with old gritty sad settings ???

 

[hamburgers]

Anybody near Bowery and Kenmare/Delancey want to scope out the scene? Weather is wet and cold tomorrow and I would be surprised if they can make that area anything other than gritty.

That intersection also has the entrance to the abandoned subway station that Tom Ford used for SS20 and is a few blocks away from where Karl shot the FW 2010 campaign with Abbey and Freja.

After party is at Webster Hall...lol....

 

[LadyJunon]

Susanna Nicoletti

CHANEL this is NOT a joke.

It is part of the most recent movement in which creative directors:

- disregard the brand codes (destroyed iconic bags, symbols cancelled, styling that completely turns the brand into a different direction)
- impose their own shabby aesthetics
- think they are bigger and have more traction than legacy and heritage
- neglect the existing customer base to conquer a non-existent one
- demonstrate a total lack of knowledge about brand management

It’s part of the Schumpeterian creative destruction I first mentioned in my book “Luxury Unlocked” (2020) still available on Amazon.
They are taking down the industry but not rebuilding a new one.

I have to honest, the more I hear from Susanna, the less I like her. Lots of her POVs on how fashion brands should be run feel like an American idea of existing on permanent autopilot and commercial submission (funny enough: she's a fan of Brunello, which says everything).

Creative directors are creatives, not brand managers. They are given a brief and budget from their CEOs and they design within those boundaries. Chanel hired Matthieu Blazy for a reason: they wanted change. If they didn't want change, they would've gone with the much cheaper route of internal promotion and a faceless design team.

Now, whether the changes Blazy delivers works in Chanel's favour or not, won't be known for a few years, but a controversal debut isn't always a bad thing. A couple of divisive attention-grabbing collections before moving back to something more conservative might not be a bad thing.

 

[PDFSD]

The majority of the people in the world have more easiness having access to beauty. Chanel, Dior, Celine, Tom Ford and others have stand alone beauty stores.

But you have to think that 20% of the people will represent 40% of the sales in fashion/luxury. There are a lot of people who represents a few of the population who can spend 100K on a blink of an eye, in an afternoon. The very rich today consume in a very grand way. I have been to Asia, to the Middle East, it’s no joke there.

I have disposal income, I love fashion but for me spending 4500€ on a Phoebe Philo jacket is still a luxury treat. Even more spending more at Vuitton or others. I’m very much conscious of what I pay and how I spend my money (even more when I can’t have a good discount).

But for some people, it’s a commodity. The majority of the people who buys fashion and who will represent 60% of the sales want the hot new thing. And so yes the average customer has changed. Back then, RTW was seen as hard to reach. Today you can buy a Chanel cashmere sweater, that will stay forever, that you can pass to your daughter and that will get you the same level of status symbol as the very expensive bag.

Beauty is really a « for yourself » product and people don’t buy a lot of beauty products for themselves, except for maybe skincare.

I happen to buy Chanel beauty stuff. I would buy a fragrance once a year, I would buy nail polish regularly, a hand cream and the rest is maybe gifts.
Christmas is really the season when the mass is splurging on fragrances.

And because Chanel is not the brand that pump up newness, the average customer is less solicited. That average customer, in beauty, is likely a returning customer.


MB has humor. From his interviews and some few things I can sense that. Maybe not Karl’s humor or you don’t simply get his humor…

However, Karl was a provocateur. Karl enjoy being a provocateur and often used a lot of humor to provoke. He was aware of the effect of his provocations because they came from him (This high cultural pop figure) and even more when attached to Chanel (The Grande Dame of French fashion).

Karl was far less of a provocateur at Fendi. His work at Fendi was fashion at it most cerebral.

Humor doesn’t go well with a lot of designers when it comes to their work. Karl was a legend. Insane knowledge of culture, knowledge of class dynamic too, history of fashion and technique. He was high society and pop culture.

I like to see a glimpse of humor and lightness in designer’s work but I wouldn’t advise anybody to go on Karl’s territory because it could look like Jeremy Scott. And we don’t want that (I hope for Chanel).


I love Karl but the campaign for the supermarket collection, who ended up being at a boxing club was kind of lackluster.

He had a lot of terrible campaigns with Carine to some of his most iconic collections.

I take any campaign by Blazy over the campaign for the supermarket or the one for the globe collection (FW2013).

I still don’t get how they messed it up. The campaign for the Art Gallery, the season before, was fabulous.

I would say MB likes naive & craftyness as naive from of art applied, not so much humor , i think the confusion comes because he use childish codes to evoke nostalgia and deeper meaning this creates sympathy for his work.

Because how can you criticize someone that evokes childhood nostalgia 🤷‍♀️( i can lol)
Raf & Walter van Beirendonck etc also play with this, influenced also often overlooked by non belgians the list of famous Belgian comics that played a major role in the development of European comics and pop culture all this influenced their work and the belgium aesthetic, it's the other side of the coin of the belgian gang of deconstruction and raw moody like Margiela and Ann.

Raf does both sides of the coin as does Blazy, like cutting his jacket to make it crop for his first look while having the childhood planetarium set etc.

Its not about humor as KL purposely played with but again a child naive nostalgia play

At BV he had also the kids bag the carton book the adventure story of travel the color seats and floor by gaetano the fruits shaped bags, the kids font labels on rtw etc etc the adv on kids playground....etc etc

I agree Chanel had many mid or basic ads, but its a career span of 36 years versus 3 years of Blazy doing same things!!!!!! also age wise KL is from another time, but managed to reinvented himself 100 times, Blazy from BV to Chanel is still same person doing same things.🤭

 

[Caffeine]

I have to honest, the more I hear from Susanna, the less I like her. Lots of her POVs on how fashion brands should be run feel like an American idea of existing on permanent autopilot and commercial submission (funny enough: she's a fan of Brunello, which says everything).

Creative directors are creatives, not brand managers. They are given a brief and budget from their CEOs and they design within those boundaries. Chanel hired Matthieu Blazy for a reason: they wanted change. If they didn't want change, they would've gone with the much cheaper route of internal promotion and a faceless design team.

Now, whether the changes Blazy delivers works in Chanel's favour or not, won't be known for a few years, but a controversal debut isn't always a bad thing. A couple of divisive attention-grabbing collections before moving back to something more conservative might not be a bad thing.

The controversies and debates are only on these forums. There has not been any controversies among the insiders and the MSM. It's all unanimous praises. (which triggered people like me to vent here. If they had kept their paid mouths shut or fingers still I would have just gone quietly elsewhere without saying a thing. )

 

[swss]

I would say MB likes naive & craftyness as naive from of art applied, not so much humor , i think the confusion comes because he use childish codes to evoke nostalgia and deeper meaning this creates sympathy for his work.

Because how can you criticize someone that evokes childhood nostalgia 🤷‍♀️( i can lol)
Raf & Walter van Beirendonck etc also play with this, influenced also often overlooked by non belgians the list of famous Belgian comics that played a major role in the development of European comics and pop culture all this influenced their work and the belgium aesthetic, it's the other side of the coin of the belgian gang of deconstruction and raw moody like Margiela and Ann.

Raf does both sides of the coin as does Blazy, like cutting his jacket to make it crop for his first look while having the childhood planetarium set etc.

Its not about humor as KL purposely played with but again a child naive nostalgia play

At BV he had also the kids bag the carton book the adventure story of travel the color seats and floor by gaetano the fruits shaped bags, the kids font labels on rtw etc etc the adv on kids playground....etc etc

I agree Chanel had many mid or basic ads, but its a career span of 36 years versus 3 years of Blazy doing same things!!!!!! also age wise KL is from another time, but managed to reinvented himself 100 times, Blazy from BV to Chanel is still same person doing same things.🤭

I would say MB likes naive & craftyness as naive from of art applied, not so much humor , i think the confusion comes because he use childish codes to evoke nostalgia and deeper meaning this creates sympathy for his work.

Because how can you criticize someone that evokes childhood nostalgia 🤷‍♀️( i can lol)
Raf & Walter van Beirendonck etc also play with this, influenced also often overlooked by non belgians the list of famous Belgian comics that played a major role in the development of European comics and pop culture all this influenced their work and the belgium aesthetic, it's the other side of the coin of the belgian gang of deconstruction and raw moody like Margiela and Ann.

Raf does both sides of the coin as does Blazy, like cutting his jacket to make it crop for his first look while having the childhood planetarium set etc.

Its not about humor as KL purposely played with but again a child naive nostalgia play

At BV he had also the kids bag the carton book the adventure story of travel the color seats and floor by gaetano the fruits shaped bags, the kids font labels on rtw etc etc the adv on kids playground....etc etc

I agree Chanel had many mid or basic ads, but its a career span of 36 years versus 3 years of Blazy doing same things!!!!!! also age wise KL is from another time, but managed to reinvented himself 100 times, Blazy from BV to Chanel is still same person doing same things.🤭

plus crying the same

 

[PDFSD]

I have to honest, the more I hear from Susanna, the less I like her. Lots of her POVs on how fashion brands should be run feel like an American idea of existing on permanent autopilot and commercial submission (funny enough: she's a fan of Brunello, which says everything).

Creative directors are creatives, not brand managers. They are given a brief and budget from their CEOs and they design within those boundaries. Chanel hired Matthieu Blazy for a reason: they wanted change. If they didn't want change, they would've gone with the much cheaper route of internal promotion and a faceless design team.

Now, whether the changes Blazy delivers works in Chanel's favour or not, won't be known for a few years, but a controversial debut isn't always a bad thing. A couple of divisive attention-grabbing collections before moving back to something more conservative might not be a bad thing.

That's her job to advise brand and Ceo´s on brand building etc
She is not bland in her opinions (she writes like a she speaks italian i feel ) and i appreciate that and no sugar coating even if i don't always agree with everything she says or her taste of the brands she does think are doing it well.

Yet she makes a blunt but still nuanced point, that not all responsibility should be put on creative directors shoulders & that brands have codes and legacy as well to be respected before you disrespect it so early on.
Because you need a foundation to build on ...we see what happens with brands that get constant rehauls from the ground up they loose credibility like Gucci etc

That's her constant point in many analyses or comments she makes and she is right on the money with past predictions when brands go to much left.
That's the thing with advisors or critics etc you have to get your points of view from every corner, plus and contra that's when you get a more complete overview of a possible reality of what's going to happen or is happening.

Chanel could not go on with a studio led design team its not sustainable its just how the brand is set up , you need a direction from a person with a creative vision.

again we all agree Chanel needed a change but the question is what type of change this is the public/clients debate.... not no change or yes change referendum.

oh we know by next year when sales are up or stagnant or down. that's the beauty of commerce it gives you feedback via money numbers
there is a reason he has a contract with Blazy would have two years to find his bearings at Chanel.

From CEO of Chanel Fashion Bruno reminder notes quotes in wwd dec 2024 on Blazy :
“We have a very good feeling about it, but we’ve given ourselves two years, which is the time it takes to get a feel for the brand.

“You can’t have one person doing everything. It’s the product of a strong and experienced collective working in tandem with a person who sets the tone with a collection or a show,” Pavlovsky insisted.

“I won’t name names, but some people have shown they can move from brand to brand and their style remains fairly identical, and the brand has to adapt,” he said.
“Chanel’s fashion business has become huge. After all, we’re 10 or 15 times the size of Bottega Veneta or some emerging brands,”
“Chanel is first and foremost about the product,” Pavlovsky said. “Matthieu is passionate about it, and it shows. The way he did such an exceptional job of re energizing the product at Bottega Veneta, over a very short period of time, demonstrates that this is truly his signature.”

“Matthieu has a deep vision of the brand that will allow us to go even further than with a more show-off approach that goes fast. I think that on the contrary, he’s someone who has to move at his own pace,”

i rest my case

 

[LadyJunon]

Assuming that the show is live (or slightly delayed like SS26), temperatures will be in the negative, so the show will probably take place inside for the audience’s comfort. What I’ve noticed is that there are two locations around Bowery and Delancey that stood out to me as possible show locations: the New Museum and the PLATO Gallery. Both are places of culture, while being expansive enough to hold the large audiences Chanel likes. Personally, my bets are on the New Museum, because well…

NEWMUSEUM.ORG

This building reeks of "Blazy's Chanel", tastefully brutalist and slighty impratical.

 

[NoInvite]

Can't wait to see how "fun" Chanel can get.
How many turning in circles at the finale will we get at this show?
3?

 

[Lola701]

The controversies and debates are only on these forums. There has not been any controversies among the insiders and the MSM. It's all unanimous praises. (which triggered people like me to vent here. If they had kept their paid mouths shut or fingers still I would have just gone quietly elsewhere without saying a thing. )

I mean the unanimous praises were expected. Virginie’s era wasn’t glorious and unfortunately, she closed it with the Marseille show which was probably her worst collection. And the studio tried after.

So from the start, there was a kind of irrational predisposition to like it simply because it was more than what it was before.

The same way that Haider’s show came after Peter Hawkings. I know I had a positive biais De Facto.
The same happened with Fendi when Silvia took over from Kim.

I think all the collections I mentioned were good but the praise they received would have been probably different if the collections before were good.

We saw more contrasted opinions with the Sophomore collections.

There’s always this kind of uncertainty about a designer’s first year at a house. It’s generally really after a year that people kind of start to understand one’s work.

I realized that Dior by MGC wasn’t my cup of tea only after her second RTW SS show.
I didn’t liked her first two collections but her Couture with the cardboard set was actually promising. I was so naïve lol

 

[yslforever]

I just don’t like the direction Chanel is going, I don’t like Mathieu’s designs for them so far (I even did not like his BV), and have no hope left for the upcoming pre fall show.

 

[PDFSD]

i think rarely after the first show if it did not have a level of creative quality does it improve with the next shows its always the same for a while and then its clown seasons at the end.

 

[Lola701]

i think rarely after the first show if it did not have a level of creative quality does it improve with the next shows its always the same for a while and then its clown seasons at the end.

It happened to me a lot of times in recent years. Daniel Lee’s first show for BV, JWA first shows for Loewe, Hedi first show for Celine (he lost me again with TikTok), it took me 4 years to like a Vaccarello collection lol.

On the contrary I loved Alessandro 2 first collections. The same for Demna and never really loved anything they done after.

You can’t fully be into a designer like that nowadays. Even when they are consistent in their aesthetic and vision, the collections can be so inconsistent.

A lot of designers are like Donatella Versace in a way. She has her vision but from one show to another, her Versace could be glorious or embarrassing. I find her farewell collection to be so tragic and I was one of the few who loved her Versus revival Versace SS25 lol.

Even Vitale could surprise me with his prefall.

 

[FisforFrank]

Assuming that the show is live (or slightly delayed like SS26), temperatures will be in the negative, so the show will probably take place inside for the audience’s comfort. What I’ve noticed is that there are two locations around Bowery and Delancey that stood out to me as possible show locations: the New Museum and the PLATO Gallery. Both are places of culture, while being expansive enough to hold the large audiences Chanel likes. Personally, my bets are on the New Museum, because well…
View attachment 1438155
NEWMUSEUM.ORG

This building reeks of "Blazy's Chanel", tastefully brutalist and slighty impratical.

Multiple sources on XHS have pointed out that the show will be held at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Also, the shows invitation is a newspaper

 

[hamburgers]

Multiple sources on XHS have pointed out that the show will be held at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Also, the shows invitation is a newspaper

Invite says 7pm 168 Bowery with afterparty at 8pm at Webster Hall but it’s hard to imagine them fitting that many people anywhere in that neighborhood. Maybe it will be in the abandoned subway station after all if they do two shows.

For the Parisians this is kind of like having the show in Oberkampf with afterparty at the Bataclan so I would not be expecting anything too grand.

 

[PDFSD]

It happened to me a lot of times in recent years. Daniel Lee’s first show for BV, JWA first shows for Loewe, Hedi first show for Celine (he lost me again with TikTok), it took me 4 years to like a Vaccarello collection lol.

On the contrary I loved Alessandro 2 first collections. The same for Demna and never really loved anything they done after.

You can’t fully be into a designer like that nowadays. Even when they are consistent in their aesthetic and vision, the collections can be so inconsistent.

A lot of designers are like Donatella Versace in a way. She has her vision but from one show to another, her Versace could be glorious or embarrassing. I find her farewell collection to be so tragic and I was one of the few who loved her Versus revival Versace SS25 lol.

Even Vitale could surprise me with his prefall.

Good from day one:
- Daniel Lee for BV first show was for me already a clear shift and clear vision(a post phoebe one sure lol) and he was steady all to the end. ( hate his Burberry )
- JWA for Loewe was also a clear modern vision and it got more clown in the end ( hate his Dior so far )



Bad cheap from day one:
- Vaccarello for YSL i never liked from day one show showed how weak designer he is copy past Tom and Hedi into YSL later he just went full in hedi sex doll version and it worked for him
-Alessandro for Gucci first collection was also a mix of Prada and old frida gucci and some Tom Ford acc belt and shoes then it was circus till the end lol


Icon status:
-Donatella good at start bless her hart..... but mid to end what can i says circus va vavoom. it is what it was 🤷‍♀️


God status :
Hedi is Hedi he always consistent even if the first show was not on brand for the celine as in 50´s, 60´s 70´s celine he did after it had all the Hedi qualities vision and store redesign and introduction adv and build up of new classics acc. ( love forever i miss him lol )

 

[Lola701]

Invite says 7pm 168 Bowery with afterparty at 8pm at Webster Hall but it’s hard to imagine them fitting that many people anywhere in that neighborhood. Maybe it will be in the abandoned subway station after all if they do two shows.

For the Parisians this is kind of like having the show in Oberkampf with afterparty at the Bataclan so I would not be expecting anything too grand.

lol.
They did the Manchester show so this is in the same vibe. Hopefully the collection will have a relaxed fashionable vibe rather than super bourgeois as her look suggested in the video.

It would be like Chanel having a show at Le Carreau du Temple.

 

[LadyJunon]

To parrot @hamburgers, the invites say 19:00 at 168 Bowery with the boardcast going live on 19:30 (ffs Chanel, just make it live already).


FYI, this is the show location according to Google Maps:


Maybe the subway station makes more sense...